Parks, Outdoor Recreational Areas & Outdoor Activities

Organized in 1969, a month after the first manned lunar landing of Apollo 11, the Austin Astronomical Society (AAS) is a club for people who are interested in any aspect of astronomy or the space sciences. Monthly meetings are held on the second Friday of each month at 7:30 PM in the Robert Lee Moore Building on the University of Texas campus at the southeast corner of the intersection of Dean Keeton and Speedway. The Austin Astronomical Society's monthly club meetings are free and open to the public and feature speakers on a variety of astronomy related topics. The Austin Astronomical Society also holds regularly scheduled observing sessions or star parties at the Society's Eagle Eye Observatory located on the upper branch of Lake Buchanan northwest of Burnet, Texas as well as many more astronomy related activities including astronomy tours at Wild Basin Wilderness Preserve. The Eagle Eye Observatory houses three telescopes and the area around the observatory building is a large observing field with 30 powered tables for AAS members to set up their observing equipment. Some of these star parties are open to the general public and others are only for members of the Austin Astronomical Society. Annual membership dues are $25 a year with discounts for students, seniors and families.

The Austin Parks Foundation is a non-profit that seeks to fill in the gap between what needs to be done to maintain and improve parks in the City of Austin and what the City of Austin Parks and Recreation Department can afford to do. Established in 1992, Austin Parks Foundation has created physical improvements, new programming, and greater community involvement for Austin's parks including millions of dollars in volunteer time, in-kind donations, and financial support for city parks. The Austin Parks Foundation features a “Find a Park” web page to search for parks by search for parks by amenity, as well as by zip code, area, or name.

The City of Austin Parks and Recreation Department calls Austin “A city within a park” and maintains more than two hundred parks, twelve nature preserves and twenty-six greenbelts on Austin area creeks and canyons. Most parks in Austin are open from 5 AM to 10 PM. The City of Austin Parks and Recreation website has information about swimming pools and lessons, programs for kids, teens and senior citizens, museums, municipal golf courses and tennis courts, volunteer opportunites and more including a “Park Viewer” interactive map to find parks and other recreation facilities in Austin.

Bright Leaf is a natural area over 200 acres in size within the Austin city limits.

This local non-profit promotes the enjoyment and understanding of birds and wildlife in their natural habitats in Central texas. The Travis Audubon Society provides free field trips and programs on wildlife conservation and manages two wildlife sanctuaries, the 690 acre Baker Sanctuary for Golden Cheeked Warblers in northwest Travis County and the 10 acre Blair Woods in East Austin.

For over fifty years, the Zilker Botanical Garden has hosted the Zilker Garden Festival every spring as a fundraising event featuring plants and garden themed accessories for sale as well as educational displays and fun activities for kids.