Just South of Austin Is Bats

A popular tourist attraction (so popular, even locals come to see it) is the flight of the bats off of South Congress Bridge on summer evenings in Austin, Texas. Before going in the evening, we went to scope out the area. We took a walk along the Ann and Roy Butler Hike and Bike Trail which is on the south side of the Colorado River and goes under the bridge. We had some really nice views of the skyline.

Pretty buildings

Google is building a new skyscraper in front of its other skyscraper.

Google and Google the second

More skyline

The above set of buildings had a fun mural on the side of a short building.

Wonderful!

I saw a bell tower that was intriguing because it seemed out of place, like it was part of a building from over a hundred years old.

Mysterious tower

Another nearby building had a fun, Inception-like top.

Maybe it will transform?

Not much further along we saw the famous bat-bridge. 1.5 million Mexican free-tailed bats have taken up residence under the South Congress Bridge. They fly out at dusk nightly during the summer months (and Texas has a lot of summertime). We first saw the bridge from a distance.

South Congress Bridge

We walked along the trail, eventually going under the Congress Bridge. We heard some weird noises and smelled some weird odors. Our trip was two hours before sunset, so no sign of the bats flying around for their nightly feeding.

At the bridge

View to downtown

One of the cottage industries that's grown up around the bats is boat rentals and cruises along the river. We passed four or five launch points offering sales and deals. My favorite was this round boat because of its bumper sticker.

Various ways to see the bats from the water

Awesome bumper sticker

We went later one evening and saw the bats flying out.