A good place to start is to park at the Rotary Veteran's Memorial Park on the west (right) side of Avenue J just before the bridge over Backbone Creek. Be sure to check out the trees around this parking location before following the sidewalk on the west side of Avenue J towards the Backbone Creek bridge. 

Take a short detour out to Andrea's Pass which includes a pedestrian bridge over Whitman Branch. Look and listen for small passerines in the cattails along the creek. Andrea's Pass takes you to the off-leash but unfenced dog park in Johnson Park. Because this dog park is unfenced and because the city has another dog park that is fenced, this park is not heavily used and its highly likely you will not encounter any dogs or their walkers. 

Both Andrea's Pass and the bridge over Backbone Creek are great spots to look for Belted Kingfisher and Eastern Phoebe. In the wintertime, waterfowl can be found in the creek under the bridge. Great Blue Herons are found in the stream either here or along the larger, deeper area closer to the boat ramp. Black-and-white Warbler has been found in the trees in this location.

Continue over the bridge over Backbone Creek and walk along the shore line again checking for waterfowl under the bridge and swallows in the summertime. Eventually, you will be able to join up with a wheel-chair friendly gravel path that borders the creek (for wheel chair users, one can stay on the paved sidewalk from the Backbone Creek Bridge to the location where the gravel path connects with the sidewalk).

Look and listen for birds along the creek. Check out the vegetation on the far side of the creek. As you follow the creek, please be sure to read the sign about the Old Gridiron Bridge and appreciate the efforts that Burnet County and the City of Marble Falls went to to save this historic structure. 

Unfortunately, there is a lot of noise in this part of the park from the JM Huber gypsum processing plant and the city’s sewer treatment facilities.

The gravel path will eventually lead all the way to Avenue N. One can turn back at the Avenue N crossing to continue birding in Johnson Park or one can continue across Avenue N to pick up the golf "paths" for the Disc Golf Course. A pair of Couch's Kingbirds were resident along this stretch of the path and creek in the summer of 2023.

Monarchs have been known to roost during the fall migration in the pecan trees past (west) of the Old Gridiron Bridge and before Avenue N.

As an alternative to following the path along Backbone Creek and if one wants to finish birding Johnson Park before continuing along the trail of the Disc Golf Course, cross over the Avenue J immediately after crossing the Backbone Creek Bridge and take a look at the deeper water by the Johnson Park boat ramp.   Be very careful to watch for vehicles here. While the speed limit in the park is 20 mph, this is a main route to several subdivisions with numerous homes and many motorists do not heed the speed limit. 

Be sure to look southwest from the boat ramp to the curve in Backbone Creek. Sometimes winter waterfowl congregate in this curve under the overhanging tree limbs.

The large pecan, cedar elm and hackberry trees in the park are great spots for numerous birds. Great Horned Owls have been resident in the park for several years nesting and raising chicks in the large trees.

Towards the far southwest end of the park (close to the Girl Scout House), be sure to check the light poles and trees around the softball fields for raptors in the winter (American Kestrels, in particular).

Because this is a city park, it can be busy on weekends and is occasionally closed for special events in the park. It is also home to numerous park birds including domestic crossbred ducks and geese. These park birds can be very annoying with their food begging and loud honking. Please don't feed the park birds!! Because of the somewhat large population of park birds, the park can have an unhealthy level of feces from the birds--watch where you step!!

There appears to be a resident Snow Goose--not seen on every trip but seen regularly enough to be considered resident. It usually hangs out with the Canada Geese. Egyptian Geese can also be found at this park with fair consistency. Occasionally, Wood Ducks are found here, mostly in the winter.

Couch's Kingbirds were found during the summer of 2023 along the gravel path along Backbone Creek.

Chimney Swifts can be seen or heard flying overhead in the summer, presumably nesting in the numerous old chimneys in old town Marble Falls. Green Heron's are pretty common in the summer, especially in the vegetation along Backbone Creek.

Red-shouldered Hawks are pretty commonly heard if not seen in the big trees along this riparian corridor. 

Golden-fronted, Downy and Ladder-backed Woodpeckers can be found in the park. Great Crested and Scissor-tailed Flycatchers along with White-eyed, Bell's, Yellow-throated and Red-eyed Vireos can all be found here in the summertime.

All About Marble Falls

• Founded: By General Adam R "Stovepipe" Johnson on July 12, 1887
• Incorporated: May 18, 1907
• Population:  7,800 (est June 2023)
• Size: 16.33 square miles
• County: Burnet
• Location: Marble Falls is located in the middle of the Texas Hill Country on the Colorado River, 58 miles northwest of downtown Austin, 85 miles north of San Antonio, in the middle of the Highland Lakes area, the largest chain of lakes in Texas.

Where did the name Marble Falls originate?

Marble Falls sits on the banks of Lake Marble Falls. The falls were formed by a shelf of limestone running diagonally across the river from northeast to southwest. The upper layer of limestone, brownish on the exterior, but deep blue inside, was so hard and cherry it was mistaken for marble. The falls were actually three distinct formations at the head of a canyon 1.25 miles long, with a drop of some 50 feet through the limestone strata.

The natural lake was covered when the Colorado River was dammed with the completion of Max Starcke Dam in 1951. Lake Marble Falls sits between Lake LBJ to the north and Lake Travis to the south. The falls for which the City is named are now underwater, but are revealed every few years when the lake is lowered by the Lower Colorado River Authority for repairs.

Adam Johnson visited the site prior to the Civil War. After he was blinded in the war, he returned to the site of the future Marble Falls and laid out the town particular the "old town" section east of US 281 between the river and FM 1431.

Not Marble, but Granite

When visitors come to Marble Falls, they obviously assume our lakeside town sits on marble rock deposits, but we are actually known for our granite.  

Granite Mountain, located west of town on FM 1431, was created more than 4.5 billion years ago forming nature's hardest stone. At the time of its discovery, was 866 feet tall, looking like and about comparable in size to Enchanted Rock.  

On July 29, 1885, the town donated its granite to erect the new Texas State Capitol located in Austin, Texas, in exchange for a railroad system out to the small town (a lifeblood for keeping a town alive in the 1880's) and labor to mine the rock.   15,700 carloads of granite were transported to the Capitol building site in Austin.

At the time of its completion in 1888, the Texas State Capitol was said to be the seventh largest building in the world.  It is the largest state capitol building in the United States today, and only second in size to the National Capitol in Washington D.C.  

"Our" granite from Granite Mountain has also been used in the construction of the Coca-Cola Building in Atlanta, Wyndham Hotel in Dallas, the Galveston Seawall, the Crocker Building in San Francisco and numerous other buildings throughout the United States.  

Although the shape of the dome has changed throughout its lifetime, geologists say there are still centuries left in the mining process and that it is the largest of its kind in the United States. 

Johnson Park is named for the city's founder and is a site for many events, activities and festivals through the year.