Lady bird lake address Continue Good access to the shore is available at Town Lake Metropolitan Park in The Auditorium Shores and Town Lake Metropolitan Park for Festival Beach. Access to the coastline is also available on Red Bud Island at the upper end of the reservoir near the Tom Miller Dam. The Austin hike and bike trail circles almost the entire bottom two-thirds of the reservoir offering access to the shore. Unimproved boat ramps are located on the north shore at Festival Beach and behind the Holiday Inn Hotel west of I-35. One additional ramp for boats that can be carried is through Stephen F. Austin Street from Austin High School. For more information about fishing in/on Lake Austin, visit the TPWD website. Around Lake Lady Bird you can buy different options for renting boats. The following organizations have received a concession to provide rental boats from Austin Parks and Recreation: The Austin Rowing Club is located on the lake behind the Four Seasons Hotel at the end of Trinity Street in Waller Creek Boathouse. Austin Rowing Club offers a variety of rowing programs for junior and adult rowers, as well as scholarship opportunities based on needs. In addition, the boathouse also offers kayak rental and SUP rentals. The boathouse also has a cafe with great views of Lake Lady Bird. Rowing Dock is located west of MoPac on the south shore of the lake, the entrance from Stratford Drive to Silker Park. They offer kayaks, canoes, fishing kayaks, kayak pedals and stand up paddle boards for rent, camps and instructions. For more information, visit the Rowing Dock website. The Texas rowing center is located on a lake south of Austin High School. They offer rowing, kayaking/canoeing and lessons. Visit their website for more information. Located on Barton Creek, east of the Barton Springs Basin in Silker Park, the zilker Park Hotel is located in Barton Creek. They rent canoes and kayaks. Visit their website for more information. Businesses with questions about the parks concession should visit the parks concession web page. Local Boat Laws In addition to the Texas Water Safety Act, the city of Austin has created several ordinances for Lake Austin, Lady Bird Lake and Lake Walter E. Long. The purpose of these regulations is to protect the health and safety of the population using the district lakes. Anyone must swim, swim, wade or enter the waters of Lady Bird Lake, except in efforts to save and recover. It should be illegal for any person to fish from the deck or other part of any bridge that crosses the Colorado River within the city limits. It should be illegal for any person to dive from or jump from any bridge that crosses the Colorado River within the city limits. No one should operate a gas motorboat in the waters of Lake Lady Bird, except for the city's permission. Motorboats officers and staff cities are released in the line of duty. No person on any water vessel on Lake Austin, Lake Walter E. Long, or Lady Bird Lake should possess, use or operate, or assist in the use or other similar devices capable of moving or launching liquid-filled balloons or other projectiles. No person within 150 yards of the shoreline of Lake Austin, Lake Walter E. Long, or Lady Bird Lake should use or operate, or help in the use or other similar device to advance or launch liquid filled balloons or other projectiles to the waters said lakes. Only boats powered by electric motors that do not exceed five horsepower can operate on Lake Lady Bird. It should be illegal for any person to occupy a water ship located on Lake Lady Bird with the aim of sleeping between dusk and dawn or overnight if the city council does not approve otherwise. Lady Bird LakeView from Lady Bird Lake to downtown Austin.Lady Bird LakeShow map TexasLady Bird LakeShow map of the United StatesLocationCentral Austin, Texas, United StatesCoordinations301503N 974249W / 30,25083 -N 97.71361 W / 30,25083; -97.71361Coordinates: 30'15'03N 97'42'49W / 30.25083'N 97.71361'W / 30.25083; -97.71361TypePower Cooling Plant/Recreational ReservoirPrimari Tributaries Of the RiverPrimary OutflowColora RiverBasin countriesUnited StatesBuilt1960Inable area of 468 acres (189 hectares)Max. The Surface elevation428 ft (130 m) Lady Bird Lake (formerly and still colloquially referred to as Lake Town) is a river reservoir on the Colorado River in Austin, Texas. The city of Austin created the reservoir in 1960 as a cooling pond for a new city power plant. The lake, which covers 416 acres (168 hectares), is currently used mainly for recreation and flood control. The reservoir is named after former U.S. first lady Lady Lady Lady Bird Johnson. Lake Lady Bird is the easternmost lake in the river reservoir chain, which is entirely located in Texas, and it should not be confused with the larger Colorado River in the southwestern United States. This chain, known locally as Texas Highland Lakes, also includes Lake Buchanan, Lake Ink, Lake LBJ, Lake Marble Falls, Lake Travis, and Lake Austin. The history of the Longhorn Dam confiscates Lady Bird Lake. The city of Austin built the Longhorn Dam in 1960 to form an urban lake. The city needed a reservoir to serve as a cooling pond for the Holly Street power plant, which operated from 1960 to 2007. Until 1971, the shoreline of the City Lake was mainly a mixture of this, untidy shrubs and debris. Local television station KTBC called the lake an eye. Some concerned Ostinites led lake clean-up projects. Roberta Crenshaw, chairman of the Austin Parks and Recreation Council, has acquired the purchase 400 trees and shrubs in an attempt to lead the development of parks around the lake. During his two terms in office (1971-1975), Austin Mayor Roy Butler chaired the Austin City Council to establish the Urban Lake Improvement Committee, and appointed Lady Bird Johnson as honorary chairman of the project. Johnson's involvement attracted attention and money (including $19,000) for the Urban Lake project, which allowed hundreds of shrubs and trees to be planted. The city has also built a system of hiking and cycling routes along the lake's shoreline. On July 26, 2007, the Austin City Council passed a controversial resolution allowing the renaming of the reservoir from Lake City to Lake Lady Bird in honor of Lady Bird Johnson, who died earlier that month. Johnson renounced the honor of renaming the lake into it while she was alive. When renaming the lake, the city council recognized Johnson's commitment to decorating the lake and its efforts to create a recreational trail system around the lake's shoreline. In 2009, Keep Austin Beautiful, a nonprofit organization, launched Clean Lady Bird Lake. The program annually mobilizes thousands of community volunteers to carry out large-scale cleanup along the lake every two months and targeted cleanup throughout the year. The recreational area uses views of Lady Bird Lake and the downtown skyline, a view from the East Riverside area. Lady Bird Lake is one of the main recreation areas for the city of Austin. The shores of the lake are limited to the Ann and Roy Butler Hiking-and-Bike Trail, and businesses offer recreational services on water vessels along the lake part of the trail. Austin's largest park, Silker Park, is adjacent to the lake, and Barton Springs, the main attraction for swimmers, flows into the lake. The city of Austin prohibits the operation of most motorized water vessels on Lake Lady Bird. As a result, the lake serves as a popular recreational area for rowing boards, kayaks, canoes, dragon boats and rowing shells. Austin's warm climate and calm river waters, nearly 6 miles (9.7 km) long and direct courses are particularly popular with crew teams and clubs. Along with the University of Texas Women's Rowing Team and the coeducational rowing team that train at Lady Bird Lake all year round, teams from other universities (including the University of Chicago, the University of Oklahoma and the University of Nebraska) train at Lady Bird Lake during the Christmas holidays and spring break. Other water sports along the shores of the lake include swimming in the Deep Eddy Basin, the oldest pool in Texas, and the Barton Springs Pool, a natural pool at Barton Creek that flows into Lake Lady Bird. Beneath the Tom Miller Dam is Red Bud Island, a small island formed in 1900 by the collapse of the Macdonald Dam, which serves as a recreation area with a dog park Access to the lake for canoeing and fishing. Swimming in Lady Bird Lake is illegal not because of poor water quality from the second street of the district, which is a false rumor, but rather because of several drownings, as well as debris in the water from bridges and dams destroyed by floods in past years. The city of Austin imposed the ban in 1964, and the fine could be up to $500. The music venues on the shores of Lady Bird Lake are home to a number of events all year round, including the Austin City Limits Music Festival in the fall, the Austin Reggae Festival and Spamarama in the spring, and many outdoor concerts at the Auditorium Shores on the South Shore and Fiesta Gardens on the North Shore. The Austin Aqua Festival was held on the shores of Lady Bird Lake from 1962 to 1998. The late Austin resident and blues guitar legend Stevie Ray Vaughan played a number of concerts at the Auditorium Shores and was honored with a memorial statue on the South Shore.