Circle C Ranch Metropolitan Park on Slaughter Creek — Attraction in Austin

Great park with a variety of things to do for just about everyone. I run here often and when my kids were younger it was a regular visit, so here's what I've discovered, including some things I think many over look (in no particular order). Do note, that during soccer season the park is packed on Saturdays until later in the afternoon.

And with any park, practice Leave No Trace and try to leave it in better shape than when you arrived.

Family friendly? Check. • A big playground area with play structure, monkey bars, swings and slides. • Picnic tables and tree covered open spaces to throw a blanket down in the shade. • Plenty of space to let the kids run around, fly a kite and enjoy being outdoors. • Nice paths, areas and a sometimes full creek to explore nature.

Wanna just chill away from kids? Check. • Tree covered open spaces away from the playground where you can hang a hammock or chill on a blanket.

Various areas for sports? Check. • Lots of soccer fields • Full court basketball, sand volleyball courts and even a small baseball diamond (good for grade schoolers or a fun whiffle ball game). • A nice frisbee golf course winds through the surrounding woods.

Walk/hike/run/bike trails? Check. • A mostly flat gravel-paved 1.5 miles path encircles the park. • For those looking for something a bit more "off-road", there's a nice unpaved trail for mountain biking, trail running or hiking that loops pretty extensively through the woods around the park and even extends across Escarpment down to Bowie High School.

Dog Friendly? Check (kind of) • Dogs must be on a leash and there are no "official" off leash areas. • You'll need to bring your own poop-bags as there's only one area in the front of the park where they are supplied. • It's nice the water fountain near the playground has a dog-level fountain for your four-legged family...

Disc golf and RC crawling.

Great course for disc golf, good layout, challenging but not discouraging. Several long baskets to practice your distance. Also some shorter ones which are great for beginners. Great signage and trashcans at several t-pads.

Good place for RC rock crawling in the creek when it's dry. Park park in the little gravel parking area just off Slaughter and walk towards the park to the little concrete bridge at the park gate entrance. Going either direction on the creek is good. Going right is a shorter playground, going left offers quite a few good crawling areas a ways down the creek. Just make sure to walk past the fairway for the 18th disc golf basket, don't...

This is my default "go-to" park because its relatively close and has a great playscape that my kids love to play on and around. They have great natural cover in the form of mature live oaks. The park also typically has a good number of other parents and kids which is key for my kids because playing with Dad is only fun for so long... The park also has a disc golf course sprinkled through the woods, Tons of open soccer fields, a volleyball court, a basketball court, and a few mountain bike trails.

Two things that are drawbacks are that they only have a sub-standard bathroom option (porta-potty) and either there is no water fountain or I just...