https://www.fourpointsnews.com/2019/02/05/river-place-to-charge-nature-trails-fees-for-nonresidents/

i hate to be the bearer of bad news.... 

This was our second time hiking this trail. It's very well maintained and has some great scenery. Lots of cliffs here and there along with tiny waterfalls. It would be great to come here after a rain.

There a A LOT of stairs here, so be prepared. Also, don't hike on the Water Main Trail. It's just a maintenance road for some water mains and smells like sewage.

My wife's Fitbit measured that we conquered 96 flights of stairs hiking this trail.  It was so worth it.  Only thing is I wish is was a little bit longer.  They did such a great job making is place.  So many beautiful views and the trail is pretty challenging.  Not the best place to go for solitude so expect to see lots of other people.  

you can go to hiking central texas to see the pics 

My first hike in 10yrs, why I gave it a 5 for difficulty. Moved here 10yrs ago and haven't hiked since leavng Tuscon, Az.

Great Christmas day hike, quite a few people out enjoying it.

The only spoiler, people not cleaning up after their dogs !!

Look forward to going back again to this one and discovering more trails in and around Austin.

I'm so glad this trail reopened.  I hiked it a few times after the May rains, when there was tons of water in the creek.  I usually start at the bottom and go two or three miles then turn back, since the upper section is not quite as pretty.  The creek is gorgeous and there are several small waterfalls that empty into picturesque pools.  There isn't much solitude--this is (rightfully) a popular trail.  This would be a good place to hike while training for a backpacking trip.  Stairs and more stairs! 

This time we parked at the central entrance, did the stub and the new route, double back to the south (with the fountain) and back.  The new routing offers a lot of cool views of the creek that weren't there before, but the tradeoff is you are right next to the golf course a lot of times (and thanks to the golf course as I believe it is their land that they offered up).  There is one new stairway steeper than all of the others.  They are putting up a huge fence along the protected land.  Apparently the loud generator doesn't bother the birds..not sure why the old trail needs to be dismantled if no one can go in there.  Looks like they allow dogs on the trail now, with the good and bad that comes from that (I don't understand someone bagging up the poop and then leaving it for others to magically clean).  Thanks to Sandy Perry and everyone who worked hard on this trail, the trail should be renamed for her.

Contrary to what the WARNING in the description above says, the trail is now open all the way from the Canyon Trail Kiosk (highest point) to the Boardwalk Kiosk (lowest point), a distance of 3 miles, and that is exactly the direction I hiked it. Then I turned around and went back up.

As others have said, most, but not all, of the steep steps are in the 1 mile Canyon Trail, which has the largest overall elevation change from 920 feet to 680 feet. In this section, however, the accumulated gain and loss is greater as the trail and steps meander up and down several times.

The Canyon Trail then connects to the 1.5 mile Upper Panther Trail. It has a few steep sections but also some level sections. This section ranges from 700 feet down to 530 feet, but again the accumulated gain and loss is a bit more as there are some uphill stretches.

The Upper Panther Trail connects to the 0.5 mile Lower Panther Trail, which terminates at the Boardwalk Kiosk. This trail is fairly flat, only ranging from 560 feet to 520 feet.

Had great weather and quite a few people were out on the trail, but I had a fair amount of solitude as well. There wasn't much water in the creek but it was still a very pleasant day. Thanks to all the people from River Place and elsewhere that worked long and hard to get this trail open again!

Starting the out and back at the Boardwalk Kiosk is easier as you don't have to finish on the steep steps of Canyon Trail as I chose to do.

And if you only want to go one way, you will need to have transportation parked at both trailheads.

I hiked the River Place Nature Trail with a friend as a training hike.  We were both looking for some elevation change without travelling too far and River Place sounded like the perfect place.

I found the trail to be scenic, especially the Lower Panther Trail section.  Absolutely charming.  It was also refreshing to see the trail well-marked with display maps and distance markers.  The people that developed and maintain the trail have done a very nice job.

I was a little disappointed in the difficulty level, though.  I expected it to be harder.  Maybe I am more accustomed to hiking up mountains with a full pack, but I expected a better cardio workout.  Just when I started to break a sweat, I reached the top and leveled off.  On balance, it is still a decent workout, but I was hoping for a bigger challenge.

A small part of the mid-section of the trail is currently closed due to trail renovation.  There is a detour route marked by orange tape streamers on the tree branches, but my friend and I didn't take the detour since it was steep and slippery and her shoes didn't provide enough traction.  So we hiked back to the original trailhead, then drove around to the second trailhead and did the remaining part of the trail up to the "closed" section and hiked back.

I accidentally deleted the 2nd half of our hike's GPX file, so I am only able to upload the first section we hiked. :(

Very nice senic trail, with a fair amount along a spring fed creek.  A fair amount of elevation change with the trail having stairs built in.

Whole upper trail from the junction to the north end is now closed.  The environmentalists won.  Don't bother going anymore.  Can still do the bottom stub until they close that too.

Be ready for STEPS.