Jewel of the Highland Lakes (Lake Travis)

The Highland Lakes of central Texas are the following six lakes: Lake Buchanan, Inks Lake, Lake LBJ, Lake Marble Falls, Lake Travis, and Lake Austin. Water sports are popular on the lakes and residential and commercial properties are aggressively being built around them, especially Lake Travis. Lake Travis has been called the “(Crown) Jewel of the Highland Lakes” in many real estate brochures.
   
Inks Lake and Lake Buchanan have also been called the “Jewel of the Highland Lakes.”
 
   
The Highland Lakes in the Central Texas Hill Country
The Highland Lakes of central Texas consist of 6 lakes along the Colorado River starting 85 miles northwest of Austin and ending in Austin.  The lakes are Lake Buchanan, Inks Lake, Lake LBJ, Lake Marble Falls, Lake Travis and Lake Austin.  These lakes are very popular with boaters and fishermen as well as campers and tourists.  This is also a very popular retirement area.  There are services at all of the lakes. 
 
Wikipedia: Lake Travis
Lake Travis is a reservoir on the Colorado River in central Texas in the United States. The reservoir was formed in 1942 by the construction of Mansfield Dam on the western edge of Austin, Texas by the Lower Colorado River Authority. Lake Travis has the largest storage capacity of the seven reservoirs known as the Highland Lakes, and stretches 65 miles (105 km) upriver from western Travis County in a highly serpentine course into southern Burnet County to Max Starcke Dam, southwest of the town of Marble Falls. The Pedernales River, a major tributary of the Colorado River, flows into the lake from the southwest in western Travis County. The lake is used for flood control, water supply, electrical power generation and recreation.
 
The other reservoirs on the Colorado River are Lake Buchanan, Inks Lake, Lake LBJ, Lake Marble Falls, Lake Austin, and Lady Bird Lake.
 
All About Lake Travis
Lake Travis is 63.75 miles long, and its maximum width is 4.5 miles. The lake covers 18,929 acres, and its capacity is 1,953,936 acre-feet. The lake is considered full at an elevation of 681.1 msl. At this elevation the lake contains 382,092,882,600 gallons of water. There are 270 miles of shoreline around the lake. It has a maximum depth of 210 and an average depth of 62 feet. The lakes historic high level is 710.4 feet msl on December 25, 1991. Its historic low level is 614.2 feet msl on August 14 1951.
 
Lake Travis was created by the impounding of the Colorado River by the construction of Mansfield Dam in 1937- 41. The dam is 266.41 feet high. The length is 7,089.39 feet. At the base it is 213 feet thick. Ranch Road 620 built on top of the dam and the adjoining protective walls bring the actual height of the dam to 274 feet. The top of the dam is 750 feet msl. Its spillway elevation is 714 feetmsl. At this elevation the lake contains 636,691,999,536 gallons of water. It has 3 Pen Stocks which divert water to 3 turbines with a total electrical generating capacity of 93,000 kw. The Dam has 24 floodgates at 4,770 cfs each. Each floodgate is 8.5 feet in diameter. 
 
Lake Travis sites
Lake Travis holiday
Lake Travis, the “crown jewel” of the Highland Lakes in Central Texas. 
Lake Travis is Fun!
Lake Travis is shaped much like a dragon, when looking from a bird’s eye view. There are numerous coves and inlets which are great to explore. 
Lake Travis has 271 miles of shoreline and an average depth of 62 feet, with a max of 210 feet.
Lake Travis is 63.75 miles long and 4 miles wide at its widest point.
Lake Travis covers 18,929 acres.
 
Lake Travis Conditions
Lake Travis is considered the Crown Jewel of the Highland Lakes, known for it’s beautiful coves, steep bluffs, peninsulas & good fishing. The Lake is 63 miles long with 270 miles of shoreline. There are large open areas for sail boats and high bluffs to block wind for great water skiing. The water is deep, clean and clear, great for swimming and scuba diving. There are numerous Marinas & Restaurants on the lake for your boating and dining needs.
 
The Central Texas Outdoors
Travis, This is a favorite for team tournament fishermen and women. Coined as the cleanest water in Texas this jewel of the highland lakes chain is full of bass, crappie, white bass, perch and catfish. Bank fishing at Perdenerales Park or at the dam are favorites.
   
Steiner Ranch
WHAT’S NEAR STEINER RANCH?
Within minutes are ten golf courses, eight boat launches, 19 marinas and 15 public parks. Major employers and shopping are close by, including The Hill Country Galleria, Lakeline Mall and the Arboretum.
 
Lake Travis (“The Jewel of the Highland Lakes”) runs forty miles through the hills of Central Texas. It has hundreds of small coves along the shoreline, with some that wander back a mile off the main lake into secluded, undeveloped areas.
 
Lake Austin is the stretch of the Colorado River that snakes through the hills west of town. Its moderate depth and meandering length make it especially popular with skiers. Lake Austin is also favored as a recreational site for boating, kayaking and canoeing. The waters are the purest found among the Hill Country Lakes. 
   
Buchanan Dam, Texas Travel Guide
Continue driving west on TX 29 to the village of Buchanan Dam, a fishing and retirement community. Lake Buchanan, the jewel of the Highland Lakes with over 23,000 surface acres of water, is formed by Buchanan Dam, the largest multiarch dam in the world.
 
Lake Buchanan’s own gem is the freshwater pearl. Created by freshwater mussels in the Colorado River, some pearls found here have been valued at several thousand dollars.
 
11 July 1999, Austin (TX) American-Statesman, pg. B1:
Lake Travis is the recreational jewel of the Highland Lakes northwest of Austin, but the twisting, 64-mile body of water is also the most treacherous lake.
   
Austin Real Estate News
Monday, January 02, 2006
Lake South Growth
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This is the Texas Hill Country at its best. The topography dictates that just about every new home will be anything but tract homes. The area is close enough to Austin so that the airport and downtown aren’t too far away. Recreation is everywhere with 6 golf courses within minutes of Lakeway and Bee Cave including the only back-to-back Jack Nicklaus courses in Texas. There is Lake Travis, the jewel of the Highland Lakes.
   
Texas Parks & Wildlife magazine
JULY 2007
Lake Life
From big-bass mecca to houseboat heaven, each lake in Texas has a unique personality to call its own.
By Carol Flake Chapman
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Jewel of the Highland Lakes
I live a stone’s throw from one of the six Highland Lakes, Lake Austin. With a visible current, my lake still feels more like a river than a lake. If the Colorado were a snake, the Highland Lakes would constitute the series of bulges along its Central Texas coils, as though the Colorado had eaten a seven-course banquet. Each lake, from Lake Buchanan, the top bulge, to Town Lake (the unofficial seventh Highland Lake), the slender segment at the bottom that runs through downtown Austin, feels remarkably different, though the shoreline surrounding the lakes has been changing rapidly, filling up with luxury houses and resorts.
 
The eagles still fly over big, blustery Lake Buchanan, and you can kayak your way up a fairly wild tributary to watch them and then relax at the comfortable Canyon of the Eagles resort. Lake Marble Falls is still full of fast speedboats, and Lake Travis still attracts gawkers to clothing-optional Hippie Hollow like sailors to the Lorelei. However, the lake now seems to be surrounded by residents sunning themselves on their docks as boatloads of frolicking college students zoom by, trailed by show-offs on wake boards. Fortunately, there are still plenty of rocky coves at Pace Bend Park where you can swim and splash around in peace, and you can even camp there with your horses and dogs.
 
Inks Lake, a tiny jewel of a lake that lies just below Lake Buchanan, seems the most impervious to change of all the Central Texas lakes, partly because so much of its shoreline is owned by TPWD and by the legendary Camp Longhorn, where many a Texan learned how to paddle.