Lake Travis map
30.40° N · 97.95° W · Travis County · ~64 miles long · full pool 681 ft
Lake Travis is the flood reservoir of the Highland Lakes: a long, narrow flooded canyon on the Colorado River held back by Mansfield Dam, twenty minutes west of downtown Austin. It runs about 64 miles upstream toward Marble Falls, and its surface moves further up and down than that of any other big lake in Texas.
The dam is at the east end where RM 620 crosses. The lake narrows into a river channel toward the northwest.
Where it is and how to get there
Mansfield Dam is about 20 road miles northwest of downtown Austin by way of RM 2222 and RM 620, or by SH-71 west and RM 620 north. RM 620 is the only road that crosses the lake anywhere along its length — it runs over the top of the dam — so getting from the north shore to the south shore anywhere upstream means a long drive around. SH-71 serves the south side out through Bee Cave to Spicewood; RM 1431 serves the north side through Jonestown and Lago Vista.
From Round Rock and Williamson County the usual approach is RM 1431 west, about 30 miles to the north-shore parks. From San Antonio allow roughly 100 miles by I-35 north and SH-71 west. At the far upper end the lake tails out below the dam at Marble Falls, in Burnet County.
Around the shoreline
| Place | Shore and access |
|---|---|
| Mansfield Dam | East end. RM 620 crosses the crest; the deepest water in the lake is immediately upstream, and a county park sits below the dam on the river |
| Hippie Hollow | North-side cove off Comanche Trail — a Travis County park with rock ledges instead of a beach, and the only clothing-optional public park in Texas |
| Windy Point | Also on Comanche Trail; a scuba and windsurfing spot where the lake widens and the afternoon south wind funnels through |
| Devil's Cove | Narrow inlet on the south shore where boats raft up together on summer weekends; reachable by water rather than road |
| Lakeway and Hudson Bend | South-shore development along RM 620, with most of the lake's marinas and ramps |
| Lago Vista and Point Venture | North-shore towns off RM 1431, with their own ramps and a small airfield |
| Pace Bend Park | A large Travis County park occupying a peninsula on the south shore, reached from SH-71; cliff-lined shore with several miles of frontage and primitive camping |
| Muleshoe Bend and Spicewood | Upper lake, where the water narrows and looks more like a river than a reservoir |
| Arkansas Bend and Sandy Creek | North-shore county parks near the middle of the lake, both with ramps that go out of service in low water |
Why the level moves so much
Lake Travis is the only Highland Lake with a large block of storage deliberately kept empty. Above the 681-foot conservation pool there is a further reserve of flood space behind the dam, and the lake is allowed to fill into it during a big rain and then be drawn back down. That is not a fault in the system; it is the reason the dam exists. The Colorado drains a large, steep, flash-flood-prone catchment upstream, and Austin was flooded repeatedly before the dams went in.
In practice the lake spends years far below full during drought, stranding ramps and exposing hundreds of feet of bare shoreline, then refills in days when a storm parks over the Llano or Pedernales watersheds. Boat ramps, marina access and the shape of individual coves change completely between those two states, so any depiction of the shoreline — including the base map here — reflects one particular water level.
The Highland Lakes chain
Six dams built by the river authority between the late 1930s and the early 1950s turned this stretch of the Colorado into a staircase of lakes: Buchanan, Inks, LBJ, Marble Falls, Travis and, last, Lake Austin behind Tom Miller Dam inside the city. Buchanan and Travis are the two that store water for supply; the four between them are held at near-constant levels, which is why lakefront property on those is a different proposition from lakefront property here. The chain is mapped alongside the state's other reservoirs on the Texas lakes map, and the river itself on the rivers map.
Water levels are published daily by the river authority; ramp closures follow them by a few feet.