Throughout the 291-acre Willow Waterhole Greenway, visitors along the trails will encounter striking views and interesting points of special interest. Enhancements are taking place almost daily as the public, community groups, and funding organizations learn more about us and want to be part of the exciting growth of the Greenway. Come visit us and see for yourself!

Arboretum Trail

The 300-foot crushed-granite Arboretum Trail, east of Triangle Lake and adjacent to the Birding Center, weaves through a small wetlands area. The trail is populated with more than 100 understory plants and several groves of trees native to Texas, including varieties of oak, cypress, birch, pecan, hickory, sweetgum, elm, cedar, and sycamore. In recognition of Russell Schexnayder’s vision for this trail and his long-time involvement with the Greenway, this trail is known informally to some as "Russell’s Trail."

Bayou Trail

Bayou Trail, located between Scout Lake and The Gathering Place on S. Willow Dr., begins at the parking lot and follows a shaded path to the unimposing Willow Waterhole Bayou. The trail offers visitors a close-up view of the concrete weir that drains stormwater from the bayou into the detention basin complex, beginning with Scout Lake.

Bayou Trail winds along the north side of Scout Lake to the bayou.

Birding Center and Houses

The Birding Center—a chimney swift habitat and bird information kiosk—is located near the Arboretum Trail east of Triangle Lake. Bird surveys are conducted monthly by the Nature Discovery Center and Houston Audubon Society. Participants convene at the Birding Center after each survey to tally species sightings. The monthly counts are displayed in the kiosk. Approximately 225 different species have been identified at the Greenway. In December 2023, the count was 236 species, the highest of any official park in Houston. In addition to seeing birds native to the area, birders sometimes spot bald eagles, ospreys, various species of duck, and other nonnative birds during their migration stopovers. Additional bird houses are being built throughout the park.

Carolina chickadees are year-round residents of Texas. This chickadee birdhouse was an Eagle Scout project.

Bob Schwartz Gazebo

The Bob Schwartz Gazebo—in many ways the focal point of the Greenway—was built in 2003 as part of an urban park grant from the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department. It sits atop the hill overlooking Westbury Lake. The gazebo and surrounding lawn and sidewalks are the site of the annual October MusicFEST and numerous other family-friendly events. It serves as the trailhead for walkers and runners, and its shaded picnic tables and carved Naturescape Garden provide a gathering place for families. The gazebo is named in honor of Bob Schwartz for his service to the community and the Willow Waterhole Greenway. A founder of the Brays Bayou Association and Willow Waterhole Greenspace Conservancy, he advocated tirelessly for flood control projects in the Brays Watershed. As an engineer, he was responsible for bringing electricity to the Greenway in 2013.

The U.S. and Texas flags fly on the Bob Schwartz Gazebo hillside overlooking Westbury Lake.

Butterfly Garden

Three magnificent butterfly sculptures, titled “Flowers for a Lady,” have been installed near the Schwartz Gazebo. Created by renowned artist Rosalinda R. Toro, the pieces honor Kathleen Tinsley Ownby for her long-time dedication to Houston parks. The blue butterflies in flight represent the transformation of parks in the city, and the concrete columns wrapped in colorful flower and bird mosaics to represent Kathleen’s love for flowers and respect for nature. A long-time Houston resident, Rosa has worked in every medium in the world of visual arts. Her favorite media are bronze, mosaic, stained glass, and copper. Of her 300 commissioned pieces, 40 are in the Houston area and many are found in Spark Parks.

James Myers Flagpole

The James Myers Flagpole was installed in memory of James C. Myers, who served for 33 years in the U.S. Navy, retiring in 1996. James Meyers dedicated himself to community service, working tirelessly to enhance quality of life in southwest Houston.

Levitt Pavilion Houston (future site)

Willow Waterhole Greenway was chosen in 2013 by the Levitt Foundation of California as the site for Levitt Pavilion Houston, the ninth such outdoor music pavilion site in the United States. Originally the pavilion was to be located on the banks of Willow Lake. For several reasons, an alternative site had to be found. In 2019, the City of Houston bought the 29-acre Shell Gasmer Technology Center site adjacent to Willow Waterhole Greenway and reserved a 3-acre section for the future site of Levitt Pavilion Houston.

The Pavilion’s stage—facing southeast away from nearby neighborhoods—will have casual lawn seating accommodating up to 5,000 attendees. Twelve acres will be dedicated to parking and restrooms. The venue will be family friendly and wheelchair accessible. The master plan connects the new site with Willow Waterhole Greenway so that the walk from one to the other will be a seamless “green” transition. Plans are for the Pavilion’s construction to begin in 2024 and for the venue to offer its first free concert in 2025.

The goal of Levitt Foundation is “to reflect the best of American city life by creating community and social interaction among people of all ages and backgrounds, empowering cities across America to reclaim green spaces and reinvigorate public spaces, and ensuring the performing arts are accessible to all through high quality, free concerts."

Read more about Levitt Pavilion Houston here. If you would like to be a part of this exciting project, please consider joining the “Founders Circle” at LevittHouston.org. For more information: info@LevittHouston.org or (281) 687-1334.

Levitt Foundation
Empowers Communities

The Levitt Foundation revitalizes underused public spaces by supporting free concerts of live music.

Native Prairie Garden

Willow Waterhole Greenway’s Native Prairie Garden—actually eight small land parcels bordered by paved walkways—is a demonstration garden designed to educate the public about prairie grasses and wildflowers that are native to this area.

This “pocket prairie,” located on Gasmer Dr. near the banks of Triangle Lake, was installed in 2018. The plants were provided by the Natural Resources Manager of the Houston Parks and Recreation Department and are maintained by individual volunteers and volunteers from local garden clubs and the Native Prairies Association of Texas. The volunteers meet regularly to remove invasive grasses and manage the garden.

Pocket prairies can be found naturally throughout southeast Texas. They are small patches of land with native grasses and wildflowers representing the coastal prairie that once covered the majority of Houston and rimmed the Texas Gulf Coast from Louisiana to Corpus Christi. The native habitat disappeared over time because of livestock grazing, urban spread, and the invasion of nonnative species. These small gardens can be found around Houston and are prized for their preservation of native Texas flora.

One man’s weeds are another man’s wildflowers and another man’s native prairie plants.

Naturescape Garden

The Willow Waterhole Greenway is proud of its Naturescape Garden of elaborate wood carvings, all sculpted from native oak tree logs. The sculpture garden is located near the park’s Dryad entrance and Bob Schwartz Gazebo. In 2020, the Conservancy commissioned renowned tree carver James D. Phillips to turn live oak logs into birds, fish, turtles, wildflowers, and people. Phillips is known for his work carving trees in Galveston after the destruction by Hurricane Ike in 2008. His previous Buster the Dog carving was rescued from a City warehouse and added to the garden in 2022. Buster was on display for 10 years at Market Square Park in downtown Houston until a redo of that site in 2020. The newest carving, that of an owl, was installed in the summer of 2022. Each piece is anchored by a permeable foundation constructed by local Eagle Scouts.

Carved from a native oak tree log, this turtle has a permanent view of Westbury Lake.

Outdoor Classroom & Live Oak Tree

A site for an outdoor classroom is located next to Triangle Lake near South Willow Dr. As with the Rafferty Memorial Oak, this ancient live oak tree is surrounded by large granite blocks that call to mind England’s Stonehenge monument. Benches provide a clear view of the lake and ample seating for an outdoor classroom.

Prairie Management Area

The Greenway’s area east of South Post Oak Rd. was originally a never plowed pasture. A small pocket of native prairie was found to contain an endangered native plant species, the Texas prairie dawn-flower (Hymenoxys texana). The Harris County Flood Control District preserved 15 acres and created the Prairie Management Area, where non-native invasive species are being systematically eliminated and the endangered flower is being protected. The area is currently home to more than 300 coastal prairie plant species, 244 of which are native. The restricted area will eventually open with trails and educational signage.

Rafferty Memorial Oak

The immense Rafferty Memorial Oak, one of two ancient oaks in the park, is located off S. Willow Dr. A memorial installed under the tree honors Harris County engineer Jack Rafferty, who designed and led many flood control projects during his distinguished career. He introduced the concept of building detention basins to offset urban development. As with the park’s other giant oak, the tree is surrounded by large granite blocks. The blocks and additional benches provide ample seating for a group or class.

The Rafferty Memorial Oak offers group seating on granite blocks surrounding the tree.

Willow Waterhole Bayou

Flooding along the Willow Waterhole Bayou has been a decades-long problem. After flooding in the 1960s and 1970s, the Harris County Flood Control District made improvements to mitigate the flooding, but flooding continued. The bayou inundated structures multiple times during the last decade—April 2013, May 2015, October 2015, April 2016, and August 2017. However, since 2018, when the detention basin complex was completed and connected to the bayou, no structural flooding has occurred.

To view the bayou's natural channels and one of the two weirs that connect to the Willow Waterhole basin, take the 500-foot Bayou Trail between Scout Lake and The Gathering Place on S. Willow Drive.

Willow Waterhole Bayou meanders northeast through mostly residential areas until it flows into Brays Bayou at the southwest corner of I-610 Loop.