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Old Posted Oct 25, 2007, 8:23 AM
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KevinFromTexas KevinFromTexas is offline
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Join Date: Jul 2001
Location: there and back again
Posts: 57,324
First off, the lowest point in the city is on the East side near the Colorado River where it bottoms out to around 330 feet above sea level. The highest point in the city, that I know of, is Comanche Peak in West Austin at 1,067 feet above sea level. About a 500 foot tall hill. The highest point in Travis County, located in the Northwest part is Travis Peak at 1,400 feet. Downtown's elevation hovers between 430 feet and 600 feet above sea level. I've read that the sort of unspoken definition of a mountain/peak is any point that peaks to 300 feet or higher than the surrounding terrain. Even in Colorado when measuring 14,000 foot peaks, this is how they do it apparently.

Here's a list of some of the major hills "mountains" inside the city limits. Heights are above sea level. There are more, but these are some of the most well known.

Comanche Peak - 1,067 feet
Cat Mountain - 926 feet
Shepherd Mountain - 926 feet
Mount Larson - 922 feet
Bull Mountain - 907 feet
Mount Lucus - 868 feet
Mount Barker - 846 feet
Mount Bonnell - 785 feet

West of Austin the hills get bigger of course. One of the most notable ones is Packsaddle Mountain in Llano County. It's 1,590 feet above sea level, about a 600 foot hill.

There's also a handful of extinct volcanoes right in the city. Pilot Knob located in Southeast Austin near the airport. My dad and I used to go to the dump out there and we'd stop and pick up volcanic rock along side the highway. In South Austin along Congress Avenue is another one. Saint Edwards University actually sits atop an extinct volcano. These hills are around 650 feet above seal level.

This website is an excellent place to find pictures of the hills in West Austin. Check out the photo gallery links near the bottom.
http://www.texasfreeway.com/Austin/austin.shtml
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