Sometime late on a Friday night in mid-July, Lake Travis crossed 681 feet for the first time since July 2019. Sandbars vanished. "Sometimes Island," the landmark that only shows itself when the lake runs low, went back under. Scuba instructor Carl Balzen told CBS Austin, "I like the lake full a lot better than I do really low," and plenty of people with a dock or a boat trailer agreed.
That was more than two months ago. As of September 29, the state's Water Data for Texas reservoir page shows the lake 89.5% full, down from 90.1% on September 25. A drop of a bit more than half a point in four days reads like a lake that is emptying. It is worth looking at what that percentage measures before deciding what it means for October.
The percentage is a water-supply number
The percent-full figure on the state's reservoir page is calculated from conservation storage. It does not count anything stored in the flood pool. Full pool sits at 681 feet, and everything above that is space the Lower Colorado River Authority keeps empty so it can hold back a flood and release the water downstream later. LCRA executive vice president John Hofmann described that flood pool to KXAN in July as 33 vertical feet of dedicated storage, roughly 767,000 acre-feet.
So the lake was above 100% of what the water-supply system counts, and the flood pool absorbed the excess. Once LCRA let that water out through Mansfield Dam, the lake settled back into the conservation range. It has been working its way down through that range since. Evaporation, water-supply withdrawals, and releases lower the lake, and rain upstream raises it. Nothing about the fall slide is unusual. It is what a reservoir does after a spike.
The number that matters for a Saturday on the water is different. It is elevation in feet, measured against the point where a ramp stops working.
Setting the lake against the line that closed ramps
An unofficial tracker that republishes LCRA readings logged 676.33 feet on September 16 and showed a 30-day decline of 3.4 feet. The tracker labels itself as not an LCRA product, and the Army Corps of Engineers gauge for Lake Travis shows its own reading, so treat any single foot figure as a snapshot and check the live gauges before you head out. The comparison that matters is this one.
| Reference point | Elevation | What it means |
|---|---|---|
| Full pool | 681 feet | LCRA's water-supply full mark |
| Unofficial tracker, Sept. 16, 2026 | 676.33 feet | About five feet under full |
| Ramp closures reported by FOX 7 Austin, Aug. 2022 | Around 660 feet needed | Ramps at Arkansas Bend, Camp Creek, Cypress Creek, Gloster Bend, Jones Brothers, Muleshoe Bend, Narrows, and Collier and Tatum Coves were shut |
In August 2022, FOX 7 reported that those ramps needed the lake at around 660 feet to reopen. Only Mansfield Dam, Bob Wentz at Windy Point, Tournament Point at Pace Bend, and Sandy Creek were open at the time. The tracker's September reading sits roughly 16 feet above that line.
That gap explains why the fall lake is a better lake than the 89.5% figure suggests. The percentage measures how much water is stored. Ramp access depends on where the shoreline falls relative to a fixed concrete slab. A lake can lose a few percentage points and still sit far above the elevations where slabs run dry.
What the ramps tell you
Mansfield Dam Park is the first ramp to check. Texas Parks and Wildlife describes it as a four-lane concrete ramp at high lake levels and a two-lane ramp at low levels, with an adjoining wheelchair-accessible courtesy dock. Its lane count changes with the lake, which is a useful thing to know on a holiday weekend. When the water is up, four lanes move a line faster than two do.
The Parks and Wildlife access page also lists the other public launches. It notes that the LCRA and Travis County Parks operate 15 parks on the reservoir, and that some of them charge entrance or launch fees. Pace Bend has separate ramps at Collier Cove and Tatum Cove.
LCRA publishes a minimum usable elevation for each public ramp on its boat ramp page, along with a note on closures during floods and droughts. That page is the authority for whether a particular ramp is open today. I have not seen the current open and closed status for every ramp, so check it rather than relying on a summer memory of which ones worked.
What a full summer leaves in the water
A lake that rose that fast carries debris for a while. The Nautical Boat Club's guide to the July high water notes that logs and brush can ride just below the surface, especially near inflows and after storms, and that currents near the dam run stronger during releases. Those cautions came from July, and they describe how floodwater behaves. A lake that has been slowly falling since then is settling, though a wide margin around the dam remains sensible.
Water quality is a separate question. After the 2025 flooding, Hofmann told the public that the chance of bacteria in lakes rises significantly in the weeks after a flood, and his advice was direct: cloudy or murky water means swim somewhere else, and so does debris in the area. That guidance dates from a different flood, and it is a general practice for any lake after heavy rain.
Sometimes Island is worth checking before you plan around it. It went underwater in July. Whether it has begun to surface again depends on how far the lake has fallen, and the tracker's five feet under full is not enough for a reader to say either way. A look at the gauge on the morning you go will settle it.
What is still on the fall calendar
Live music at Beachside Billy's at Volente Beach runs every Friday and Saturday from March through September, according to the venue's listing on Do512. The last Friday and Saturday of September have now passed, so confirm with the venue whether any music dates continue before you drive over.
Lake Travis Zipline Adventures in Volente, at 14529 Pocohontas Trail, has an October 30 date on ticket listings. Its offerings include a three-hour guided course with five ziplines, ranging from 250 feet to over 2,800 feet, a 1.5-hour tour, and a monthly full-moon night tour. The ticket sites are third-party listings, so the operator is the place to confirm times and which tour runs on which night.
On the water, the case for October comes down to the gauge. A lake that sits well above the 2022 closure line has more launches, more coves, and more room between boats than the same lake had at the bottom of the drought. The four-lane Mansfield Dam Park ramp is a small proof of it. Check the LCRA ramp page and the Water Data for Texas gauge on the morning you go, and plan the day from the elevation, not the percentage.
Greater Austin Realty has represented Central Texas buyers and sellers since 1993, and Lake Travis is part of the territory. If you have questions about the shoreline, a dock, or a lake-area property, Contact Us.
