Round Rock, Texas map
30.51° N · 97.68° W · Williamson County · elev. ~720 ft · Central Time
Round Rock is named for a rock. A round slab of limestone in the bed of Brushy Creek marked the shallow ford that cattle herds and wagons used to cross, and the settlement took the name in 1854. The city is now the largest in Williamson County and the northern anchor of the Austin metro along I-35.
I-35 splits the city north–south; SH-45 crosses the south side and US-79 runs east past Dell Diamond toward Hutto.
Where Round Rock is in Texas
Round Rock is 18 miles north of downtown Austin and 12 miles south of Georgetown, the county seat, with Pflugerville immediately south across the Travis County line and Hutto and Taylor east on US-79. Cedar Park and Leander are west along SH-45 and US-183.
The Balcones Escarpment runs through Williamson County on a line from Jarrell through Georgetown to Round Rock, and the city sits directly on it. West of I-35 the ground is hilly limestone with live oak and cedar, the eastern fringe of the Hill Country; east of the highway it flattens into Blackland Prairie farmland running toward Bell and Milam counties. Brushy Creek, a tributary of the Brazos by way of the San Gabriel and Little rivers, crosses the city from west to east.
Growth here is a straightforward function of I-35: Williamson County held 609,017 people in 2020, more than double its 2000 count, and most of that increase landed in the Round Rock–Cedar Park–Leander band.
Highways and tollways
- I-35 – south to Austin and San Antonio, north to Georgetown, Temple and Waco.
- SH-45 (toll) – east–west across the south side, linking US-183 and MoPac on the west to SH-130 on the east.
- SH-130 (toll) – the eastern bypass of Austin, south to Lockhart and Seguin, north to Georgetown.
- US-79 – begins at I-35 and runs northeast past Dell Diamond to Hutto, Taylor and Rockdale.
- RM 620 – southwest from I-35 toward Cedar Park, Lakeway and Lake Travis.
- A.W. Grimes Boulevard – the main north–south arterial east of I-35, connecting US-79 to SH-45.
Old Town, Dell and the ballpark
The original town is a compact grid west of I-35 around Main Street, a few hundred yards from the creek crossing that named it. The outlaw Sam Bass was shot in Round Rock in 1878 and is buried in the old cemetery on Sam Bass Road, which is the other piece of local history most people know.
Dell moved its headquarters here in the mid-1990s, and the campus on the south side near I-35 and SH-45 remains the city's largest employer and the reason its sales tax base is far bigger than a city of 119,000 would normally support. On the east side, Dell Diamond opened in 2000 as the home of the Round Rock Express, the Triple-A affiliate that plays in the Pacific Coast League's successor circuit; Old Settlers Park surrounds it with ball fields and trails, and the Kalahari Resorts indoor water park opened next door on US-79 in 2020.
Brushy Creek itself is now the city's long park. A regional trail follows the creek west from Old Town through Brushy Creek Lake Park toward Cedar Park, and the same limestone that made the ford shallow enough to cross shows up as ledges and small falls along the way.
Areas and neighborhoods
| Area | What's there |
|---|---|
| Old Town / downtown | Main Street, the round rock and Chisholm Trail crossing on Brushy Creek |
| La Frontera | Offices, hotels and retail in the I-35 and SH-45 interchange |
| Dell campus | Corporate offices south of SH-45 near the Travis County line |
| US-79 east | Dell Diamond, Old Settlers Park, Kalahari Resorts and the expo center |
| University Boulevard | Round Rock Premium Outlets, Texas State's Round Rock campus and Austin Community College |
| Brushy Creek west | Cat Hollow and Sendero Springs, with the Brushy Creek Regional Trail toward Cedar Park |
| Forest Creek | Golf course neighborhood east of A.W. Grimes |
| Teravista | Master-planned area straddling the Georgetown line east of I-35 |
Distances from Round Rock
| City | Road miles | Route |
|---|---|---|
| Georgetown | 12 | I-35 N |
| Austin | 18 | I-35 S |
| Temple | 45 | I-35 N |
| Killeen | 50 | I-35 N / SH-195 NW |
| Waco | 85 | I-35 N |
| San Antonio | 95 | I-35 S |
| Dallas | 180 | I-35 N |
Austin–Bergstrom International Airport is about 30 miles south, most directly via SH-130 rather than I-35.