A bald dome of pinkish granite swells above the live oak scrub along a rolling stretch of Hill Country blacktop 17 miles north of Fredericksburg, Texas. Enchanted Rock has been enchanting nature lovers for as long as there have been people here, at least 11,000 years.

Last Monday we drove west from Austin, stopped for lunch at Fredericksburg Herb Farm Bistro, and then on to Enchanted Rock, where I’d made a reservation to guarantee admission into the park. Like Pedernales Falls and Hamilton Pool and, well, any Texas park these days, it pays to reserve ahead, as parks fill up quickly on weekends and holidays, and they’ll turn people away once the lots are full.

For once I didn’t take the summit trail. I’ve been on top of Enchanted Rock 3 or 4 times over the years, but this time I wanted to hike around the base. So we made plans to meet up in 1-1/2 hours (cell phones don’t work out there), and I set off on the Frontside Trail while David and V., our Italian exchange student, took off for the summit.

The trail follows a gravelly creek bed for a little while…

…with views of the lower part of Enchanted Rock on the left. Great slabs of pink granite have sloughed off the domed rock over the millennia, an erosion process that continues today.

Yuccas, grasses, agarita, prickly pear, oaks, and junipers make up a familiar cast of characters (also commonly seen in Austin) along the trail.

I stopped constantly to take photos. Some might find this spiny, rugged landscape off-putting, but I find it beautiful, like this natural matrix of prickly pear and low grasses springing from crevices in bare rock.

Looking up I noticed two tiny figures waving vigorously near the top of the dome. Yes, that’s them! I waved back and realized I’d hardly made any progress along my trail while they were already near the top. I resolved to move faster and wished we’d agreed to meet after 3 hours instead of only 1-1/2.

This old tree seems to be waving too.

Late afternoon sunlight set aglow the grasses and prickly pear spines and even ball moss in the trees.

Late afternoon on the trail

The little creek wound through some tall grasses…

…and then I left it behind and started to climb Turkey Pass Trail. That’s Turkey Peak straight ahead, and a tiny figure standing on top gives you a sense of scale.

Chiseled slabs of pink granite occasionally make up rocky steps on steep sections of the trail.

An interesting, swirled cloud appeared atop Enchanted Rock to my left.

Getting closer to Turkey Peak. Now there are two or three people on top.

A closer look

Weathered boulders lie in a tumbled heap along the trail, with prickly pear and Texas nolina finding purchase amid the cracks.

Nolina (aka beargrass, basket grass, and sacahuista) spills like shaggy green hair over the rocks.

The cool cloud is still there.

Prickly pear, an old broken tree, and ever-present pink granite

Mushroom-shaped hoodoos stand alongside one portion of the trail, weathered into surprising forms…

…and improbably balanced.

Looking up the dome and its shattered granite slabs, some as big as a house, I pondered the angle of repose — hope it holds!

At the highest point along the trail (at least as far as I got) there’s a nice view of the surrounding Hill Country.

A natural gateway

Near the “back” of Enchanted Rock, it fell into shadow as the sun sank low on the opposite side. The pink rock took on a lavender hue.

A beautiful view! I would have liked to go on and hike the Base Trail around the back side of the dome, but I only had 20 minutes left until the meet-up time.

So I turned around and hiked back down to meet up with David and V. and hear about the view from the top.

Here are a few pictures from the top, including this one of a vernal pool, which can hold water for a couple of weeks after a rain. There are even fairy shrimp living in some of these pools! How did they get here, atop this rock in the middle of the Texas Hill Country? One theory is their eggs were pooped out by passing shore birds. The tiny shrimp swim around, upside-down, until the pools dry up, but their eggs manage to survive dry periods and hatch when rain refills the pools. (To protect this fragile and unique habitat, dogs are not allowed on Enchanted Rock, only on the Loop Trail around the base.)

The dome of Enchanted Rock peaks at 1,828 feet. It’s really just the tip of an immense iceberg — a batholith of 62 square miles of granite, most of it underground, that was formed when magma miles deep pushed up into the rock above it and then cooled and hardened. Voila, granite was formed! Over time, the rock and soil on top of the granite eroded, and the dome of Enchanted Rock and a few smaller domes was exposed.

Enchanted Rock is a uniquely beautiful place and well worth a visit. Climb to the summit, but also spend time on the lower trails, which, as I finally discovered, are beautiful in their own right. I’ll be back to explore more of those.

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Digging Deeper

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