| Trail |
  (4.26) |
 (3.12) |
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| 7.00 Miles |
N/A |
| N/A |
No
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| Yes |
No |
| $6.00
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More Info
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| Fredericksburg |
Llano |
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Take Action
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Getting there: Head west into Fredericksburg on Highway 290. In the
middle of town turn right onto RR 965 and head north. After travelling approximately 18
miles look for the entrance to Enchanted Rock State Natural Area on the left.
The Park: All ages are relative. A single human's age measures up to a
fraction of a sliver of the Earth's. The collective written history of Texas adds up to only
a handful of generations. To measure truly significant periods of time one has to do so
geologically. At 1 billion years old, Enchanted Rock provides one of the most striking
examples of old to be found in Texas.
 | | Enchanted Rock, as seen from the observation platform near the Summit Trail trailhead. |
What now rises 500 feet into the air was once a bubble of liquid magma beneath the Earth.
Unlike the surrounding rock that it penetrated, the consistency of this magma created a
column of hard granite. Over the next 1 billion years the movement of the Earth's plates
and erosion patterns of the planet's weather has chipped away at the surrounding
countryside. The granite, stronger than the surrounding rock, bears the weathering better
and so was exposed to the surface and slowly continues to emerge.
The geological term for such an outcrop is a batholith. Enchanted Rock is
the second largest batholith in the United States, second only to the massive Stone
Mountain in Georgia.
<% displayUploadedImage "Right", "EnchantedRock1.jpg", "150", "200", "Looking at Little Rock to the west from Enchanted Rock. (Photo courtesy of Dave McDonald)", "Photo" %>
Enchanted Rock State Natural Area consists of numerous peaks, each of them a separate
highpoint of the granite bubble, most of which continues to reside beneath the surface
of the Earth. It's estimated that the granite bubble encompasses some 90 square miles,
mostly to the north of Enchanted Rock.
When viewing Enchanted Rock from a distance, it's easy to draw a conclusion that the large
masses of bare rock provide little in the way of resources for animal and plant life.
However, those conclusions bely the wide abundance of life on and around Enchanted Rock,
sometimes in the most unlikely of places.
 | | Some interesting and rare lifeforms get a foothold in some odd places at Enchanted Rock. |
Upon close examination, bare rock is not bare at all. Boulders, at rest on the granite
dome, provide crevases at their base that trap a bit of soil and provide shade, yielding
a micro habitat ideal for small ferns. Long, incredibly straight cracks in the dome
itself serves host to some hardier grasses. Shallow depressions on the rock surfaces
collect water, which traps wind-borne soil, which again yields plant life. These mini
oasises, called gnammas, even play host to fairy shrimp. Gnammas that collect enough soil
to completely fill up resemble small prairies. The rock surface itself is often alive.
The greenish or gray veneer of ordinarily pinkish granite is actually lichens.
 | | The trail to the top of Enchanted Rock is not the only picturesque path to follow in the park. Here Turkey Peak towers over Big Sandy Creek. |
There are 7 miles of trails at Enchanted Rock and three separately named trails. However,
there are uncounted additional paths that one can follow on the face of the peaks.
The signature trail at the park is the Summit Trail, which also happens to be the most
crowded. This short, but steep path leads to the summit of Enchanted Rock, approximately
500 feet above the lowpoint of the park.
The Loop Trail is the longest trail in the park, but arguably the
easiest. Most of the trail follows old jeep trails and is typically flat. Since the
trail encircles most of the peaks in the park, it provides a multitude of views of the
park's wonders.
The Echo Canyon Trail bisects the two largest moutains in the park and effectively cuts
the Loop Trail into two parts. It can be used as a Loop Trail cutoff to shorten a journey
but also provides some rougher terrain as it pushes through the boulder field between the
Little Rock and Enchanted Rock.
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