“Take nothing but pictures, leave nothing but footprints.”
I love to explore the Hill Country every chance I get. There are tons of things to see and do, and for someone like me, who doesn’t have a lot of down time, daytrips are the ideal way to do some sightseeing.
I recently renewed my State Park pass. In the past, I haven’t taken advantage of the pass, but I’ve decided that this year will be different.
My goal is to visit all of the State Parks within a 100-mile radius of where I live, in Blanco. Lucky for me, there are so many!
My first adventure? Enchanted Rock.
I was able to convince my two teenagers to come along with me to hike the famous giant rock. We set out on the journey on a day that promised to ‘only’ reach 85 degrees.
The drive to Enchanted Rock was not too long, a little over an hour for us, and because we chose to go in the middle of the week, traffic through Fredericksburg was light.
We were still miles from the park when the dome-like rock became visible.
We arrived before noon, bought our pass and then drove to the designated parking space.
Armed with sunscreen and water, we set out to find the path straight to the top!
My first impression was how large it was. Folks, I know it’s cliché, but photos do not do it justice.
I’ve seen big rocks…but this thing is huge.
There weren’t tons of people at the park that day, but enough that we were never alone on Enchanted Rock.
After parking and gathering all of our supplies, we set off up Summit Trail.
First thoughts as we were beginning our hike: it’s a long way up there, followed by the realization that there were people who appeared to not be accustomed to scaling rocks that were also making the ascent, which reassured us that we, too, could make it to the top.
Like I mentioned earlier, the forecast called for a sunny day that would only have a high in the mid-80s. It was about 1pm when we began our hike, and it was definitely beginning to heat up.
The heat itself wouldn’t have been so bad, but the sun reflecting off of giant rock intensified things just a bit. On this day, it wasn’t miserable, but wait until July? It’ll be plenty hot in the middle of the day.
There were trees and various plants growing out of the rock; I have no clue what they are called, but they were green and pretty.
The climb isn’t too bad at first. And then it seems that the incline sharpened greatly out of nowhere. Clumsy me could only think about what would happen if I chose that particular moment to trip over my on feet.
I imagine it would mean me, falling head over heel, doing somersaults down the side of this rock, while my kids make sure and help get a video of my gracefulness.
Luckily, that did NOT happen (although it would have made for a great story!).
We continued to climb.
We reached a sort of flattened out space and decided that would be a great place to take a break, drink some water and have a snack.
The wind had picked up, and the breeze was beginning to lose some of the heat that it was carrying farther down, so that it was pretty pleasant.
As we sat, we watched others make the climb and snapped pictures of the panoramic view of the Gillespie/Llano County countryside. Another trite comment, but ohmygoodness. The view was spectacular!
After a while we decided it was time to find the top.
I say ‘find’ because Enchanted Rock seems to play tricks on you.
Several times, it looked like we were juuust at the top, only to come over a small bump and realize that there was still more rock.
As we neared the top, the wind became stronger and cooler, and despite being right next to the sun, it felt cooler at the top than it had at the bottom.
Once we reached the tippy-top, the view that was already spectacular was magnified a thousand times. It was simply breath-taking.
Trees and groundcover were littered around the top, all thriving, all lush.
The path that the rain takes as it hits the rock and races down was evident, even though it had not rained there in several days.
In craters, there were tiny ponds.
In the tiny ponds, were tinier tadpoles.
We didn’t see any frogs while we were wandering around the top, so I’m not sure what becomes of the tadpoles once they sprout legs and decide to hop away. It would be an awfully long and rather warm trip down off of Enchanted Rock.
We stayed atop the rock for just the right amount of time, and after we had our fill of the glorious sights, began the descent.
Coming down was easier than going up; we were only slowed by me, wanting to take pictures every few yards.
We did a little bit of exploring around boulders that we found, and followed a couple of trails that eventually led us back to Summit Trail.
We briefly discussed going off trail, but decided that the risk of encountering one of my least favorite Texas creatures, the rattlesnake was not worth it. Not my idea of a good time…not at all.
So, after goofing around and taking brilliant photos of my kids steadying boulders and jumping off ‘high’ cliffs, we found our way back onto the Summit Trail.
At the bottom, they have the kinds of things I like to find in nature, namely snow cones, and so we had to indulge ourselves.
With that, we were on our way, and since we only hiked one trail, vowed to return to explore the rest of the Enchanted Rock State Park.
FUN FACTS:
The Summit Trail climbs 425 feet in .6 miles.
Loop Trail, which does as it says and loops around the park and the rock formations, is roughly four miles long.
Camping is available, but you’ll be roughing it – all of the camping areas are primitive.
It is recommended that you carry a quart of water per person on your hike.
Bicycles are frowned upon (not allowed) on any of the trails.
There are compost toilets situated on the longer trails, including Loop Trail and Echo Canyon Trail.
Whatever you take into the park, you must take it out of the park with you when you go. (There are trash cans at the base of the hill, so utilize them!
