March 25, 2018 Enchanted Rock, Texas Hike (Part 1 of 2: Photos from the Summit Trail)
On Sunday, March 25, 2018, my daughter and I hiked up and around Enchanted Rock (elev. 1823 ft) in the Enchanted Rock State Natural Areain the Texas Hill country between Llano and Fredericksburg. It was a beautiful day with highs around 80 °F, clear skies with a few clouds, and not too much wind. We hiked on the 0.75-mile Summit Trail 425 feet up the south side of the rock to the top and then hiked down and around the rock on the Echo Canyon Trail, Base Trail, and Turkey Pass Trail. The views of the surrounding countryside from the peak of Enchanted Rock were splendid. The Echo Canyon and Turkey Pass trails to the west and east of the rock, respectively, allowed passage between it and neighboring peaks. These trails passed through desert scrub with cacti, hoodoos, granite boulders and slabs, and sand. The Base Trail to the north of the rock passed through open oak woodland with creeks and vernal pools.
↑ Photo 1. A view of Enchanted Rock from the North on the Base Trail. There are a lot of oaks, grasses, and prickly-pear cacti. There are many rock climbing routes on this side of the dome.
↑ Photo 2. Hikers on the Summit Trail that leads up the south side of the dome from the campgrounds and parking lot.
↑ Photo 3. The view to the northeast from the top of the dome. Freshman Mountain can be seen in the distance.
↑ Photo 4. The view to the south showing ephemeral pool basins on the top of the dome (larger basins make vernal pools) and Cretaceous limestone mesas in the distance. The granite that makes the Enchanted Rock is older than the surrounding sedimentary rocks and has an interesting geologic history and setting.
To view photos from our hike around the base of the Enchanted Rock dome, see part 2 of this series.
Great pictures! I have hiked and clibed there for 30 years and really miss it. I need to make the time to take my children out and even rope up with my oldest daughter and see how she feels about slab climbing.
Thank you for the great comment and welcome to Steemit! (I looked at your steemd entry to see that your account is brand new)
My post is 2 months old so I'm glad you didn't upvote it. If you did upvote it, I would get reputation rewards but you would not get curation rewards. No rewards are given on a posts that are older than about 6 days and the payout comes on the 7th day. Comments on old posts count as new posts so I upvoted you and you will get a small reward for your comment.
I don't climb much anymore but did enjoy hiking at Enchanted Rock. It is a beautiful place!
Beautiful Texas skies!
Amazing views!
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