Texas State Park: Enchanted Rock

April 21, 2013

Texas State Park: Enchanted Rock

April 21, 2013

The month of April has shown its face again, yay! This usually means travel time with my family. This would have been the first trip as an official married couple for my husband and I, but he had to work the weekend. Even though I was trying to postpone it, he encouraged me to go.

My family took the bait and now I’m here writing about it.

While I was at home navigating the Internet I saw an ad that had a picture of the Grand Canyon. The view of the canyon top inspired me to climb a mountain. Now I'm not talking aspiring to climb Mt. Everest, something more minimal but meaningful. I started to look for state parks and one stood out, Enchanted Rock in Fredericksburg, TX. Although not a mountain it is a monadnock. I thought this would be perfect!

We had to wake up early on the day we planned to climb the rock. There was a long road to cover and we wanted to avoid as much traffic as possible.

The road to Enchanted Rock was adorned with bluebonnets but quickly changed to a rugged grassy terrain. It greatly foreshadowed the natural wonder ahead.

We arrived at the sign that named our location. We were unable to get off and take pictures; therefore, I took this quick shot from the inside of the vehicle.

We parked and stretched a bit before we began walking towards the trail.

The view of the rock was amazing and it truly looks pink! There are three rocks; the two outer ones look specifically for rock climbing. We decided for the huge one in the middle since we didn't have any rock climbing gear and we had kids less than five with us. Rock climbing the other rocks looked exciting but hiking the main attraction rock proved to be no less. Get ready for some amazing photos of the hike.

I thought this was interesting.

This is the view of the rock to the right hand side.

Here we have the left hand side rock.

We reached what I think is the halfway of the monadnock. Everyone was stopping here for a breather and a drink from their water bottles. Texas heat is nothing to mess with!

We resumed our hike and this time gravity kicked our butts. The rock began to get steeper and steeper so much so we had to take several breaks. Once you get to a certain point on the rock you can no longer see below and the people from below can no longer see you either.

Beside us was a man telling his wife that Native Americans would climb this rock to hide from the Anglo settlers back then. He began to tell her a story about one of his native ancestors. I wish I could have heard more but they got up and went up the rock and I was too tired to follow.

Although it looked easy, the climb up the monadnock was tough! My legs were shaking by the time we reached the summit. After lying on the rock for several minutes I sat up and looked at the natural wonder before me. There were patches of grass that had cactus and other plants. I saw a green little bug next to me and reached out for my camera but it had already scurried away beneath a rock before I could take a picture. The view from atop the rock was breathtaking and standing there made me feel invincible.