Hiking Enchanted Rock - Texas Hill Country

in #travel7 years ago (edited)

This past weekend we made the two hour trek from San Antonio out to Enchanted Rock Natural Area near Fredericksburg.

See a map of the park here.





Enchanted Rock is a large pink granite dome in the middle of the Texas Hill Country, great for a day trip of hiking. The rock is an exfoliation dome, so it’s constantly shedding it’s top layer of rock, visible in the pictures below:



Pink granite



Little Rock, as seen from the summit of Enchanted Rock




Day entry is $7 per person — cash only!

We parked at the beginning of the Summit & Loop Trails and hiked up the Summit. It’s an easy hike, but pretty steep at parts, so shoes with decent traction is highly recommended.










View of Turkey Peak to the east



Chillin at the summit



USGS marker



Of course there's cacti



About to eat some grub!



Jacob



Most of the crew

We enjoyed a little picnic once we reached the summit, then hiked down the western face of the rock (off the trail), crossed over the Echo Canyon Trail, then made our way up the Little Rock where we watched the sunset.




Surveying the trek ahead of us to Little Rock



It looks a little steep going down!



Big ol' rocks



Enchanted Rock peels like an onion



Beautiful greenery thrives at the base of the rocks



Valiant hiking warriors



The pink granite is mesmerizing



Texas Hill Country



Such an interesting facade



Crossed over Echo Canyon Trail, looking at Enchanted Rock. Oh, and there are our shadows :)



Made it to the top of Little Rock



The crew at sunset



Sun going down and so are the temps!

The temperature dropped quickly as the sun set, so we headed back down the southern side of the rock and found ourselves back on the beginning of the Summit Trail and to the car.




Heading back



Awesome scenery heading back down



Almost to the bottom, ran into these cool rock formations!

We love this day trip from central Texas, and enjoyed dinner and live music in Fredericksburg afterwards!




Thankful for good times and good friends!

What are your favorite day trips from your city? Let us know! We’d love to hear from you!

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I don’t really live in a “city” but there is a cool ski hill called Mount Washington near me I would like to go to again soon!

It looks beautiful (via Google images)! We wish there was skiing somewhere near us, but alas, we live in Texas where we pretty much have summer year-round. Have some fun for us up there in the snow! :)

We get a lot of rain all year where I live, but snow is never far away in the mountains.
Summer sounds pretty magical to me right now though.

It looks like s beautiful place and hike! And good times with your friends. That pink granite is beautiful!

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