Enchanted Rock State Park near Fredericksburg, Texas
Outer Loop Around Park Perimeter
Wednesday, March 25, 2009
Enchanted Rock State Park website with directions
I’d visited
this park with my parents last year and we’d climbed the
Pinnacle Trail all the way up to the top of Enchanted Rock. It was a real
quad and lung buster of a hike, especially for my dad who had lung issues but he
made it! It was very rewarding upon reaching the top too because we were
granted a very far reaching view of the
On the way out
from my parents’ place (outside
Also of
interest was the
Once in
I pulled into the park, parked the car, and went in to pay the $6 fee (they take credit cards). The people there didn’t seem to be in the best mood, which was a bit at odds with the beautiful environment but they did take my money - er, credit. After paying, I veered right on the roads until I came to a little parking circle and I then headed off on the Loop Trail around the park.
This trail is a
4.1 (emphasis on
.1!) mile loop around
the periphery of the entire park to include both Enchanted Rock (which I’ll
refer to from here on out as the “Rock”) and
Many
other trails exist too although not all of these are “legal” ones.
I'd definitely bring a map so you don't lose your way, but needless to say
you have your choice of trail combinations that can make your hiking day as
long or short as you want. Since I’d been waiting a
while to get back here though, I ended up doing the loop trail followed by the
Pinnacle Trail. I then went down the face of the Rock and finally went around
about half of Echo Canyon/Turkey Pass Trails around it before the skies began to look ominous.
As the loop trail began by winding and undulating along (and sometimes across) a very nearly dry Sandy Creek it became clear that this was going to be an absolutely wonderful day. I hope it will be for you too! :) Incidentally, the book I used as a guide for this hike - 60 Hikes Within 60 Miles – Austin/San Antonio edition - has a picture from this section of the hike on the cover.
The first trail
junction I came to was for
Continuing along the creek bed from here, you’ll have a continuous mountain backdrop to keep you company and if you look closely you may be able to see little specks on top which will probably be people walking around up there...
Buzzards Roost Primitive Campground will
have a sign at the next trail junction but you’ll want to take a sharp left if you
want to keep following the loop. I must say, however, that at
this point I was a tad disappointed. I wanted to keep going straight!
One note – as I
passed some trees in this section I noticed what sounded like bee swarms.
I never actually saw a swarm, but upon looking more closely I did see that
they were scattered individually all around. It sure sounded
like a ton of them though, and I didn’t stick around too long to find out just
how many more there were! Just… moseyin’…
onthrough!
The trail from here seems to take on the characteristics of a sandy gravel roadbed and as I continued on I passed many different kinds of blooms on the plants – including the cacti which had some of the most amazing.
I also noticed the Spanish moss in the live oak trees along the trail which brought back memories of the time I once lived in the state. Meanwhile, as I looked back at the Rock from this direction it appeared as if it were cracking like an eggshell with the actual shell slowly falling down the side with the assistance of gravity!
After passing the next trail junction (I believe that this was the Turkey Pass Trail which had caught back up with the Loop Trail) I came to a tree which I just had to take a picture of! This one has personality! It’s the perfect Halloween Tree.
By this point the path will have become quite flat with the views being consistently amazing. I may have taken more pictures on this trip than on any I’ve ever taken. The loop hike is supposed to take about 2 hours, but it took me 3 and there was one area that I found particularly picturesque. The scene is below – a sweet little oasis! This was one spot where I definitely saw the specks of people atop the Rock. I wondered if they could see me too…
There’s a point
after this at which the trail almost bumps up against a ranch fence (farms are
called ranches in
At one
point the path cut
sharply left and it was clear that the main path continued this way,
yet I wanted to check out the Walnut Springs Primitive Campground I saw. I
thus veered
right across a mown path (which eventually led right back to the loop
trail) and was led down into a little ravine which bottomed at a dry streambed.
Here there were
some nice looking campsites although the path didn’t seem to be that well
trodden. Well, when I eventually emerged I saw a sign
indicating that the section was supposed to be closed.
Ooops! I'd not seen a sign like this when I entered
from the other direction!
There were some fantastic plants in here too, the likes of which I’d not seen before. Will you look at these!?! You might as well imagine being on another planet! It looks like there are little gardens sectioned off for them too.
There was also one point at which it looked like you could go in 4 different directions, and each one was, in fact, quite inviting – so I took a picture in each direction!
When I got back to the loop trail I noticed an overlook that was closed to visitors like the Walnut Springs area had been. I honored the sign, but I’m sure it would have been nice to see! Meanwhile, you’ll start to spot large boulders alongside the trail at different points and some of these have little pathways leading up to them. Some even seem to have been sculpted – by Mother Nature, of course. :)
As I came to
the last section of the loop a real maze of different paths began to reveal
itself due to a campground being up ahead. This one was very nice and it
was shaded by the little leaves of live oaks trees scattered about. Interestingly,
the population boom in
Anyway, by this point there were plenty of people around and the crowd could not be defined by age. There were families with young children, seniors, and groups of what sounded like teenagers. Hearing the last group made me think back on some of the things I did in order to seek peer approval back then and so I decided to avoid the teens – too unpredictable. Seems we spend have our lives accumulating things and experiences and half our lives getting rid of things and trying to atone for the experiences we spoiled out of youthful ignorance.
The Pinnacle
Trail was next. I could not have come out here without doing
it. The views are simply amazing and the challenge would be a
nice contrast to the relatively flat path I had just taken.
As mentioned before though, finding the correct path at first proved to be
somewhat of a challenge given the maze of different routes. I
found myself on a couple different ones before I eventually caught up with the
right trail.
Also as mentioned before, this hike is a real lung buster but the panoramic views atop this granite mountain are well worth it. Once at the top, I skirted around the perimeter of the Rock in order to catch different glimpses of the loop trail I'd just taken. You can see it in the distance.
When I got to
the northwest side I got a nice view of
Very carefully I meandered down and once there I found a map of the rock trails as well as a primitive bathroom (there are a few of these around on the trails). My time was running out, however, due to darkening skies (I would end up just missing a thunderstorm) so I wasn’t able to take the detour to the lake. I instead chose what I guessed was a good and fairly direct way to head back – through half of the Echo Canyon/Turkey Pass loop around the base of the Rock.
I was getting a
bit tired at this point too so I was about ready to get back, but my problem
was that the scenery was so awesome, it seemed like I was stopping at every
curve to take another picture! In fact, my
favorite part of this whole day was, I think, the section of trail that went
between the Rock and
When I got to a
little frog pond I was almost back at the first trail junction I’d come to at
the beginning of the day (near that group pavilion I mentioned - it was ahead). This was an incredible experience
which I highly recommend. If you can get out here on a
weekday though it would probably be preferable since the park is very popular.
They say it often fills to capacity early on weekends.
Admission is free for seniors, by the way.
DIRECTIONS:
From the