Wednesday, May 14, 2014

Enchanted Rock State Natural Area, a gem of a state park in Texas…

Touring near Fredricksburg TX 051Touring near Fredricksburg TX 010Since we have been moving pretty slow and with rainy weather on its way we decided to move about 55 miles northwest over to the quaint German influenced town of Fredericksburg, Texas. We found a Passport America park just south of town called Oakwood RV Resort. They allow a three night stay with the discount so that is what we booked and at under 20 per night this park is perfect for us to do a little sight seeing and wait for the passage of the bad weather headed this way.

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Our first day here was sunny and in the mid 80’s so we took full advantage of the good weather and headed over to Enchanted Rock State Natural Area. This park has a special meaning to me as it was the last Parks and Wildlife Property that I helped set up management for before I left my job as a Biologist with Texas Parks and Wildlife. This park was also the main reason I left since I got into a disagreement with Park Management about how tall our boundary fence should be. You see with all the exotic wildlife in this area the only way to exclude them from the park would be to install a 12 foot high fence around its perimeter.

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A fence of that height would keep even the best of the climbing exotics from entering the park. Since they made this park a State Natural Area and not a state park I felt this was a critical piece to protecting the natural environment of the park. Also species such as the Blanco Crabapple were all but wiped out in the park lands since some of the exotics love to eat the plant. But enough of my rant about what I felt at that time… Enchanted Rock is still one of the best state parks to visit for a great hike in the entire state of Texas!

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Enchanted Rock is composed of a large dome of granite and is part of a Batholith that stretches 62 square miles with most of it being underground. It is the second largest batholith in the United States and rates second only to Stone Mountain in Georgia. It is also known as an exfoliation dome which means it has layers like an onion that “shed off” as it weathers due to erosive forces. But it is simply a special place to me…

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Sharon and I hiked up to the summit and down the back side of the dome and had an absolute blast! Love, love, love the granite country of Texas… We are about to leave and I am still one blog behind (two if you count the one I will write about my slide repair) but we need to move on over to Junction Texas this morning!

7 comments:

  1. Keep enjoying the great scenery and hopefully the bad weather will pass you by.

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  2. We climbed Enchanted Rock several years ago. Paul loved it...I on the other hand hated it. I was petrified to climb with nothing to hold on to. Going up wasn't so bad but coming down was terrible. I almost froze in one spot. Glad you two enjoyed that scary adventure.

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  3. I was thinking this place looked like Stone Mountain as I was reading and then you mentioned it!! Now this is something I would come to TX to see. Sure sounded like a fun hike up and over!! Then any hike is a great hike:)

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  4. We talk about doing this hike every time we visit Fredericksburg, but we always seem to do other things. Next time. Thanks for the incentive.

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  5. Very interesting. We have been there many times and done the hike many times. Personally, I don't think folks should be allowed to keep those animals for others to hunt.
    Today we learned some more about this wonderful place. Thanks.

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  6. Thanks for the perspective from someone who helped set up the management of the park. We did a Volksmarch out there a few weeks ago. It was my first time there and I loved it! We hiked to the top, back down, then did the Loop Trail around the dome. It was a lovely spring day, probably about 75-79 degrees.

    What do you know about a cave in the rock or in the immediate area? I heard about it, but not where it is located.

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  7. what a beautiful place.... looks like one to put on our Bucket List!

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    Karen and Steve
    (Blog) RVing: The USA Is Our Big Backyard
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