Enchanted Rock

Enchanted Rock is a pink granite mountain located in the Llano Uplift about 17 mi north of Fredericksburg, Texas and 24 mi south of Llano, Texas, United States. Enchanted Rock State Natural Area, which includes Enchanted Rock and surrounding land, spans the border between Gillespie and Llano counties, south of the Llano River. Enchanted Rock covers roughly 640 acre and rises around 425 ft above the surrounding terrain to an elevation of 1825 ft above sea level. It is the largest pink granite monadnock in the United States. Enchanted Rock State Natural Area, a part of the Texas state park system, includes 1644 acre. In 1936, the area was designated a Recorded Texas Historic Landmark. In 1971, Enchanted Rock was designated as a National Natural Landmark by the National Park Service.

Enchanted Rock was rated in 2017 as the best campsite in Texas in a 50-state survey. The State Natural Area had 307,686 visitors in 2022.

Geology
The prominent granite dome is visible for many miles in the surrounding basin of the Llano Uplift. The weathered dome, standing above the surrounding plain, is known to geologists as a monadnock. The rock is actually only the visible above-ground portion of a segmented ridge, the surface expression of a large igneous batholith, called the Town Mountain Granite, of middle Precambrian material that intruded into earlier metamorphic schist, called the Packsaddle Schist. The intrusive granite of the rock mass, or pluton, was exposed by extensive erosion of the surrounding sedimentary rock, primarily the Cretaceous Edwards limestone that is exposed a few miles to the south.

Enchanted Rock State Natural Area and Conservation
Park activities include hiking, picknicking, rock climbing, primitive backpacking, camping, and caving. The Summit Trail is the most popular hiking path.

Texas Parks and Wildlife Department partners with Friends of Enchanted Rock, a volunteer-based nonprofit organization that works for the improvement and preservation of Enchanted Rock State Natural Area. Scheduled Summit Trail tours are on the third Saturday of the month starting April, May, September, October, November, and December. Private tours are available for groups at other times.

The Granite Gripper is an annual rock climbing competition that acts as a fundraiser for park conservation through the Friends of Enchanted Rock. Emphasis is placed on activity safety and ecological preservation.

Visitors are asked to keep human incursion at a minimum by not disturbing plants, animals, or artifacts. As of May 5,2024, dogs are not allowed on the summit trail.

Federal and state statutes, regulations, and rules governing archeological and historic sites apply. The state Game Warden as a commissioned peace officer is authorized to inspect natural resources and take any necessary action for their preservation.

Fauna
Wildlife at Enchanted Rock includes white-tailed deer, ringtail, nine-banded armadillo, rock and fox squirrel, rabbit, and red harvester ants. A wide variety of lizards, including the Texas horned lizard, also make the Enchanted Rock area their home. Vernal pools on the rock contain fragile invertebrate fairy shrimp.

Designated a key bird watching site, bird enthusiasts can observe many species including wild turkey, greater roadrunner, golden-fronted woodpecker, Woodhouse's scrub jay, canyon towhee, rufous-crowned sparrow, black-throated sparrow, lesser goldfinch, common poorwill, chuck-will's-widow, black-chinned hummingbird, vermilion flycatcher, scissor-tailed flycatcher, Bell's vireo, yellow-throated vireo, blue grosbeak, painted bunting, orchard oriole, vesper sparrow, fox sparrow, Harris's sparrow, northern cardinal, canyon wren, and lark sparrow.

Flora
More than 500 species of plants, from four chief plant communities — open oak woodland, mesquite grassland, floodplain, and granite rock community — inhabit the rock. Specific species include plateau live oak, Texas beargrass, prickly pear cactus, and sideoats grama.

History


Archaeological evidence indicates human visitation at the rock going back at least  11,000 years, per the book The Enchanted Rock published in 1999 by Ira Kennedy:

"These hunter-gatherers had flint-tipped spears, fire, and stories. With these resources, some 12,000 years ago, the first Texans became the wellspring of Plains Indian culture. Based on archaeological evidence, human habitation at Enchanted Rock can be traced back at least 10,000 years. Paleo-Indian projectile points or arrowheads, 11–12,000 years old, have been found in the area upstream and downstream from the rock. The oldest authenticated projectile point found within the present-day park is a Plainview point, dating back 10,000 years."

The rock has been the subject of numerous geological surveys and paintings.

Vandalism
In 2016, two citizens of San Marcos, Texas were arrested for vandalizing the "... south face of the summit at Enchanted Rock State Park". The summit was vandalized with graffiti again in 2018 but no arrests have been made in that case. Such vandalism is a state felony in Texas, carrying "a penalty of up to two years in state jail and a $10,000 fine if convicted".

Legends
Folklore of local Tonkawa, Apache and Comanche tribes ascribe magical and spiritual powers to the rock (hence the name Enchanted Rock). The Tonkawa, who inhabited the area in the 16th century, believed that ghost fires flickered at the top of the dome. In particular, they heard unexplained creaking and groaning, which geologists attribute to night-time contraction of the rock after being heated by the sun during the day. The first European to visit the area was probably Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca in 1536. To elude Anglo settlers in the area, the natives would hide on the top two tiers of the rock, where they could not be seen from the ground below. The name "Enchanted Rock" derives from Spanish and Anglo-Texan interpretations of such legends and related folklore; the name "Crying Rock" has also been given to the formation.

A plaque formerly embedded in Enchanted Rock near the top but now displayed in a kiosk below reads:

"From its summit in the fall of 1841, Captain John C. Hays, while surrounded by Comanche Indians who cut him off from his ranging company, repulsed the whole band and inflicted upon them such heavy losses that they fled."

Other legends associated with Enchanted Rock:
 * Haunted by a Native American princess who threw herself off the rock after witnessing the slaughter of her people
 * Alleged sacrifices at the rock by both Comanche and Tonkawa tribes
 * Believed to be a lost silver, gold or iron mine
 * Footprint indentations on the rock of a Native American chief who sacrificed his daughter, condemned to walk Enchanted Rock forever
 * Woman's screams at night are of a white woman who took refuge on Enchanted Rock after escaping a kidnapping by Native Americans
 * Spanish soldier Don Jesús Navarro's Enchanted Rock rescue of native maiden Rosa, daughter of Chief Tehuan, after her kidnap by Comanches intent on sacrificing her on the rock