Austin Skyscraper Forum

[KevinFromTexas]

One of my favorite areas and features of the Texas Hill Country is Enchanted Rock which located 15 miles north of Fredericksburg, about 80 miles west of Austin. This is as good a topic about the Hill Country as any.


Enchanted Rock State Natural Area is open to the public year round. You have to call ahead and reserve a spot though because only a certain number of visitors are allowed to stay over night. Also, rvs are not allowed to camp there. They don't even allow mountain biking because the area is environmentally sensitive. You can camp out in a tent, although I would suggest in the cooler months.

Enchanted Rock, nicknamed "E-Rock", is a 425 foot high granite dome. The top is 1,825 feet above sea level. It's a batholith, and is actually the 2nd largest of it's kind in the US. The largest is Stone Mountain near Atlanta, Georgia. The mountain also has some of the largest caves of their kind in the US. Huge slabs of granite break away from the main dome and slide down and pile up at the bottom creating caves.

The mountain was first visited by humans atleast 11,000 years ago. The first European explorers visited the site in 1536.

You can hike to the top of the mountain. The top of the dome has pools of water that have formed over millions of years. Wind erosion creates dips in the mountain's surface at the top and they fill with rain water. Eventually some of these over hundreds of years trap soil and dust blowing in the air and create a pocket of soil atop the rock. They also trap seeds which then germinate and start to grow different types of plants. There are even full sized oak trees at the top clinging to the rock.

The other way to get to the top is by climbing it. My brother actually climbed about halfway to the top. He and his friends rock climb. He did one climb last Spring and climbed to almost 300 feet off the ground.

To get to Enchanted Rock from Fredericksburg, take Ranch Road 965, and head north. The highway runs into the park. Last time I was there admission was 5 bucks a person. A bit pricey, but if you plan on going to the top it's worth it. If you do climb to the top, make sure that you allow enough time to get back before it gets dark, or atleast make sure you have enough lights. Also plan on doing a good bit of hiking.

Links:

Wikipedia article on it.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enchanted_Rock

Park website.
http://www.tpwd.state.tx.us/spdest/findadest/parks/enchanted_rock/

Texas Handbook online page.
http://www.tsha.utexas.edu/handbook/online/articles/EE/rje13.html

Fractasia.com - This is an interesting website I just found with a TON of pictures and information about it including from the top.
http://fractasia.com/cgi-bin/pw1.pl?photoguid=brianp&suite=Enchanted.Rock


Now, on to the pics.

From Texasfreeway.com and various other sources.



As you come down Ranch Road 965, it curves around and comes down a hill. This is your first view of it.














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[croberts]

From the top of Enchanted Rock. looking northeast, you can see, through a gap in Click mt, the saddle of Packsaddle mountain, on the Llano-Burnet county border.

Both Packsaddle and Enchanted Rock were landmarks that were used to navigate across the terrain prior to the development of the road systems.

[KevinFromTexas]

My brother rock climbs at Reimer's Ranch, a county park in Travis County. From the park's driveway which dips up and down, you can see Packsaddle Mountain way off in the distance.
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[croberts]

After the Lipan apache had been driven out of central texas, and merged with the Mescaleros in the west, they led raids back to the austin area by following the Llano river from its source to the junction of the colorado river. From there, they could see packsaddle mt, and from the saddle, the way to Austin. When fort crogan was active there was a subpost on the horst overlooking the colorado river and the mouth of the llano river.

The last indian battle in central texas was on packsaddle mountain. I heard a version of the story from a descendent of Noah Smithwick. It was in 1872 or 1874 I think. The indians had camped with their loot from a raid in the low part of the saddle. The posse got on the rim of the saddle on both sides. A storm was coming, and whenever the lightning would flash, they would fire. The thunder masked the sound of the rifles. The apache were picked off, one by one, never realizing what was happening.
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Lived in Austin from 1974 to 1979, then moved to Burnet. Lived on east first street, in Clarkesville, and in Hyde Park. Worked at the Good Food People for 2 years in the bakery. Currently live and work in Palm Beach County Florida with annual trips back.

[KevinFromTexas]

^ Amazing history. It's been a while since I've read up on it, but yeah Packsaddle Mountain is one of those very historically important places. If you take US Highway 290 west of Austin, it runs right past Packsaddle Mountain at its base. There's also a road that circles it skirting its base.

I even found it with GoogleEarth. That program has a feature where you can measure elevations. I found Packsaddle Mountain to be around 1,600 feet above sea level. That makes it about 600 feet tall above the average elevation of the area.
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