Over the Thanksgiving holiday we took our visiting children and grandchildren to Enchanted Rock, just outside Fredericksburg in the Texas Hill Country. We got started late in the day, so I feared that we would be too late for any pictures, but in fact the long golden rays of the setting sun provided perfect light for the reddish, ochre granite--and I took advantage of the beautiful photographic conditions.
Enchanted Rock is one of the oldest rock formations in Texas, and it has had human visitors for the last 11,000 years. The rock is described as a pink granite exfoliation dome, and it rises to an elevation of 425 feet and covers 640 acres. Enchanted Rock is one of the largest batholiths (an underground rock formation uncovered by erosion ) in the United States.
The name seems to derive from the weird creaking and groaning the Tonkawa Indian
s heard at night. Geologists today explain that what the Tonkawas heard was a result of the rock's heating by day and contracting in the cool night. A conquistador captured by the Tonkawa described how he escaped by losing himself among the boulders on the rock, giving birth to the Indian legend of "a pale man swallowed by a rock and reborn as one of their own."
The first well-documented explorations of the area date from 1723, when the Spanish intensified their efforts to colonize Texas.
Definitely worth a visit!
Enchanted Rock is one of the oldest rock formations in Texas, and it has had human visitors for the last 11,000 years. The rock is described as a pink granite exfoliation dome, and it rises to an elevation of 425 feet and covers 640 acres. Enchanted Rock is one of the largest batholiths (an underground rock formation uncovered by erosion ) in the United States.
The name seems to derive from the weird creaking and groaning the Tonkawa Indian
s heard at night. Geologists today explain that what the Tonkawas heard was a result of the rock's heating by day and contracting in the cool night. A conquistador captured by the Tonkawa described how he escaped by losing himself among the boulders on the rock, giving birth to the Indian legend of "a pale man swallowed by a rock and reborn as one of their own."The first well-documented explorations of the area date from 1723, when the Spanish intensified their efforts to colonize Texas.
Definitely worth a visit!
1 comment:
Thanks for the guided tour! Beautiful.
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