Enchanted Rock & Turkey Peak In The Texas Hill Country

While a good number of my weekends are spent running amok in the outdoors Christmas is one that is always claimed by family.  And this year that meant a trip out to Texas.

I love spending time in Texas but the mountain climber in me is always a bit sad.  Other than Guadalupe Peak which is pretty much a New Mexico mountain that ended up on the wrong side of the state line the peak potential is pretty limited.

Behold a map of the 2,000+ ft prominence peaks in the US from http://www.cohp.org

A bit limited.  A few years ago when I was out this drove me to aim lower and look into county high point listing.  Behold where my grandparents live in Gillespie County.

Gillespie County High Point at Peakbagger

Yep, it's so flat out there that it lists 9 points as candidates for the county high point and a few of them involving trespassing.  I'd post the Texas prominence map but as near as I can tell no one bothered to make on.  You get the idea.

After discovering all of this a few years back I basically gave up on doing any satisfying inter family visit peakbagging and settled for visited the old standby of Enchanted Rock.

Enchanted Rock is a sizable granite dome located 17 miles north of Fredericksburg.  I have fond memories of climbing it as a child and each time I go back I find myself surprised that it's not more significant than it is.

Still it's an enjoyable hike and tradition at this point and since it had been a few years since I was up there last *and* I was aching to get outside for a bit I arranged to borrowed Grandpa's truck and climb it the day after Christmas.

The drive was uneventful outside of an armadillo which had been killed by traffic and someone had stopped to place a beer can in his outstretched front legs so it looked like he was drinking.

Unfortunately my timing could have been a bit better.  The picture at the top of this post is from Christmas day when we had driven by but today it looked like this:


But hey, I've hiked in weather before so no problem!  I arrived before the main gate was officially open and was about to drop my $7 into the payment box when a ranger stuck his head out the window to inform me that the summit trail was closed due to the rain.  The fog and drizzle was apparently enough to slick up the granite and they didn't want any tourists to get hurt.

I didn't argue just paid my money and headed in figuring worst case I could at least get a hike in.  And I hadn't really intended to get anywhere near the summit trail anyway...


I started out counter clockwise along the loop trail and soon turned off on the Turkey Pass trail aiming for another bump I've climbed before called Turkey Peak.


Turkey is a small rock outcropping off to the east of the Turkey Pass Trail.  It's a light scramble to get up to the summit and usually gives good views of Enchanted Rock itself.


This is the light scramble.


But no views today.


Last time I was here in 2011 it was a bit clearer.


Despite the cold and the wet I spent a good amount of time sitting on the summit.  I could hear people on the trail below and traffic in the highway.

Returning to the trail I decided to take a closer look at the dome.


It was wet -ish in places but the wind seemed to be doing a decent job drying off the granite despite the heavy mist.


So up I went.  I was very careful of my footing but I never felt sketched out at any point.  It was only about 200 ft from the trail to where the dome leveled out and I was soon up top.


I had to find the very top via GPS since I couldn't see a bloody thing up there.  I could hear people in the distance that might have been coming up the main trail but at least for the time I was up there I had it to myself.  I checked in on Peakbagger, took a few pictures of the complete lack of a view, and headed down the way I'd come.


I got back down without incident and decided to keep going around the loop.  Seeing a slight bit of clearing I tried to get far enough back to capture a decent picture (gotta service the trip report after all) but this was the best I managed.


The backside had signs pointing to climbing sites and from what I've heard there are a ton of routes.



I debated doing some of the other minor bumps but the wet rock made for slower going and without a view it seemed a bit pointless.  I returned via the trail between Enchanted Rock and Little Rock which seemed a little more sparse than what I'd been on before.


I either lost the south end of the Echo Canyon Trail or it turns into a boulder scramble but either way I found a nice perch and spent some time enjoying the best view I managed all morning.


I crossed the Summit Trail not far below and sure enough this side had a posted sign saying it was closed.  However a good number of people seemed to be ignoring this as I could see several groups making their way up into the fog.


There's a gazebo a short way back towards the parking lot and when I got there someone was sitting there resting.  They asked me if I'd been all the way up top and I said I'd been over on Turkey Pass and made it up but that the trail was closed.  Right as I was admitting to my minor misdeed I see the ranger from earlier come barreling out of the mist.  For a second I thought I'd just become the victim of a rather elaborate sting and wondered if I was about to be ejected from the only mountain within a few hundred miles.


He only spared me a quick glare however before running up the trail binoculars in hand yelling at the people visible above on the trail.  I decided it was probably time to leave.