Gillespie County and Enchanted Rock

Enchanted Rock with Trees Growing from Cracks

by Greg Carley Some rights reserved by Creative Commons, Attribution and Noncommercial

http://www.flickr.com/photos/11818909@N06/4146684555/in/set-72157622781779833/

(Parlor Notes:  Gillespie County was established today in 1848.)

 

 

Photographer's annotation:   "Enchanted Rock's peak is roughly 1825 ft above sea level. You have to see this to believe it, but these trees survive in just a few inches of dirt.
Enchanted Rock State Natural Area consists of 1643.5 acres on Big Sandy Creek, north of Fredericksburg, Texas, on the border between Gillespie and Llano Counties. The Rock is a huge, pink granite exfoliation dome, that rises 425 feet above ground, 1825 feet above sea level, and covers 640 acres. It is one of the largest batholiths (underground rock formation uncovered by erosion) in the United States.
Tonkawa Indians believed ghost fires flickered at the top, and they heard weird creaking and groaning, which geologists now say resulted from the rock's heating by day and contracting in the cool night."