Enchanted Rock
by Jon Burch Photography
Title
Enchanted Rock
Artist
Jon Burch Photography
Medium
Photograph - Digital Capture
Description
A couple friends moved from California to Texas and told me they went to "Enchanted Rock" one day to climb. The weather was stormy and they asked the ranger on duty if it was OK to climb the rock anyway. Told him they were from California and wouldn't be allowed to do so back there. The ranger told them that they were in Texas now and if they wanted to be the tallest thing on the highest hill in the area during a thunder storm, they could go right ahead. Guess they came back later...
Enchanted Rock near Fredericksburg Texas, is an enormous pink granite pluton batholith located in the Llano Uplift approximately 17 miles north of Fredericksburg, Texas and 24 miles south of Llano, Texas. Enchanted Rock State Natural Area, which includes Enchanted Rock and surrounding land, spans the border between Gillespie County and Llano County, south of the Llano River. Enchanted Rock covers approximately 640 acres and rises approximately 425 feet above the surrounding terrain to elevation of 1,825 feet above sea level. It is the largest such pink granite monadnock in the United States. Enchanted Rock State Natural Area, a part of the Texas state park system, includes 1,644 acres. It was designated a Recorded Texas Historic Landmark in 1936
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 the visible above-ground part 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, which is exposed a few miles to the south of Enchanted Rock.
Archaeological evidence indicates human visitation at the rock going back at least 11,000 years. Folklore of local Tonkawa, Apache and Comanche tribes ascribes magical and spiritual powers to the rock. While attempting to hide from Anglo settlers in the area, the natives would hide on the top two tiers of the rock, where they were invisible from the ground below. The first European to visit the area was probably 'lvar N'ez Cabeza de Vaca in 1536. 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 the rock's night-time contraction after being heated by the sun during the day. 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.
Ordered photographs will not contain the FAA watermark.
Image copyright 2016 Jon Burch Photography all rights reserved.
Uploaded
January 11th, 2016
Statistics
Viewed 342 Times - Last Visitor from New York, NY on 04/23/2024 at 6:52 PM
Embed
Share
Sales Sheet