This is a compilation of a handful of pictures I’ve been saving for a day like today when I feel like expressing why I love heading out to the Enchanted Rock and the hard but beautiful country of the Llano Uplift.  The pariphyritic granite can cut like a knife, the landings can snap ankles or expose brain matter, the trail just to get to the boulders can leave you digging out needles for days, the sun can bake you like a hotdog and the life-giving rains can take you on a heart-pounding slide.

 

Nonetheless... my heart feels lighter, my mind feels calmer, and my senses feel tuned whenever I see those giant pink bubbles on the horizon as I crest the hill on HWY 965.  No matter how I choose to spend my time among the enchanted rocks of the park I always leave feeling better than when I arrived.  Though I may leave soar, cut, bruised, stung, dehydrated or generally beaten up, there’s a love in each of those wounds that calls for me to nurse them and to return for more.  

 

There are many faces to ERock.  To the infrequent visitor they may range from a searing death march to the top of the “ant mound” to a comradic gathering of boy scouts, from a leisurely stroll along the loop trail to a bush whacking expedition through the precambrian, from a unique source of 1billion + year old history to a source for community building in the present and for the future while helping maintain the park with the Friends of Enchanted Rock, from a nightmare campout with city-slickin Houstonian teenagers to a breath takingly crystal clear star gazing party, from a day of 5.6 slabs to a day of V7+ crushing boulder problems, from an irritating run in with the law (or local land owners) to a gleeful event such as the Gripper that brings together community and service people for a mary day of climbing and festivities.  ERSNA is a wonderful gift that represents an area of freedom for me and I’m sure to many others.  

 

The faces that I have come to see more clearly are those of the seasons.  Though they sometimes feel long for us they are but an unnoticed blink of an eye for the region.  It’s like watching waves crash on a beach and being able to slow time down enough to be able to watch all the ripples in the waves as they take shape, break, and froth.  To be conscious of a different time scale.  One that is just a little longer than our day to day hectics.  Sometimes I look at the domes and see ancient faces that, even if they could talk, would take eons to say a single word.  We are but flees on their faces.  But, as we all know, we can have a terrible impact in a much shorter period of time than this land is able to adjust to.  Though it may seem like just a single littered bottle here, or some reckless trail blazing across silly grass there, we tread in a world that is home to hundreds of species of life.  Just as you are expected to take off your shoes, or recycle your waste, or not to trample the neighbors’ flowers, please respect these other species’ household.  Be happy guests and enjoy.

 

Below are just a few pictures that evoke strongly positive memories for me of days spent romping the granite plutons of Enchanted Rock State Natural Area.  I hope that you enjoy.

 

Kind regards,

Matt Twyman