Vacation Photo Log 2026 - Texas Hill Country Edition - Chapter One: Enchanted Rock

Last summer, my wife and I spent 10 days at the Grand Canyon, specifically Star Party 2025. This year we decided to stay a little closer to home and rented a tiny house South of Austin as our base of operations to further explore the Texas Hill Country.

We left our "petite maison" very early (6am), so we could ascend Enchanted Rock before it got too hot. We were successful and were climbing by 8:30am at a very comfotable 77 degrees F.

First, a shot of the ascent path in all its glory (Nikon AF Nikkor 70-300mm):


Now, to place the rest of the ascent photos in perspective, here is a detail of the previous shot annotated. Remenber the circled parts of this photo (Nikon AF Nikkor 70-300mm):


This shot is of my bride at the lowest circle - I am shooting from the upper left circle (Nikon AF Nikkor 70-300mm):


Next ascent photo is her sitting next to me, looking down, about 2/3 of the way up. Upper left circle (Rokinon 14mm):


Enchanted Rock is a batholith made up of the same pink Precambrian granite as the Rocky Mountains (rocks!). I took this shot to show the veins of a different rock running through the batholith, and also captured a representive picture of the grade of Enchanted Rock. Texas Parks and Wildlife says the average grade is 14.4%, with the steepest bits at 30%. This is one of the steepest bits! Taken from the same boulder (upper left circle) toward the upper right circle (Rokinon 14mm):


When we reached the summit, we came upon some vernal pools in "summer mode" aka dry. Here are few shots of them, probably my favorites of the day (Rokinon 14mm):






Finally, we ended the day back at the tiny house. Our host keeps a couple of retired horses there - Mr. B and Baby. They were looking especially handsome with their manes flying in the wind (Nikon AF Nikkor 70-300mm):