Enchanted Rock State Natural Area Trails Map

1463'

16710 Ranch Rd. 965 1.30 1500' Fredericksburg, TX 78624 Flag Pole (830) 685-3636 POINTS OF INTEREST www.texasstateparks.org (GPS coordinates shown in degress, minutes, seconds) Walnut Springs Buzzard’s 1 INTERPRETIVE TRAIL Trail Moss Lake Roost 30°29.108"N 098°49.129"W LEGEND (0.77 mi.) Primitive Base Primitive This easy 1/2-mile stroll highlights the flora and fauna Camping Area 1400' Headquarters 0.22 Camping Trail at the7 natural area. Get a brochure at the trailhead to (0.88 mi.) Buzzard's Roost Area Restroom learn more! 0.31 Buzzard’s Roost 0.77 Moss Lake 1500' Showers Trail Trail (0.55 mi.) (0.71 mi.) LITTLE ROCK 0.30 2 Parking Walnut Spring Creek 0.16 30°29.963"N 098°49.273"W

0.06 Day Use Area 0.33 Check out the giant boulders and other exfoliation

1600' 0.71 Moss Lake 0.06 1500' 1500' features of Little Rock. Primitive Camping 0.57 Freshman Mountain

0.36 0.17 Dog Station Walnut Springs Turkey Pass SUMMIT Primitive 3 Trail 1400' 30°30.386"N 098°49.129"W Compost Toilet Camping Area (0.71 mi.) 1400' Enchanted Rock You'll see 365° views of the park and the Hill 1383' Playground 1600' Connecting 1825' 1800' Country from the 1823 ft. summit of Enchanted Rock. 0.41 Echo Canyon 0.58

Trail 0.12 Scenic Overlook 1600' Trail (0.55 mi.) 965 Interpretive Trail (0.67 mi.) 4 TURKEY PEAK 0.40 Turkey Peak 30°30.180"N 098°48.881"W Group Campsite 0.09 1700' Summit 0.18 Check out the jagged rocks of Turkey Peak! Trail Group Pavilion Scenic View (0.67 mi.) 1600' 0.58 Trail BUZZARD‘S ROOST

0.38 5 (0.09 mi.) Little Rock 1600' 30°30.486"N 098°48.520"W

1600' 0.23 Crossing Sandy Creek from the South, you’ll see Frog Pond Frontside 0.13 Trail the massive exfoliation sheet on Buzzard's Roost. 400' (0.34 mi.) 1400'

1700' 1400' MOSS LAKE 1600' 1700' 6 0.2 1411' 30°30.566"N 098°49.559"W 0.2 1600' Sandy Creek 0.11 0.16 1500' The view from here provides awe-inspring views of PROJECT SPONSORS

Enchanted Rock 1500' 1600' Enchanted Rock and Little Rock. 0.42 STATE NATURAL AREA Interpretive 1500' Loop Loop 0.21 1600' ECHO CANYON For more information on Trail (0.50 mi.) 7 the Friends Group, visit Interpretive 0.24 30°30.321"N 098°49.139"W www.friendsofenchantedrock.com(4.25 mi.) A Special Thanks to John Hueckstaedt Trail Guide1500' Stop in this beautiful area for some shade under the 0.08 375' 1500' 1400' oaks and picnic in the boulders. 1500' 1400' 1414' 8 SCENIC OVERLOOK Whole Earth Provision Co. 1500' 30°30.303"N 098°49.963"W www.wholeearthprovision.com All trails are multi-use unless 1.0 Relax and enjoy a quiet, beautiful Hill Country sunset otherwise indicated. Contour and views of the surrounding Texas landscape. Welcome to Enchanted Rock’s Interpretive As you enjoy your walk, please follow intervals 20 feet. Trail lengths Trail! This half-mile loop exemplifies the these trail guidelines for a safe trip! diversity of the area. As it winds through Park are in miles. Elevation levels • Always carry water and a map. grassland and forest and skirts the base of Entrance are in feet. Map compiled by Enchanted Rock State Natural Area Little Rock, take note of the variety of hard- • Stay on the trail to protect yourself (830) 685-3636 wood trees and numerous forbs, ferns and and the resources.

Texas State Parks1600' staff. www.tpwd.texas.gov/enchantedrock 1500' shrubs that have adapted to living at the edge • Keep pets on a leash to keep them of the rock. The trail contrasts the richness of safe and protect wildlife. 1482' No claims are made to the accuracy of © 2019 Texas Parks and Wildlife Department PWD BR P4507-119R (7/19) the forest to the stark beauty of the and • Respect wildlife by keeping a safe In accordance with Texas State Depository Law, this publication is available at the Texas State the data or to the suitability of the data Publications Clearinghouse and/or Texas Depository Libraries. the ever-changing skies above. And with just a distance from them. 1500' TPWD receives funds from the USFWS. TPWD prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, little imagination, you can experience the echoes 0 color, religion, national origin, disability, age, and gender, pursuant to state and federal • Leave No Trace. Take only pictures 1,000 2,000 3,000 4,000 Feet to a particular use. law. To request an accommodation or obtain information in an alternative format, please contact TPWD on a Text Telephone (TTY) at (512) 389-8915 or by Relay Texas at 7-1-1 of past humans. What may have attracted and leave only footprints. or (800) 735-2989 or by email at [email protected]. If you believe you have been discriminated against by TPWD, please contact TPWD, 4200 Smith School Road, people to this area? What brought you here? Austin, TX 78744, or the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Office for Diversity and Workforce Management, 5275 Leesburg Pike, Falls Church, VA 22041. In accordance with Texas State Depository Law, this publication is available at the Texas State Publications Clearinghouse and/or Texas Depository Libraries. 0 0.5 1 Mile

© 2015 Texas Parks and Wildlife Department PWD MP P4507-119C H (7/15) 1488'

TPWD receives federal assistance from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and other federal agencies and is subject to Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, the Age Discrimination Act of 1975, Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972, and state anti-discrimination laws which

prohibit discrimination on the basis of race, color, national origin, age, sex or disability. If you believe that you have been discriminated against in any TPWD program, activity or facility, or need more 1500'information, please contact Office of Diversity and Inclusive Workforce Management, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, 5275 Leesburg Pike, Falls Church VA 22041. 1400'

1500' to Fredricksburg 1500' 1500' 1400' The Riparian Sponge Hold On Tight! Woods and Water The Big Picture Many Hill Country streams are ephemeral, or Lichens and mosses establish footholds in nooks Many shrubs and larger trees From this vantage point you can see two granite temporary. Sandy Creek is no different, and even and crannies that have just enough space for soil thrive from water available in the domes, Enchanted Rock to the right and Little Rock to when it appears dry, this riparian area stores water and water to collect in. A variety of lichens that sandy soil at the base of the rock. the left. While you may see these as two free-standing underground and sustains a small stream flow. colonize granite surfaces and mosses covering You’ll see cedar elm, Texas buck- rock formations, they are actually part of a larger mass Many plants like switchgrass, gamagrass, muhly and many rocks along the trail. Most commonly you eye, post oak and live oak in this known as a . At over 1.1 billion years in age buttonbush depend on this stored water to survive. will find the crustose (growing like a crust) lichens shadier area. Look even closer for and extending almost 12 miles to our northwest, the painting the rocks red, neon green, black, and the wild buck- surface area of the Enchanted Rock Batholith has a Live Oak Community bright orange. wheat (Eriogonum tenellum), a low surface area of over 100 square miles, roughly the size growing light gray bush found of Amarillo! Plateau live oak trees (Quercus fusiformis), common among small granite outcroppings to the Hill Country, can live to be hundreds of years The People in spring and summer. old. Oak mottes are groupings of small oaks connected of Enchanted Lonestar Grass by a single root system. See if you can spot the live oaks along the trail. Look closer at Rock Side-oats grama is the Texas Ferns of Enchanted Rock the live oak’s branches to Humans have State Grass and you can find it spot small clumps of inhabited Central Enchanted Rock is home to a surprisingly growing alongside trails ball moss. Ball moss is Texas and the areas large number of fern species. Over 25 throughout the park. This an ephiphyte, taking around Enchanted different ferns have been recorded here. perennial grass will have nothing from the tree Rock for over One of the more common ferns, the reddish-orange flowers when as it gets moisture and 12,000 years. Native fairy sword (Cheilanthes lindheimeri), it blooms in June and July nutrients from the air. Americans as far back grows in the more shaded east side of and its ripe seeds are a as the Clovis and boulders and shelves where more favorite among local bird moisture is available. Another populations. Switchgrass Rock to Soil more recently the , , and relied on the resources available around the sacred common fern is the ovate cliff-brake and little bluestem, two of Notice the cracks in the rock and the missing rock. Some plants they found useful were the fern (Pellaea ovata). Like other ferns, the “Big Four” grasses of the American tallgrass pieces of the granite puzzles. Over millions of years, persimmon and mesquite. They even used depres- it propagates from small spores rather prairie, can also be found here. Their partners, Indian- weathering has cracked, chipped, and whittled away sions in the granite to grind seeds into flour! than seeds like many grass and big bluestem, are found throughout the park at layers of the granite domes in front of you. It flowering plants. as well. begins with a process called exfoliation, whereby Cliff-brake fern by Barney Lipscomb large pieces of granite separate themselves from the Underground Seed Bank granite mass, much like an onion skin. The of granite creates a unique soil environment that allows What do ants and the grasses along the trail have in flora and fauna to thrive and grow in this otherwise common? Along the path you will see red harvester dry and rocky landscape. ants (Pogonomyrmex sp.). These are large ants living Surrounded in colonies along the trail that spend their day harvest- A Prickly Situation by Song ing seeds from the native grasses around you. Try to Cacti, like the abundant spot these ants taking their grass seed harvest to their Listen for the canyon prickly pear in the area, can underground nest. wren’s beautiful provide good cover and cascading song food for wildlife. The spines Mistaken Identity around the base of Little Dome. Other birds on the cactus provide common to this area include rock wrens, Bewick’s protection for smaller Texas beargrass (Nolina texana) is a large, tough, wrens, northern mockingbirds, northern cardinals, wildlife, and serve as a nursery to keep plants from and wiry plant that grows in thick clumps all around black-crested titmice, Carolina chickadees, being eaten by white-tailed deer. Other prickly Enchanted Rock. While the name and look of the plant yellow-rumped warblers and ground doves. friends to look for are the low-growing lace cactus, can be deceiving, it’s not actually a grass. It belongs to Look up and you might see black vultures, claret cup cactus, and the “jumping” tasajillo cactus. the lily family. The long, graceful “blades” were used turkey vultures, or maybe a red-tailed hawk. by Native Americans to weave baskets and mats.