When I was planning our Spring Break trip I was looking for places within driving distance of Houston to star-gaze. Enchanted Rock came up as a certified International Dark Sky Park which means it has little light pollution from big city lights. So I went over to my friend’s website JillJarvis.com to see what she recommended for activities and accommodations near Enchanted Rock. She recommended visiting Enchanted Rock while staying in a caboose!
We were sold.
What is Enchanted Rock? It is a beautiful granite dome that is the visible portion of a much larger rock formation called a batholith. Enchanted Rock is the only exposed portion of this batholith due to constant erosion over 50 million years ago. It is 450 feet high and covers about 640 acres and the legends surrounding the rock are as captivating as the way the dome glittered in the sun during our hike.
When you first drive up to it, it’s hard to miss the giant pink dome.
Was it hard to climb? There are several trails of varying skills levels but we took the Summit Trail to the top and explored a few other trails on the way down. There were a few steep parts but nothing my 5 year old couldn’t handle on her own. My kids enjoyed climbing the changing terrain from rocky to smooth the higher we got.
The climb itself was worth it for the view of the Texas Hill Country. We stopped several times along the way to take it all in.
What’s at the top? An incredible view, a marker, a sense of wonder, and a lot of wind!
What else is there to do? There were a ton of rock areas to explore on the way back down. These rocks were once part of the larger granite rock that have been weathered by erosion. My 11 year old brought her binoculars so we spotted a few birds including a woodpecker on our hike! Here is a little place we stopped, rested and ate a snack sheltered by the wind.
Annnd… we found an upside down heart rock so of course we had to flip the picture and document that one! 🙃
Snow cones to the rescue! What better way to motivate kids to climb up and back down a 450 foot hill than to mention that snow cones await at the bottom? We all enjoyed Kona Ice after our hike. 😜
A few more tips with kids:
- Make reservations online before going to the park.
- Go early before it gets too hot.
- Wear layers in the spring – it was a bit chilly.
- Hang on to your hats – it was windy! I almost lost my trusty old running hat!
- Bring plenty of water… the wind really dried us out during the hike.
- Bring binoculars. We spotted several birds on our hike back down the rock.
- And of course, wear good shoes.
Did you say you stayed in a caboose? Yes we did! We stayed in the red caboose at The Antlers Inn in Kingsland, TX. It had a bunk bed, a queen size bed, a shower, and a kitchenette. (This was my kind of ‘glamping’!) It was only a 45 minute drive to Enchanted Rock, a 10 minute drive to Longhorn Cavern State Park, and an hour to Fredericksburg where we looked for antiques.
The caboose we stayed in had a cupola that you could climb up and see out the top of the caboose. The kids enjoyed climbing around the cupola during the afternoon and I enjoyed the sunrise from the cupola and drinking my morning coffee before everyone got up. I highly recommend checking out The Antlers Inn… we loved it so much we said we were definitely going back when we can use their pier on Lake LBJ.
So, did you ever get to star gaze? Since we climbed Enchanted Rock in the morning, we ended up stargazing near our caboose at night. We even noticed the moon came through the cupola windows.
Overall, I’d say our Spring Break trip really was quite enchanting…😉
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