enchanted rock state natural area texas true west magazine
Enjoy a hike and picnic at Texas’s Enchanted Rock State Natural Area and discover why it is one of Texas’s most signifi cant natural and cultural sites. – Chris Zebo, Courtesy Travel Texas –

It’s hard to turn your head anywhere in Texas and not find a story about the Texas Rangers. Roughly 20 miles north of Fredericksburg, one of the Hill Country’s most stunning sites is also home of an enduring Ranger legend/myth. In scientific terms, Enchanted Rock is a dome of pink granite that rises about 385 feet above the bed of Sandy Creek. Its name comes from folklore; Indians credited the dome with magical powers. Legend has it that in the 1840s Texas Ranger Capt. John Coffee Hays, cut off from his company by Comanches, singlehandedly held off attackers for three hours, reconfirming the Comanches’ belief in Enchanted Rock’s mystical powers. (Hays credited either his Paterson Colt revolvers or an Edwin Wesson rifle.) Many doubt that the fight actually happened, but this being Texas, keep that to yourself and just enjoy Mother Nature’s scenery at Enchanted Rock State Natural Area.

Good Eats & Sleeps

Good Grub

Silos Baking Co., Waco
City Hall Café and Pie Bar, Huntsville
The Western Steakhouse & Dancehall, Navasota
Original City Market BBQ, Luling

Good Lodging
Fredonia Hotel and Convention Center, Nacogdoches
The Sam Houston, Houston
The Crockett Hotel, San Antonio
Driskill Hotel, Austin

Related Articles

  • Yellow-Rock-DVD-cover

    In 2011’s Yellow Rock, broken man Tom Hanner (Michael Biehn) is hired by sinister Max…

  • Matthew S. Makley and Michael J. Makley (University of Nevada Press, $24.95)

    This mother-and-son project documents the legal clash between Washoe Indians and Tahoe Basin climbers, many…

  • Tensions over Chinese immigrant labor came to a head in Rock Springs, Wyoming on September…