Enchanted Rock
|
Enchanted Rock State Park
|
||
 Aerial view of the island location of Enchanted Rock |
||
| location | Gillespie County in Texas (USA) | |
| surface | 6.65 km² | |
| Geographical location | 30 ° 30 ′ N , 98 ° 49 ′ W | |
|
||
| Setup date | since 1971 National Natural Landmark | |
| administration | Texas Parks and Wildlife Dept. | |
Enchanted Rock is west of Interstate 35 on Ranch Road 965 between Austin and San Antonio 18 miles north of Fredericksburg in Gillespie County , Texas. The 665 hectare state park is located in the northeast of the Hill Country Region at 556 m above sea level. The eponymous domed granite - monolith stands 130 meters from the environment and thereby hectares covered 259 of the far greater part of. Batholith is not of eroding exposed workers and is still below the surface. Enchanted Rock is one of the largest batholiths on the North American continent. Only Stone Mountain in Georgia is bigger and Independence Rock in Wyoming is much smaller.
The name can be traced back to the noises that are made when the rock layers are heated and cooled by the sun. This creates tension cracks and detachments in the upper layers, the sounds of which were assigned to the ghosts of the stone by the Tonkawa .
The first descriptions of the area are from Spaniards from the middle of the 17th century. In 1970 the Enchanted Rock was registered as a National Natural Landmark and in 1984 on the National Register of Historic Places .
The state park is so busy at times that visitor admission is regulated and closed to other visitors. The Enchanted Rock may only be climbed by simple means, provided the rock is not damaged in the process.
The rock, which is only sparsely overgrown, is surrounded by vast oak forests, mesquite grasslands with Prosopis juliflora and Buchloe dactyloides as well as a riverine landscape . Fox squirrels , rock squirrels and armadillos are just as common in the park as rabbits, lizards and the conspicuous turkey vulture .
References
- ↑ Archive link ( Memento of the original from April 19, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ http://www.tpwd.state.tx.us/spdest/findadest/parks/enchanted_rock/
Web links
- http://www.tpwd.state.tx.us/spdest/findadest/parks/enchanted_rock/
- http://www.americansouthwest.net/texas/enchanted_rock/state_natural_area.html
- http://uts.cc.utexas.edu/~rmr/E-rock/ERgeneral.html Illustrated geological excursion
- Enchanted Rock in the United States Geological Survey's Geographic Names Information System