Wednesday, December 12, 2012

Enchanted Rock from the air

Friend Doug asked if I wanted to fly with him, and see if I could find and navigate to Enchanted Rock. This sounded like a great plan, so we set a course of 305° from San Marcos, and calculated that 30 minutes later we would be floating over the Rock. And sure enough! Half an hour of flying later, this is what we saw...

Enchanted Rock is a geological Batholith, rising up from the Hill Country between Fredericksburg and Llano. It is not like the rest of the area. It's also a Texas State Park, and I have climbed it on many occasions. The right hand dome seen below is the usual route, although the park encompasses both domes and the land surrounding them.

We flew a circuit around the Rock to get a look at it.

This might be the first time I've actually laid eyes on this side of the Rock. They say there's a cave about half way down the steep side.

We could see several people on top of the big dome here; maybe twenty or so folks enjoying the day. We left the area quickly to avoid annoying them, or others.

Nine minutes further south, and we were in the pattern for Fredericksburg.

Here we got lunch in the Airport Diner, always a good stop. They will make delicious vegetable wraps if you ask them nicely.

After lunch, another half hour or so brought us back to San Marcos. A very excellent day's flying. Thanks Doug!