Driving through the Hill Country’s back roads, you want to keep your eyes peeled. Maybe you’ll spot a flash of bright wildflowers, or a coyote slinking into the brush. But one day a few months ago, something entirely different caught the eyes of park staff at Enchanted Rock State Natural Area, about twenty minutes north of Fredericksburg. A For Sale sign had been posted outside a neighboring ranch. Some 630 acres dotted with colossal live oaks, granite ridges, and trickling springs were on the market.
The natural area—home to a massive pink granite dome for which it’s named—draws hundreds of thousands of visitors each year, and it frequently reaches capacity by 9 or 10 a.m. on the weekends, forcing staff to turn away droves of unhappy campers. And if you want to book a campsite for a weekend a month or two out, forget it. Reservations typically fill up as soon as they open, five months in advance. A viral photo posted by park staff in March 2018 showed a long line of cars idling on the road outside the park at 7:30 a.m. The sun wasn’t even up yet, and the caption informed prospective visitors, “If you are not in line already, you are unlikely to be able to enter today.” The widely shared image perfectly illustrated the problem in a state that now has more than 30 million residents—and where more than 96 percent of land is privately owned.
So when officials in Austin got word of the adjacent tract for sale, they saw an opportunity to expand a popular park—and acted fast. After conversations with the landowners and some due diligence, Texas Parks and Wildlife higher-ups brought the potential purchase before the TPWD commissioners, who green-lit the deal in late August. Less than a month later, on September 13, the sale (brokered by Howard W. Hood of Hood Real Estate) was finalized. The news began to trickle out last week, but today, the agency officially announced that it has acquired the ranch, which was listed for $18.9 million, and will use the land to increase the park’s size by close to a third, to a total of 2,274 acres.
Enchanted Rock’s significance dates way back. Around a billion years ago, magma resting miles below the earth’s surface pushed up into the rock above and cooled, forming a granite dome. Over the following geologic eras, the surface layers weathered away, leaving Enchanted Rock newly exposed to the elements and visible for miles. Strange flora and fauna populated the landmark. On the granite’s surface, erosion created pockmarks, which then filled with water and provided habitats for tiny, translucent freshwater shrimp and a critically imperiled, pale green, grass-like plant known as rock quillwort. Humans, likewise, have long been drawn to the site, having camped in the area for some 12,000 years. Over that time, the mysterious dome has given rise to myths and legends ranging from ghost fires to gunfights.
Part of Enchanted Rock’s appeal these days is that, while it retains its otherworldly aura, it is a less-than-two-hour drive from both Austin and San Antonio. The throngs of visitors scampering up the rock can still see the vernal pools where fairy shrimp swim upside down, and they may spy birds ranging from the relatively common painted bunting to the exceedingly elusive (and endangered) golden-cheeked warbler. Once night falls, the sky above the park offers some of the best stargazing in the region.
Rodney Franklin, TPWD’s director of state parks, emphasizes that the recent land acquisition will literally offer visitors “another perspective of Enchanted Rock itself.” Today, while you can trudge straight up the batholith, it’s hard to get a sense of how it fits into the wider landscape. Depending on how the new land is utilized, you may one day be able to hike several miles from the southern tip of the addition all the way to the dome’s granite summit. “It’s great to be able to provide that view, and provide that outdoor experience,” Franklin says.
Because the agency still has many surveys to complete and permits to acquire, TPWD hasn’t yet released many details about the new land. But, according to real estate listings, the property—known as Comanche Rock Ranch—extends a couple of miles south of the former park boundary. Sandy Creek, which runs through the park, extends into the ranch, which also features a few stock ponds and intermittent springs. The property’s previous owners maintained a vineyard and numerous structures, including two large ranch houses and two horse barns.
TPWD has not yet set an opening date or determined the specific uses for the new property, but Franklin says the existing infrastructure may make it easier for the department to more quickly open this section to the public, adding that hiking trails and camping sites will likely be among the top development priorities.
Franklin knows that Texans have access to “precious little” public land, but he credits measures such as 2019’s Proposition 5 (which guaranteed that funds collected from the state sales tax on sporting goods be reserved for state parks and historic sites), as well as the federal Land and Water Conservation Fund, for making the Enchanted Rock acquisition possible. In fact, access to public lands remains one of the few bipartisan issues in Texas politics. Though Texas still ranks in the bottom half of states in terms of public acres per capita, in recent years legislators and voters from both parties have consistently supported increasing spending on public land, including by passing the landmark Centennial Parks Conservation Fund, which in 2023 allotted $1 billion for creating and expanding state parks. Six more state parks (five new ones and an expansion of Devils River State Natural Area, near Del Rio) are set to open in the next decade.
Franklin has worked for TPWD for more than thirty years, and for most of that time, this kind of financial support for land acquisition was unimaginable. “This is really an unprecedented time in the history of Texas state parks,” he says. And Franklin emphasizes that the recent Enchanted Rock acquisition is just the beginning. “We’re going to be impacting the landscape of Texas for generations to come with these initiatives.”
