Ahhhhh Texas.
I have such a love-hate relationship with this state.
After spending the first 3 months of 2021 in Oregon visiting family (and kicking off my full-time landscape photography career), I have to admit I was a bit nervous coming back to Texas and worried I’d have a hard time finding great photography locations.
After settling back in, it was finally time to get back out into the field. Luckily, picking my first location wasn’t too difficult. My good buddy had invited me to visit and it just so happened he and his wife lived about an hour from Enchanted Rock State Natural Area.
Location set.
Randy and I arrived at Enchanted Rock around 12:30 pm and immediately hit the trails to start scouting for potential photos. While we had a lot of time until sunset, we had about 4 miles to cover and I knew we’d want to take our time.
We decided to tackle the main granite dome first.
Enchanted Rock rises 425 feet above the surrounding terrain, and it was a slow climb for this out-of-shape photographer. Still, it was hard to miss the beauty in the details. Wildflowers growing from the smallest cracks in the granite, various cacti, and, as we reached the summit, small oases of life created by pooled rainwater.
On the way up, I spotted a couple of potential compositions and marked them on my GPS. I knew we wouldn’t hike the dome again that day, but I wanted to be sure I’d remember for future trips.
We spent a few minutes on the summit before continuing over the backside and circling around to find a way back down to the base trail.
The rest of the hike was beautiful. We took our time enjoying the scenery and I continued marking potential photo spots on the GPS as we meandered down the trail.
After putting in almost 6 miles, we made it back to our vehicle where we grabbed our food out of the fridge and, realizing just how hungry we were, enjoyed a late lunch.
I’m not going to lie, it was pretty difficult to find the motivation to pack up my camera bag and head back out onto the trail. I was tired and my feet were screaming at me for not tying my boot laces tight enough during the first 6 miles.
We retraced our steps back the way we came during the original hike. The first potential location was about a mile back down the trail. When we arrived, I was disheartened to see that the light was completely flat. The sun was already behind the main dome and the lack of high clouds meant zero light was being reflected back down onto the scene.
Strike one.
We continued on about another 1/4 mile and the scenario repeated itself.
Strike two.
Another 1/4 mile and we came upon another scene that I thought might work. The light in the foreground was still rather flat, but it was just catching some rocks on the dome and bathing them in a warm glow.
I quickly got the camera out and framed up a composition while the light was quickly changing. In the end, I wasn’t happy with the image and we continued on.
At this point, my feet and legs were really feeling the miles. On every incline, it felt like my quads were on the verge of giving up.
I had to take a break.
Sitting down, I felt completely exhausted and was beginning to resign myself to the idea that I wasn’t going to get a decent image. The sun was setting on the other side of the hill and so far nothing was working out.
After a few minutes, with a pep talk from Randy, we decided to go ahead and get up to the top of the hill and see what we could see. When we arrived, the setting sun was creating some great color in the sky and this gave me a shot of adrenaline.
We half-ran, half-walked to the final location we had marked on the GPS. The sun had already set behind the horizon but there was still good light and some color in the sky.
Forgetting about trying to film, I rushed to set up my tripod and photo camera for a few shots. I was completely out of energy but the rush of trying to capture the fading light gave me just enough of a push to capture the scene.
With a couple of minutes, the light was gone and darkness began to set in quickly. I packed up my gear and tried to prepare myself mentally for the final mile of hiking we had to do in the dark to get back to the truck.
We had come so far back up the trail, that it made more sense to keep going around the dome rather than backtrack. This meant going up and over the saddle between the two domes. Luckily, the trail is well marked with reflective indicators so it was easy to find our way.
The return trip wasn’t without excitement. Along the way, we found our path blocked by a decent-sized porcupine. After a bit of encouragement, he finally decided we weren’t worth his time and moved off the trail.
At this point, I was completely tapped out and running on fumes. I was grateful to have a hiking partner to lead the way so I could simply focus on placing my feet in the right spots to not go tumbling down the trail.
After what seemed like an eternity, we finally make it back to the truck. Taking off my hiking boots had never felt so good.
I slept well that night.
