Making a film about Rock climbing in texas
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Enchanted Rock is special to Roscoe. He spent his whole life venturing here with his parents and experiencing the Texas Hill Country. Now he spends his weekends here with friends learning how to rock climb, prepping for adventures across the country, and developing relationships.
So, we left our office in Austin, Texas to spend some time filming in the Texas Hill Country.
Like any good trip to climb at Enchanted Rock, we camped out at Frontier Outpost the night before. The owner, John, invites his friends from Fredericksburg to play music most weekends. If you’re lucky, maybe you’ll catch an original song like I Love my Truck.
The team woke up and started loading gear, then it was a short drive to the Enchanted Rock State Natural Area entrance (we recommend you make a reservation, the park gets busy over the weekend).
Rock climbing in Texas is hard to come across. Only a few places in the state offer routes and Enchanted Rock is pretty much the only place you can trad climb in the state.
If you’re interested in getting on the wall, we recommend talking with Texas Parks & Wildlife or your local American Alpine Club chapter.
Most of the trad climbing is a long walk around to the dome’s backside. Be prepared to cover a lot of ground.
We set up at the first location, which is where we got these top-down shots of Roscoe and Natalie in the crack. Hanging with our cameras over the ledge was worth the anxiety – we like to take chances while we’re filming.
We spent some time getting acquainted with the granite.
The view was beautiful. Rolling waves of hill country trees were exchanging their green leaves for gold. We set up our cameras as the light began to peek over the still rock and watched as Roscoe and Natalie scaled the wall.
Some old-timers at a neighboring wall said they’d been climbing Enchanted Rock since the ‘80s. Since rock climbing – especially trad climbing – in Texas is so sparse, they’ve spent countless days willing their bodies up the back of Enchanted Rock. One of them noted they’ve used the routes here to train for Yosemite.
Watching the sunset, we ended our day with a few Lonestars and Mexican food in a Fredericksburg strip center. We were all equally exhausted and fulfilled by a long day of work.