Bottomless Lakes State Park

Bottomless Lakes State Park is a state park in the U.S. state of New Mexico, located along the Pecos River, about southeast of Roswell. Established in 1933, it was the first state park in New Mexico. It takes its name from nine small, deep lakes located along the eastern escarpment of the Pecos River valley.

Lakes

The lakes are not fed by streams, and the evaporation rate of the lakes in the hot desert climate exceeds the rate at which rainwater refills them. The lakes are fed by underground water percolating through the rocks and into the lakes. The high evaporation rate produces brackish water in the lakes.

Seven of the lakes are protected, although in recent years the lakes have been contaminated by trash that has been thrown into the lakes by careless visitors. The ninth and southernmost lake, Dimmitt Lake, is not a part of the state park and is owned by the Fin and Feather Club, a local hunting and fishing club.

Most of the nine lakes are almost completely surrounded by cliffs, with the notable exceptions being Lea Lake and Lazy Lagoon. Lea Lake has a large, sandy shoreline on the western side and tall cliffs on the eastern side. The cliffs around Lazy Lagoon have been completely eroded away by the Pecos River, and the lake sits in a former channel of the river.

Lake	Maximum depth	Surface area	Notes
Lazy Lagoon			Largest by area
Cottonwood Lake
Mirror Lake (north)
Mirror Lake (south)
Devil's Inkwell			Smallest; dark algae color
Figure Eight Lake (north)
Figure Eight Lake (south)
Pasture Lake			Shallowest
Lost Lake	—		"less than "
Lea Lake			Only lake allowing swimming. Daily spring flow of about .
Dimmitt Lake	—		Private lake made up of two basins covering about .

Lazy Lagoon is the largest of the lakes, with a surface area of approximately . Although it is a single lake, it is made up of three separate sinkholes. The surface of the Lazy Lagoon is nearly level with the surrounding salt flats, which makes it look very shallow. Despite the name, the deepest of its three sinkholes is deep.

Lea Lake is the only lake in which swimming is allowed. It has a beach and concession area that is popular in the summer.

Devil's Inkwell is the smallest lake with a surface area of . Its name stems from the water's dark color, caused by the steep sides of the cenote and algae growth within the lake.

In pure geologic terms, Figure Eight Lake is two lakes separated by a thin strip of land. When the water is very high the strip of land is covered, and the two nearly circular lakes join and take the shape of a figure eight. Irrigation in the Pecos Valley has lowered the water table, so the two lakes of Figure Eight lake rarely join to form a single lake anymore.

Origin of the lakes

The Bottomless Lakes occur at the base of an escarpment formed by the gypsum-rich Seven Rivers Formation. Ground water in the underlying San Andres artisian aquifer rises along faults at the escarpment and dissolves the gypsum thereby creating sinkholes or cenotes.

File:Bottomless Lakes cenotes.jpg

Simplified model of how the water from the San Andres aquifer rises along faults to dissolve the gypsum of the Seven Rivers Formation producing the cenotes or sinkholes.

File:Devils Inkwell Cenote.jpg

Devil's Inkwell cenote

File:Cottonwood Lake.jpg

Cottonwood Lake cenote

File:Figure 8 cenote.jpg

Figure Eight cenote

Wildlife

Four endangered species can be found in the park—the Pecos pupfish, the Rainwater Killifish, the cricket frog, and the Eastern Barking Frog.

In the winter, Devil's Inkwell and Cottonwood Lake are both stocked with Rainbow Trout.

See also

• List of sinkholes of the United States
• The Blue Hole, a similar waterbody also in New Mexico

External links

• Bottomless Lakes State Park