Bottomless Lakes State Park, NM

Bottomless Lakes State Park is in New Mexico, United States, located along the Pecos River, about 15 miles 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. The escarpment is an ancient limestone reef, similar to the limestone mountains around Carlsbad Caverns, 80 miles to the south. Caves formed within the limestone, and as the Pecos River eroded the escarpment, the caves eventually collapsed, leaving behind several deep, almost circular lakes known as cenotes.

Lakes

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.

Lazy Lagoon is the largest of the lakes, with a surface area of approximately 26 acres. Although it is a single lake, it is made up of three separate sink holes. 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 sink holes is 90 feet. 

Lazy Lake Lagoon sink hole

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

 

Lea Lake

Devil's Inkwell is the smallest of the lakes, with a surface area of 0.36 acres. It gets its name from the dark color of the water which is caused by the steep sides of the cenote and algae growth within the lake.

Mirror Lake is two lakes right next to each other.  One is saline and the other is pure water.

Mirror 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.

Pasture Lake is the shallowest of the lakes, at 18 feet deep with a surface area of 0.76 acres.

Lake	Depth	Surface area	Notes
Lea Lake	90 feet	—	Only lake allowing swimming
Lazy Lagoon	90 feet	26 acres	Largest by area
Devil's Inkwell	32 feet	0.36 acres	Smallest, dark algae color
Figure Eight Lake	37 feet	2.2 acres
Pasture Lake	18 feet	0.76 acres	Shallowest
Lost Lake	—	—
Cottonwood Lake	30 feet	0.52 acres
Mirror Lake	50 feet	0.763.44 acres
Dimmitt Lake	—	—	Private lake

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.

Our campsite was at the Lea Lake campground where we had a view of the lake, but were about 150ft from it.  They have tent sites on the lake edge where we were and a large picnic area with shelters across from that area.

Our MH is the dark one on the right.  (Lea Lake CG)

We managed to get in a few hours of geocaching and picked up 27 caches.  There were 6 of them in the state park and a series of them along a country road.  The series caches were interesting for the most part, but fairly easy.  One cache was out in the open in the middle of a field.  Could you have found this one?

Is this a turtle?

The Pecos River runs fairly close to the park and many people have heard about this river.  There is a big difference between a river in the southwest and the midwest or east coast.  In the latter two areas, you can't walk across a river, while out here you can walk or in many places you can drive.  The Pecos River is a good example of the latter.

Pecos River

   

That was our day, how was yours?