Bottomless Lakes State Park

Nine deep sinkhole lakes in the desert east of Roswell.

Fifteen miles southeast of Roswell, a series of nine cenote-like sinkhole lakes lie scattered through a desert landscape of gypsum and red bluffs. They formed when groundwater dissolved underground salt and gypsum beds, leaving cavities that collapsed.

The largest, Lea Lake, has a sandy beach, swimming and boat rental in summer. The other lakes are too shallow or salty to swim but worth walking between for the colour and the eerie geology. Camping is available year-round. State park entry fee about $5 per vehicle.

things to do sight swimming
A story
Nineteenth-century cowboys swore the lakes had no bottom; legend held that when they tried to plumb the depths with weighted ropes, the lines came back empty. Modern measurements put the deepest, Lea Lake, at just 27 metres — not bottomless, but deep enough by southeast New Mexico standards. The unusual greenish-blue colour comes from gypsum-rich water and high mineral salts.