New Mexico: Bottomless Lakes State Park

Bottomless Lakes State Park is located along the Pecos River, about 14 miles southeast of Roswell in New Mexico. It contains nine small, circular lakes, formed by collapsed limestone caves—Lazy Lagoon, Cottonwood Lake, Mirror Lake, Figure-Eight Lake (they count this as two lakes), Pasture Lake, Lost Lake, Lea Lake and my favorite, Devil's Inkwell. These natural sinkholes (called cenotes) are not fed by streams, but rather by underground water. Because the evaporation rate is greater than the rate at which they are refilled by rainwater, the lake water is brackish—with a higher salinity than freshwater, but not as high as seawater.

The nine lakes aren't really "bottomless"—they range from 17 to 90 feet deep—but appear that way due to blue-green algae and other aquatic plants. Cowboys dropped lengths of rope into the lakes, but couldn't reach the bottom and the name stuck. Legend has it that things dropped in one lake have resurfaced in others, sometimes miles away, but the park ranger insisted that this was just heresay. The area is also known for producing "Pecos diamonds," which aren't actual diamonds, but quartz crystals formed in the gypsum-rich soil.

 We didn't spend much time at the park, mostly because it was crazy hot and I was getting devoured alive by mosquitoes. Since most of my life has been spent on the East Coast, desert landscapes will always fascinate me. The red rock formations, dusty soil, cacti, lizards and crazy beetles all felt so foreign to me—maybe the feeling was mutual and I was simply an exotic delicacy to the New Mexican mosquito palate.