Bottomless Lakes State Park, established in 1933 about 15 miles southeast of Roswell along the Pecos River, was New Mexico’s first state park. Its nine small, deep lakes are sinkholes formed when groundwater from the San Andres artesian aquifer dissolved gypsum-rich rock along faults at the base of the escarpment. Fed by underground seepage rather than streams, the lakes are often brackish and mostly enclosed by cliffs, creating an isolated desert landscape. Lea Lake is the only swimming lake, while Lazy Lagoon is the largest and Devil’s Inkwell the smallest. The park is also valued for endangered species and other desert and wetland wildlife, though some lakes have suffered contamination from visitor trash.