Not what it seems…
New Mexico’s gypsum plains are located in a corridor roughly following highway US-285 from Vaughn through to Texas.
From the road, the land seems like a vast, featureless plain.
Stop and walk around though, and you’ll see the landscape is pockmarked with depressions.
There are thousands of these, and many contain caves…
Geology
Millions of years ago, there was an inland sea in south-eastern New Mexico
Due to climate change this began to evaporate and Gypsum was deposited.
Nowadays, while the climate is generally arid, there are powerful storms during the summer monsoon season.
Rain from these storms dissolves the gypsum, forming underground channels along weak points in the rock.
Over time, these channels are enlarged, eventually forming caves.
Wildlife
The landscape of southeastern New Mexico has a rich array of wildlife. Many of these animals rely on caves for shelter.
Pronghorn antelope
Owls
Bats
Salamanders
Frogs
Bobcats
Ticks
Vultures
Caves
There are a vast number of caves in the area.
Most act as underground arroyos, transporting water that sinks below the surface to the water table.
These have sinuous passages and clean-washed scalloped walls.
They range from large cave systems miles in length and hundreds of feet deep, to smaller caves tens of feet long.
Much of the area has not been thoroughly explored. There are likely many significant caves still waiting to be found.
Cave Gallery
Land use
The area is very sparsely populated, mainly due to the scarcity of water.
The only major watercourse is the Pecos river, which flows from the Sangre de Cristo mountains through to Texas.
There are three towns along the Pecos river: Roswell, Artesia, and Carlsbad.
Roughly half of the land is owned by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM). The remainder is split between the State Trust, and private owners.
The land is mainly used for ranching, but also energy production by oil & gas extraction, wind, and solar.
These activities can impact caves or wildlife in the area.
Responsible land management can mitigate or limit these impacts.