PART TWO B: A Sinkhole Complex at the Southeastern Nash Draw Boundary (in two sub-pages)
The utility poles in this photo show where the Jal Highway runs. We are on a small rise about 100 yards (~30 meters) east of the Sinkhole Cave visited on the previous page.
From this little rise we see a small basin below us filled with tall grass. Ahead and to the right it appears to be bounded (on the east and south) by a small limestone ridge. That ridge seems to be full of holes. Are they sinkholes? We will see.
We walk carefully through the tall grass and approach the ridge. Sure enough, we have come to a sinkhole:
We move to the left (north) of where we were and see the traces of channels in the grass. These channels lead to sinkholes in the side of the little ridge.
The main face of this little limestone ridge is riddled with holes, and there is a nice dropoff between the limestone and the grass next to it. The main channel seems to be directly ahead and going off to the left into the ridge:
Thumping my feet on this rock gave me the creeps: it echoed, and I could not tell how sturdy this rock walkway was. I was not worried about falling into a deep hole with some rubble, I was more worried about a small piece of rock giving way and having one of my feet land at a painful angle or wedging it into place. I didn't bring tools to use to rescue myself from such an event.
So on we go to see where this channel is taking water. It heads into this ridge, to a place where there is a large opening. . .
The next two photos are attempts to show where the main water flow goes down. The main sinkhole seems to be inside, and almost in the middle, of this limestone ridge:
There is still some moisture at the bottom from the last rainfall, which was about two weeks ago at this time:
Now we scramble back around this little ridge, hearing footsteps echo below until we are past these two holes. We are looking and walking north at this point.
On the next page we will go around the north end of this ridge and see if there are more sinkholes on the other side, the east side.
See the continuation sub-page on A Complex of Sinkholes near Nash Draw
Go back to the First Permian Basin Dynamics Page
Go back to the Sinkhole Cave page
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