Sitting Bull Falls is a series of

waterfall A waterfall is any point in a river or stream where water flows over a vertical drop or a series of steep drops. Waterfalls also occur where meltwater drops over the edge of a tabular iceberg or ice shelf. Waterfalls can be formed in seve ...

s located in a canyon in the

Lincoln National Forest Lincoln National Forest is a unit of the U.S. Forest Service located in southern New Mexico. The Lincoln National Forest covers an extensive 1.1 million acres in southeastern New Mexico. Established by Presidential Proclamation in 1902 as the Li ...

southwest of the city of

Carlsbad, New Mexico Carlsbad ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Eddy County, New Mexico, United States. As of the 2020 census, the city population was 32,238. Carlsbad is centered at the intersection of U.S. Routes 62/ 180 and 285, and is the principal city ...

. The

United States Department of Agriculture The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) is an executive department of the United States federal government that aims to meet the needs of commercial farming and livestock food production, promotes agricultural trade and producti ...

's Forest Service maintains a popular recreation area for day use at the location of the falls. The falls are fed by springs located in the canyon above. The water flows through a series of streams and pools until reaching the falls where it drops 150 feet into the canyon below. Most of the water disappears into the gravel or cracks in the rocks and either reappears in springs further down the canyon or joins the Pecos Valley underground water supply. The area around Sitting Bull Falls is the remnant of a reef system known as the Capitan Great Barrier Reef dating from the

Permian The Permian ( ) is a geologic period and System (stratigraphy), stratigraphic system which spans 47 million years, from the end of the Carboniferous Period million years ago (Mya), to the beginning of the Triassic Period 251.902 Mya. It is the s ...

period. Approximately 250 million years ago, the region was located near the edge of an inland sea. The origin of the name Sitting Bull Falls remains uncertain. One version holds that the falls were named after a

Sioux The Sioux or Oceti Sakowin ( ; Dakota/ Lakota: ) are groups of Native American tribes and First Nations people from the Great Plains of North America. The Sioux have two major linguistic divisions: the Dakota and Lakota peoples (translati ...

medicine man A medicine man (from Ojibwe ''mashkikiiwinini'') or medicine woman (from Ojibwe ''mashkikiiwininiikwe'') is a traditional healer and spiritual leader who serves a community of Indigenous people of the Americas. Each culture has its own name i ...

. The

Apache The Apache ( ) are several Southern Athabaskan language-speaking peoples of the Southwestern United States, Southwest, the Southern Plains and Northern Mexico. They are linguistically related to the Navajo. They migrated from the Athabascan ho ...

name for the area is gostahanagunti which means ''hidden gulch''. A number of hiking trails allow visitors access to the springs above the falls. A paved path connects the picnic area to the area around the bottom of the falls where wading and swimming are allowed. Additionally, there are a number of caves in the area which require special permits to visit. In 1940, the

Civilian Conservation Corps The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) was a voluntary government unemployment, work relief program that ran from 1933 to 1942 in the United States for unemployed, unmarried men ages 18–25 and eventually expanded to ages 17–28. The CCC was ...

constructed a number of stone buildings which are part of the parking and picnic area. A time capsule located in front of one of the buildings was dedicated on March 24, 1999 and will be opened on the 100th anniversary of the Civilian Conservation Corps' construction in the area. The day use area was closed from April 27, 2011 through April 6, 2012 due to damage from a wildfire in the area. A number of the shelters were repaired after fire had damaged them. Some signs of the fire can still be seen in the area. {, , Burned Yuccas at Sitting Bull Falls

External links

USDA Website for Sitting Bull Falls Recreation AreaGeologist's brief overview of the area from YoutubeSitting Bull Falls - Visit Carlsbad New Mexico
Waterfalls of New Mexico Landforms of Eddy County, New Mexico Plunge waterfalls Articles containing video clips

See also

External links