Santa Rosa, NM

The Blue Hole Oasis of Santa Rosa

Santa Rosa, N.M., once a popular resting stop along famous Route 66, still has a liquid jewel hidden amid the patches of sagebrush and dry beige hills visible from Interstate 40.

Locals and divers know the town of 2,744 people for its Blue Hole—a 90-foot-deep natural spring filled with Mother Nature’s clearest, bluest water. Seen from sandstone rocks above or up from its watery depths, the turquoise water lures with near perfect diving conditions. When undisturbed, the visibility is more than 80 feet from the surface.

Blue Hole is the only scuba diving spot in New Mexico that is consistently clear (like looking through glass) and always the same temperature—64 degrees F—regardless of the air temperature. The water comes from an underground aquifer that replenishes the volume of Blue Hole every 24 hours. Folks come from as far away as Kansas for scuba certification, which is the primary use of Blue Hole.

Mayor Joseph Campos says Blue Hole was a government-run fish hatchery in the 1960s, but when control was transferred to Santa Rosa, its economic impact changed from one kind of swimmer to another (namely scuba divers). “We guestimate that from 8,000 to 10,000 scuba divers a year visit, which is about four times our population,” Campos says. The peak season for divers at Blue Hole is the winter months.

The artesian well also provides 3,000 gallons of water a minute to farmers and ranchers.

The “City of Natural Lakes” has several other water holes as well, says David Delgado, a local historian.

Many of the 15 lakes are on private lands, such as Rock Lake, one of the deepest water holes in the country (possibly 500 feet). Perch Lake, on public lands, has an old airplane sunk in it for dive-training purposes.

But Campos says Blue Hole is the most popular, since its superior clarity makes it a safer diving hole.

Si Minton, owner of New Mexico Scuba Center in Albuquerque, N.M., takes all his students there for their certification. “Its constant temperature and clarity make it an ideal place to test for certification,” Minton says.

Crowds grow in the summer, though, when swimmers join divers. “You can have hundreds of people in the water at the same time,” Minton says.

Blue Hole is roughly 60 feet across at the surface, widening to about 130 feet at about 90-feet deep. The hole is actually 250 feet with underwater caverns. But about 25 years ago, the town grated off Blue Hole at 90 feet as a safety precaution for untrained divers.

Divers and swimmers aren’t the only ones who enjoy the clear water. “People have thrown their favorite goldfish in, and they’ve grown up in there. There’s also some carp,” Minton says.

“At certain times of the year, hundreds of crawdads make a home, but it’s pretty void of plant life,” he says.

Campos, who also owns Joe’s Bar and Grill, a local eatery, wants to use increased fees to improve the park with a picnic area and dive shop to compete with man-made lakes in nearby states.

Just as Blue Hole now attracts divers, it once attracted travelers from Route 66 who just wanted to rest and picnic after hours of driving, Delgado says.

“Santa Rosa was well-known as an oasis in the desert,’’ he adds, “and pulling off of Route 66 to enjoy our lakes was just the most welcome R and R you could have.”

Alan L. Kleinfeld, a native of Albuquerque, N.M., now writes from the Washington, D.C., area.

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