Tolingua Sinkhole
Jeff Moore, Alan Cressler, Doug Strait, Paul Aughey, Manuel Beers, ?
We left the mine and walked over to Terlingua Sinkhole. I circled around the sinkhole taking pictures. When everyone arrived, Paul? Spotted a tarantula which I quickly hurried over to see. Alan soon picked it up and carried it back to his pack to photograph. I took a GPS point on the pit and photographed the tarantula when Alan finished. I picked it up and took pictures of it climbing up my arm. After that, I waited my turn to descend into the pit. I soon clanked my rack onto the rope and started down. Just down slope, I carefully crossed over a motorcycle bound by wire. I reached the lip and rappelled 71’ of freefall rappel into the huge chamber below. At the bottom, I did my best to describe the pit in words. I started where I landed and worked clockwise around the pit. Here’s my description:
The sinkhole is a large depression 300’ across and 200’ wide. All sides slope down 30-40’ to a ledge. The edge of the pit is shaped like an 8. It is ~90’ wide and 20-30’ across. From the ledge, the pit bells out on all sides. You land on a 25’ tall breakdown pile composed of large car-size boulders and covered in bushes and shrubs. The breakdown slope gently descends to a flat floor and the widest point in the chamber. The chamber is 80-100’ wide and 200’ long. The majority of the floor space is on the long ends of the pit where the floor flattens. The breakdown slope descends more gently on each end and much more steeply down the narrower sides of the pit. On the far side of the pit, the breakdown slope is steeper and composed of bus and garage size boulders. The ceiling if more undercut on that side and contains many circular holes. A tall silt slope descends from the wall. I noticed a couple faults in the rock which probably initiated the pit’s formation. I also noted several large drill holes gapeing down from the ceiling.
Eventually, I ascended out and made my way over to the building ruins from the mine. I found Jeff there. We both took pictures and walked back to the cars. After everyone else returned and ate lunch on Blair’s porch, we drove to the town of Terlingua.
Tolingua Sinkhole Gallery
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