Mescalero Escarpment

Mescalero Escarpment
(Mescalero Ridge)
Escarpment between Caprock and Maljamar
Highest point
Elevation	4,462 ft (1,360 m)
Prominence	200 ft (61 m)
Coordinates	33°02′35″N 103°51′13″W / 33.04306°N 103.85361°W / 33.04306; -103.85361Coordinates: 33°02′35″N 103°51′13″W / 33.04306°N 103.85361°W / 33.04306; -103.85361
Geography
Mescalero Escarpment Location in Eastern New Mexico
Geology
Age of rock	Quaternary
Mountain type	Caliche

The Mescalero Escarpment or Mescalero Ridge forms the western edge of the great Llano Estacado, a vast plateau or tableland in the southwestern United States in New Mexico and Texas. It is the western equivalent of the Caprock Escarpment, which defines the eastern edge of the Llano Estacado.

Extending north-south along the western edge of the Mescalero Escarpment lies a vast sand sheet called the Mescalero Sands, named after the Mescalero Apaches who once hunted in these sandhills. In 1928, Nelson Horatio Darton of the United States Geological Survey observed: “On the east side of the Pecos Valley in southern New Mexico there are very extensive sand hills formed of deposits known as the ‘Mescalero Sands,’ which are doubtless of Quaternary age ...” In places, these sands climb up and over the Mescalero Escarpment and spread out over portions of the Llano Estacado.