Yellow House Canyon
Encyclopedia
Yellow House Canyon is a canyon that is about 32 km (19.9 mi) long, heading in Lubbock, Texas
Lubbock, Texas
Lubbock is a city in and the county seat of Lubbock County, Texas, United States. The city is located in the northwestern part of the state, a region known historically as the Llano Estacado, and the home of Texas Tech University and Lubbock Christian University...

, at the junction of Blackwater Draw
Blackwater Draw
Blackwater Draw is a dry stream channel about long, heading in Curry County, New Mexico, about southwest of Texico, New Mexico and trending generally southeastward across the Llano Estacado to the city of Lubbock, Texas, where it joins Yellow House Draw to form Yellow House Canyon at the head of...

 and Yellow House Draw
Yellow House Draw
Yellow House Draw is an ephemeral watercourse about long, heading about north of Morton, Texas, and tending generally east-southeastward across the Llano Estacado to the city of Lubbock where it joins Blackwater Draw to form Yellow House Canyon at the head of the North Fork Double Mountain Fork...

, and trending generally southeastward to the edge of the Llano Estacado
Llano Estacado
Llano Estacado , commonly known as the Staked Plains, is a region in the Southwestern United States that encompasses parts of eastern New Mexico and northwestern Texas, including the South Plains and parts of the Texas Panhandle...

 about 10 km (6.2 mi) east of Slaton, Texas
Slaton, Texas
Slaton is a city in Lubbock County, Texas, United States. The population was 6,109 at the 2000 census. It is part of the Lubbock Metropolitan Statistical Area.Slaton is named for Lubbock rancher and banker O.L. Slaton, Sr...

; it forms one of three major canyons along the east side of the Llano Estacado and carries the waters of the North Fork Double Mountain
Double Mountain (Texas)
Double Mountain is the name of a pair of flat-topped buttes located southwest of Aspermont in Stonewall County, Texas. While the Handbook of Texas gives their elevation as either or , United States Geological Survey maps give the elevation of the western mountain as and that of the eastern...

 Fork Brazos River
Brazos River
The Brazos River, called the Rio de los Brazos de Dios by early Spanish explorers , is the longest river in Texas and the 11th longest river in the United States at from its source at the head of Blackwater Draw, Curry County, New Mexico to its mouth at the Gulf of Mexico with a drainage...

.

Within the city limits of Lubbock, Yellow House Canyon remains a narrow and shallow channel with a typical width of less than 0.5 km (0.310686368324903 mi) and a typical depth of not more than 20 m (65.6 ft). Here the city of Lubbock has constructed a series of small dams that form a series of narrow lakes, collectively known as Canyon Lakes. The Canyon Lakes park offers conservation areas and recreational opportunities on the water and in the narrow park along the water's edge.

As Yellow House Canyon extends outside the city limits of Lubbock, the canyon gradually widens and deepens. At a distance of around to the east-southeast of Lubbock, a dam was constructed to form Buffalo Springs Lake
Buffalo Springs, Texas
Buffalo Springs is a village in Lubbock County, Texas, United States. The population was 493 at the 2000 census. It is part of the Lubbock Metropolitan Statistical Area.-Geography:Buffalo Springs is located at ....

, a recreational lake that now inundates the site of the main springs, though the springs continue to flow beneath the waters of the lake. Immediately downstream of Buffalo Springs Lake is a much smaller dam that forms another recreational lake named Lake Ransom Canyon, where numerous single-family homes surround the lake to form the community of Ransom Canyon, Texas
Ransom Canyon, Texas
Ransom Canyon is a town in Lubbock County of West Texas, United States. The population was 1,011 at the 2000 census. It is part of the Lubbock Metropolitan Statistical Area....

.

Downstream of Ransom Canyon
Ransom Canyon, Texas
Ransom Canyon is a town in Lubbock County of West Texas, United States. The population was 1,011 at the 2000 census. It is part of the Lubbock Metropolitan Statistical Area....

, the North Fork is finally allowed to flow freely across sparsely populated ranchland as the canyon continues to deepen and widen. Where the North Fork crosses Texas Farm to Market Road 400
Farm to Market Road 400
Farm to Market Road 400 is a farm to market road located in Lynn, Lubbock, Hale, and Swisher counties in the Llano Estacado of Texas.-Route description:...

, the canyon is nearly wide and deep. Further downstream, near the confluence of Plum Creek and the North Fork, the walls of the canyon begin to curve sharply outward as the North Fork Double Mountain Fork Brazos River flows out of the canyon and onto the rolling plains of West Texas
West Texas
West Texas is a vernacular term applied to a region in the southwestern quadrant of the United States that primarily encompasses the arid and semi-arid lands in the western portion of the state of Texas....

.

See also

  • Battle of Yellow House Canyon
    Battle of Yellow House Canyon
    The Battle of Yellow House Canyon was a battle between a force of Comanches and Apaches against a group of bison hunters that occurred on March 18, 1877, near the site of the present-day city of Lubbock, Texas...

  • Yellow House Draw
    Yellow House Draw
    Yellow House Draw is an ephemeral watercourse about long, heading about north of Morton, Texas, and tending generally east-southeastward across the Llano Estacado to the city of Lubbock where it joins Blackwater Draw to form Yellow House Canyon at the head of the North Fork Double Mountain Fork...

  • Double Mountain Fork Brazos River
    Double Mountain Fork Brazos River
    The Double Mountain Fork Brazos River is an ephemeral, sandy-braided stream about long, heading on the Llano Estacado of West Texas about southeast of Tahoka, Texas, flowing east-northeast across the western Rolling Plains to join the Salt Fork, forming the Brazos River about west-northwest of...

  • Blanco Canyon
    Blanco Canyon
    Blanco Canyon is a canyon located in the U.S. state of Texas. Eroded by the White River into the Caprock Escarpment on the east side of the Llano Estacado, the canyon runs for in a southeasterly direction, gradually widening from its beginning in southwestern Floyd County to across at its mouth...

  • Palo Duro Canyon
    Palo Duro Canyon
    Palo Duro Canyon is a canyon system of the Caprock Escarpment located in the Texas Panhandle near the city of Amarillo, Texas, United States. As the second largest canyon in the United States, it is roughly long and has an average width of , but reaches a width of at places. Its depth is around...

  • Caprock Canyons State Park and Trailway
    Caprock Canyons State Park and Trailway
    Caprock Canyons State Park and Trailway is a Texas state park on the Caprock Escarpment in Briscoe County, Texas, United States, approximately southeast of Amarillo...

  • Caprock Escarpment
    Caprock Escarpment
    The Caprock Escarpment is a term used in Texas and Eastern New Mexico to describe the geographical transition point between the level elevated plains of the Llano Estacado and the surrounding rolling terrain. In Texas, the escarpment stretches around 320 km south-southwest from the northeast...

  • White River (Texas)
    White River (Texas)
    The White River is an intermittent stream in the South Plains of Texas and a tributary of the Brazos River of the United States. It rises west of Floydada in southwestern Floyd County at the confluence of Callahan and Runningwater Draws. From there, it runs southeast for to its mouth on the...


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