Yellow House Canyon

Yellow House Canyon is about long, heading in Lubbock, Texas, at the junction of Blackwater Draw and Yellow House Draw, and trending generally southeastward to the edge of the Llano Estacado about east of Slaton, Texas; 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 Fork Brazos River.United States Board on Geographical Names. 1964. Decisions on Geographical Names in the United States, Decision list no. 6402, United States Department of the Interior, Washington DC, p. 51-52.

Within the city limits of Lubbock, Yellow House Canyon remains a narrow and shallow channel with a typical width of less than and a typical depth of not more than . 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. Around to the east-southeast of Lubbock, a dam was constructed to form Buffalo Springs Lake, 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.

Downstream of Ransom Canyon, 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, 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.

File:Ransom Canyon Steel House on rim of Yellow House Canyon 2009.jpg, Robert Bruno's steel house, standing on the rim of Yellow House Canyon
File:Yellow House Canyon North Fork Brazos 2010.jpg, North Fork Double Mountain Fork Brazos River flowing through Yellow House Canyon
File:Yellow House Canyon north of Slaton Texas 2009.jpg, Erosional remnants of the Llano Estacado in Yellow House Canyon
File:Yellow House Canyon near Slaton Texas 2010.jpg, Yellow House Canyon near Slaton, Texas

See also

*Battle of Yellow House Canyon
* Blanco Canyon
*Canyon Valley, Texas
*Caprock Canyons State Park and Trailway

* Caprock Escarpment
*Double Mountain Fork Brazos River
*List of rivers of Texas
*Palo Duro Canyon

* Ransom Canyon
* Robert R. Bruno Jr.
*White River (Texas)
*Yellow House Draw

References

External links

Mackenzie State Recreation Area
*
Robert Bruno Steel House
*

{{Texas

Canyons and gorges of Texas
Brazos River
Landforms of Lubbock County, Texas
Landforms of Crosby County, Texas
Llano Estacado