Jacob's Well is a perennial artesian spring in the bed of Cypress Creek, just northwest of Wimberley in the Texas Hill Country. Its round mouth, about 12 feet (3.7 m) across, drops into a flooded limestone cave, and photographs of swimmers leaping into the clear, 68°F water made it famous far beyond the state.

Jacob’s Well spring opening near Wimberley, Texas – photograph by Carl Griffin
Photo: Carl Griffin

Jacob's Well Natural Area near Wimberley

The spring is protected within Jacob's Well Natural Area, an 81-acre Hays County park established in 2010 and formally opened in 2014. A conservation easement means the land can never be developed or subdivided.

The well is the headwaters of Cypress Creek, which flows through Wimberley and Blue Hole Regional Park before feeding the Blanco River. What happens at this one opening therefore affects a whole creek and the town that grew up along it.

Jacob’s Well near Wimberley, Texas – photograph by Patrick Lewis
Photo: Patrick Lewis

History and the origin of the name

Bartlett Sims surveyed the land in 1847, and William C. Winters is said to have found the spring in the early 1850s while tracing Cypress Creek to its source. The name may come from Winters's remark that it was "like unto a well in Bible times", or from Jacob De Cordova, a land agent in the area who liked to name places after himself.

Exploration of the submerged cave began in the early 1900s, and the arrival of SCUBA equipment in the 1950s drew a wave of divers. In 1924 the spring's flow was measured at about 170 gallons per second.

An artesian spring fed by the Trinity Aquifer

Jacob's Well flows from the Middle Trinity Aquifer, the region's main groundwater supply. Water held under pressure in the limestone rises through the opening on its own, which is what makes it an artesian spring. In a normal year it delivers about 2 million gallons a day, an average of 4 cubic feet per second.

Limestone slowly dissolves as slightly acidic water moves through its cracks, and over long periods those cracks widen into the channels and caves of karst country. The US Geological Survey explains how a spring's flow depends on rainfall recharge and on how much water is pumped from wells across the aquifer.

That balance is fragile here. The spring stopped flowing for the first time in recorded history in 2000, and again in 2008, 2011, 2013 and 2022. Hays County links the weak flow since 2022 to drought and to groundwater pumping, and the Barton Springs/Edwards Aquifer Conservation District has studied a groundwater management zone to protect the spring.

Jacob’s Well spring in the Texas Hill Country – photograph by Patrick Lewis
Photo: Patrick Lewis

The underwater cave and its diving history

Below the mouth, the shaft falls vertically about 30 feet and then slopes down through a series of silted chambers. Divers of the Jacob's Well Exploration Project, formally created in 2007, have mapped more than 6,000 feet of passage to a maximum depth of 137 feet (42 m). It is the longest cave in Hays County and the second-longest fully submerged cave in Texas.

Narrow restrictions and loose silt that can wipe out visibility in seconds earned the well its reputation as one of the most dangerous dive sites in Texas. Nine people died diving here between 1964 and 1984, most of them open-water divers without cave training or equipment. After two young men drowned in 1985 and a local diver nearly died recovering them, the diving community spread the word and recreational diving stopped. Today only trained cave divers enter, on research dives.

Jacob’s Well, Cypress Creek headwaters – photograph by Patrick Lewis
Photo: Patrick Lewis

Visiting today: swimming, trails and tours

Swimming normally runs from 1 May to 30 September by online reservation, but Hays County has suspended it while water levels stay low. The natural area itself remains open, so check the county's Things to Do page for the latest status before you go.

  • Hours: daily 8 am to 6 pm, with last entry at 5:30 pm.
  • Entry: hiking is free and needs no reservation.
  • Trails: about three miles in all; the main trail to the well is roughly a quarter of a mile, a 15-minute walk from the parking lot.
  • Tours: free guided tours of about an hour run on Saturday mornings from September through June, weather permitting.
  • Access: staff can help visitors who need assistance reaching the well; tell an employee when you arrive.

Bring water and good shoes in summer, when Hill Country heat can make even a short walk tiring. Blue Hole Regional Park in Wimberley, downstream on the same creek, pairs naturally with the visit.

Jacob’s Well artesian spring, Hays County, Texas

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