The Mystery of Navajo Mountain

    Navajo Mountain from the Utah  side.                                        Photos by Ravell Call.

By Lynn Arave

In remote southeastern Utah — where red rock, a wrinkled landscape and open air rule is perhaps the state's most mysterious mountain. Located between Forbidding Canyon on the west; No Man Mesa on the east; Glen Canyon and the San Juan River on the north; and the Arizona border on the south side, Navajo Mountain is the dominant feature on the landscape here.

Many likely don't know the mountain's name, and others are unaware that most of the mountain (except its southern flank) lies in Utah. Indeed, its summit is a solid three miles inside Utah's borders.

A mammoth mound of rock and sand as big as Mount Nebo, Navajo Mountain is a high-elevation (10,388 feet above sea level), rounded dome resembling a whale's back.

 It's also the area's most prominent landmark, rising almost 7,000 feet above Lake Powell in the Navajo Indian Reservation.

It is also perhaps the most sacred mountain in southern Utah.

To access the area, it requires more than a hundred miles of driving into Arizona first.

Leo Manheimer, chapter president of the Navajo Mountain Chapter House that sits on the southeast side of the mountain, said it is one of four sacred mountains in the region.

"It's the highest point in the Navajo Nation boundaries," he said.

Sacred to most Navajos — including some who believe it shouldn't be climbed — this mountain in San Juan County is less than 3 miles from Rainbow Bridge, another sacred Indian site. For more than a 50-mile radius, this mountain is the dominant natural feature.

According to "Navajo Places: History, Legend and Landscape," by Laurane D. Linford, in Navajo the mountain is "Naatsis'.00n" — Head of the Earth. It refers to the head of the sacred female and pollen range of Navajo belief.

Indeed, some traditional Navajos believe that other geological features scattered over the region represent some of her other body parts. Black Mesa is her body, the Balakai Mesa her feet, Comb Ridge an arm, and another ridge the other arm. Agathia Peak and Tuba Butte are her breasts.

Navajo Mountain also figures into several other tales, and "Place of Rising" and "Flint Hogan" are individual sacred places atop its summits.

A laccolithic dome (an irregular formation of igneous rock), Navajo Mountain has a volcanic origin, though laymen would never think so by looking at it. Some of the only volcanic rock visible is on the mountaintop's north end.

Linford reports that traditional Navajos are reluctant to climb the peak and may fear underground rumblings on its west slope. It wasn't until the 1940s that Navajos would go north of the mountain into what is now the canyon country of Lake Powell. However, Paiute Indians would always travel the region with no hesitation.

                                   The author atop Navajo Mountain, on the north end.

The mountain's original non-Native American title, given it by Mormon missionaries in the area, was "Mount Spaneshanks," after a Navajo who lived south of the peak in the 1850s and 1860s. The Utah Historical Quarterly of February 2015 stated that Major John Wesley Powell wanted to name the peak after one his expedition members in 1869, -- "Mount Seneca Howland." But his topographer convinced Powell to name it after the local Native Americans, because it was such a conspicuous landmark in the area. In the 1930s, the peak was known briefly as "Paiute Mountains," before the Navajo name stuck universally.
(The earliest of Spanish explorers in the 1700s had called the mountain "Blue Mountain.")

Navajo Mountain is ignored by most peak-climbing "high pointers" and hikers, since you can travel a rugged nine-mile, four-wheel-drive road to its forested summit and also because it sits inside the Navajo Reservation.

This humpy mountain also isn't as spectacular-looking as others, with its lack of pointy summits. Nor is it a county high point, or a peak to "bag" on the standard outdoor lists. Navajo is also not featured in any Utah or regional hiking guides or books.

              

Much more popular today is the Rainbow Bridge trail, which skirts the north side of Navajo Mountain and travels to this famed natural formation near Lake Powell.

But a trip up Navajo Mountain isn't about conquest or peak bagging, it's about eye-candy views of the territory and of also feeling a connection with mountain and land, as some Navajos may do.

You don't get where you want to go in this territory without knowing exactly where you're going. The region holds a maze of sandstone and slot canyons.

The entire area is saturated in legends too, including that a legendary native America silver mine is located somewhere just south of Navajo Mountain.

Accessing the mountain requires a route coming from Arizona, between Monument Valley and Page. And not just anyone can traverse this remote area at will. A backcountry permit (with a fee) is required by the Navajo Nation to leave the main roads.

Obtaining a verbal OK to access the mountain from the Navajo Chapter House is also a wise idea.

However, obtaining the actual permits to visit Navajo Mountain can be difficult.
(Ironically, when the tourist industry began in the area in the early 1960s, trips to both Rainbow Bridge and the Navajo Mountain summit were advertised. However, in the 1962 season, there were only four people interested in the mountain trip. Its popularity never caught on.)

Despite myself  having verbal permission from Mr. Manheimer to visit there, once I arrived at the local Navajo Tribal office, those in charge there were very reluctant to issue permits for myself and two friends.

“Why do you want to go up there?” I was firmly asked several times.

   “Because it is such a remote, inviting mountain peak,” I             responded.

Despite a flurry  of similar such answers for me, it was apparent more and more that I was in serious jeopardy of not receiving any permits that day.

Then, I decided to try a different approach, almost bargaining to visit the sacred mountain.

“Well, here’s the bottom line,” I firmly told the Navajo office worker. “I bet my two friends here that you wouldn't be able to clearly see Rainbow Bridge from the top of Navajo Mountain, cause they don’t agree.”

That was all it took. The permits were quickly issued and we were on our way.

We were the only people on the mountain that afternoon and it was serenity times ten.

The rough road to Navajo's top, which is is adorned with many loose boulders, passes near War God Springs, on a 9,000-foot-elevation plateau. Some visitors may choose to park their vehicles there and hike the rest of the way.

(However, my friends were convinced we would drive all the way to the top, despite my desire for open air views.)

While some off-road vehicles may have the clearance to miss most loose rocks on the road going up the mountain, coming back down is a different situation. Because portions of the road are so steep — probably a 16 percent grade — braking will lower that clearance slightly.

So, someone had to get out of the vehicle and throw some rocks off the narrow, jeep “trail” on the way down. I readily volunteered and loved it, with the desert vista stretching in all directions. And, we left the road in better shape than it had been in before ...

Some of the switchbacks up the mountain are also so sharp that you have to do two passes to make the turns.

Snow graces the upper elevations in winter and even into spring. A drive up Navajo should never be attempted in wet or threatening weather, as the road becomes impassible when wet.

"Welcom (sic) white man" is painted on a rock about one-third of the way up the mountain.

                       Welcome white man sign along the Navajo Mountain roadside.

A hike of about three-fourths of a mile is required on the summit to go north past the transmission towers and some trailers to a viewpoint where the trees clear and reveal Rainbow Bridge (Yes, I won the contrived bet easily), plus also Lake Powell and Henry and Abajo mountains.
Ironically, Rainbow Bridge only exists thanks to Navajo Mountain. Water runoff from Navajo Mountain over the ages is what carved Rainbow Bridge.

 (Mountains to the south, like Navajo, are forested at higher elevations than their northern counterparts. Indeed, there was forest here at the 10,000-plus foot level.)

The mountain has a pristine, serene and peaceful atmosphere, and the commanding view of the area its summits offer were unequaled outside of an airplane.

I’m sure some Navajos didn’t like it when the transmission towers and road were built up the mountain, but I’m sure it provides good steady revenue for the tribe.

 Also, on the south end of Lake Powell, if you can see Navajo Mountain, then you have a cell signal. Otherwise, probably not.

I also found the local Navajo community very intriguing. While physically I was dozens of miles inside Utah’s borders, Arizona license plates graced almost all the local vehicles, telephone numbers had Arizona area codes and even the local post office was Arizona oriented. So, this is a remote place where you are in Utah, but not ....

·  Lynn Arave, Ray Boren and Ravell Call went to the top of Navajo Mountain on Sept. 15, 2003. They obtained permission from the Navajo Mountain Chapter House president to do so, as well as purchasing backcountry permits.

(Modified from a story by Lynn Arave, published in the Deseret News, March 2, 2004.)

--Photos by Ravell Call and Lynn Arave.

-NOTE: The author, Lynn Arave, is available to speak to groups, clubs, classes or other organizations about Utah history at no charge. He can be contacted by email at: lynnarave@comcast.net