Finding Ship Rock
The guide books and trip reports
agree that Ship Rock (Shiprock Peak) is on Navajo land 13 miles
southwest of the town of Shiprock and six miles west of route 666
(aka the "Highway to Hell.") And since it stands 1,700 feet above the high
desert floor and is visible for 40 miles, it shouldn't be too hard
to find (see map).
Not so. We got local directions in
the town of Shiprock. Then we drove until we found someone else of
whom to ask directions. The we drove some more and asked directions.
The problem is that we could see Ship
Rock but couldn't find a way to get within miles of it except up a
private dirt road that in any event was quite unsuited for our
sedan.
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The
turn-around is as far as we got and by the looks as far as
most drivers go (Photo by Elizabeth VanderPutten, October 2000)
(Click on image for enlargement) |
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Ship Rock and a
"wing" from the
southwest (Photo by Elizabeth VanderPutten, October 2000)
(Click on image
for enlargement) |
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An Extinct Volcano
While not intuitively obvious, Ship Rock is the towering remains of
an ancient volcano that died 50 million years ago. Its
interior core hardened into a roughly cylinder shaped, upright
formation. Over eons, the cone-shaped volcano's softer outer rock
wore away leaving the 1,700 foot high megalith we see today.
Technically, Ship Rock is "one of the best known and most spectacular diatremes
in the United States," according to
the US
Geological Service,
When it became inactive and its
softer exterior wore away, the exhumed plug
remained upright up in bold relief as an irregular, columnar structure.
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Rock with Wings (Tse Bi dahi)
Ship Rock is a sacred object in
Navajo religious beliefs. According to some renditions, it is the
remains of the great bird of deliverance.
According to the Navajos,
their ancestors were fleeing a warring tribe in the north. Their shaman prayed to
the Great Spirit. At the last minute, the earth around them rose and
became a great bird, which delivered them from their enemies to this
land. Over time, the bird became what is now Tse Bi Dahi, the Rock
with Wings.
In respect for their ancestors, the
Navajo have close Ship Rock to the public.
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This is a close up of a
small section of the "wings" of the great bird
of deliverance (Photo by Elizabeth VanderPutten, October 2000)
(Click on image for enlargement) |
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It is not hard to imagine
on this ancient volcano looking like a 19th century
clipper ship with twin peaks looking like masts with huge
sails (Photo by Elizabeth VanderPutten, October 2000)
(Click on image for enlargement) |
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The Ship of the Desert
Legend has it that early settlers thought Ship Rock floated on the desert at sunset like a sailing ship coursing an endless sea of shifting sand.
They noticed what they took to be similarities
between the rock and the Clipper sailing ships of the time.
Historically, the megalith was called the Needle
by Captain J.F. McComb in 1860. A decade later the U.S. Geological
Survey Maps show it as Ship Rock.
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SHIPROCK
This huge volcanic rock was formed
in the Pliocene times over 3,000,000 year
ago. It rises 1700 feet above the sur-
rounding plain and is famed in the leg-
ends of the Navajo as "Sa-bit-tai-e" (the
Rock With Wings). They hold that
it was the great bird that brought them
from the north. |
National
Park Service:
Ship Rock National Natural Landmark
IN BRIEF
San Juan County - Ship Rock is an outstanding example of an exposed volcanic neck accompanied by radiating dikes; it towers 1,400 feet above the surrounding plain. Owner: Indian trust (Navajo Tribe)
DESIGNATION DATE
May 1975
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(Photo by Elizabeth VanderPutten, October 2000)
(Click on image for enlargement) |
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