venturing4th: Ship Rock

This morning we headed 100-miles due north of Gallup, along Highway 491, toward the Four Corners where Arizona, New Mexico, Utah and Colorado meet. In addition to this geographic novelty, it is an area of scenic beauty. In the New Mexico quadrant, recent volcanism has created a volcanic field dotted with the remnants of dozens of once-active volcanoes, all sharing an age of 30 million years ago. We went in search of Ship Rock, another one of New Mexico's four geo-sites, an impressive volcanic core that accentuates the horizon 25 miles south of Four Corners.

Ten miles north of Gallup we entered the Navajo Indian Reservation which continues to the Four Corners. Ship Rock is revered by the Navajo Nation as Tse Bit'a'i, the "rock with wings," and the tribe does not permit climbers to scale it. But, we turned west on Scenic Indian Route 33, which runs between Ship Rock and Red Rock on the Arizona border, and were able to find an access road that we could hike to the base.

About 50 miles south of Four Corners we began to see other volcanic cores.

Plus this isolated and extensive mesa.

In the far distance we could see the snow-covered Ute Mountains in Colorado, even though the day was very cloudy.

Of course, the first thing we did was set Mr. Spock to work exploring the area.

What is so unique about Ship Rock are three dikes that radiate from this volcanic core.

South Dike, above, is one of the largest and longest features of the Four Corners region.

It extends 5.5-miles, straight as an arrow, across the encircling desert floor from Ship Rock.

We climbed up to the ridge of South Dike and took this picture along the length. As you can see, it's less than 10-feet wide.

We walked from the road to near the base. It is an impressive site, 1,500-feet-wide, and 1,700-feet tall! Frederick is at the bottom of the picture for scale.