Navajo Mountain
Navajo Mountain () is a peak in San Juan County, Utah, with its southern flank extending into Coconino County, Arizona, in the United States. It holds an important place in the traditions of three local Native American tribes. The summit is the highest point on the Navajo Nation. Geologic history Navajo Mountain is a prominent free-standing laccolith, a dome-shaped body of igneous rock that intruded into sedimentary layers and lifted up the overlying layer. The igneous rock at the core of the mountain is wrapped in sedimentary layers. Such igneous intrusions have been exposed by erosion and well studied in similar mountain ranges on the Colorado Plateau, such as the Henry Mountains, the Abajo Mountains, and the La Sal Range. The Colorado Plateau is made of mostly flat-lying layers of sedimentary rock that record paleoclimate extremes ranging from oceans to widespread deserts over the last 1.8 billion years. The peak of Navajo Mountain, at approximately , is made up of uplifted Dakota Sandstone deposited during the Cretaceous Period (approximately 66-138 million years ago). Other formations exposed on the surface of the mountain include the Jurassic sequence of the Morrison Formation, Entrada Sandstone, Carmel Formation, and Navajo Sandstone. Cultural history The