Church Rock

Here’s a sight that certainly seems out of place in the sandstones of Monument Valley and surrounding areas of Kayenta, AZ and Bluff and Mexican Hat, UT.

Church Rock is one of several eroded volcanic plugs, or diatremes, of the Navajo Volcanic Field, which is a volcanic field located near Kayenta, AZ and Monument Valley. It is an intrusive formation that penetrated and erupted through the overlying sandstone. The name seems to be derived from the impression the formation gives of a mighty Gothic cathedral with spires reaching toward heaven. The original name for it was Artenesales de Piedra or “Sculpted Rock,” by the Mexican merchant and explorer Antonio Armijo in 1829–1830, when the area was explored by his expedition to find a trade route between Santa Fe de Nuevo México and Alta California. This would become the Armijo Route of the Old Spanish Trail.

The photo is another example of trying to make lemonade out of lemons. After several good weather days of doing photography around Page, upper Buckskin Gulch and the Wahweap fork of Lake Powell (looking for hoodoos), the weather turned for the worse and we found ourselves leaving Page and passing through rain, low clouds, fog and even snow in the higher terrain as we headed back to Kayenta. Obviously not very good photography weather, so in Kayenta, we decided to make a side trip to Church Rock and ended up spending some extra time there, this photo being the result of that stop. The stormy clouds added quite a lot of drama to the scene. 

Late March 2021