Spring 2024 Southwestern Swing, 4.01.24 - 5.06.24, Part 9, Shiprock
Anyone who has traveled to the four corners region and particularly near Farmington, New Mexico has seen a giant monolith of rock towering above the otherwise flat expanse of desert. Shiprock, or Tse Bit’a’i (rock with wings) in the native Navajo language, is actually a monadnock that rises 1,583’ from base to top. It is on Navajo land and the Navajo consider Shiprock to be a sacred place.
I really wanted to get some photos of Shiprock from as close as I could get. All the information I could find stated that it was prohibited by the Navajo nation to drive right up to the base of Shiprock. From what I could tell, the closest point I could get to was by driving through the town of Shiprock, turning south on 491 and then head southwest on the paved Indian Service Road 13. This would take me to a point where the road cuts through a long dike emanating from the Shiprock formation and is about three miles from the rock itself.
I was hoping to shoot both a sunset and the sunrise the next morning so we moved the Navibahn from Farmington further west to the Flowing Water Navajo Casino which would put us a half hour closer to my photo spot. The casino offered free overnight parking in their outer lot and we were the only ones there when we arrived. With lots of time to kill before our sunset excursion, we took the Jeep and drove about forty minutes to Four Corners. It’s kind of a tourist trap and not a whole lot to see. There is a plaza with a marker signifying the point where Utah, Colorado, Arizona and New Mexico all meet. Surrounding it are a bunch of booths selling hand made native American products. We had someone take the obligatory photo of us, scoped out the booths, bought a couple of nice things and atea big piece of Indian fry bread with apple butter and cinnamon before heading back.
I’m in Utah, Bridgit is in Arizona with a toe in New Mexico!
Delicious fry bread!
After a really grubbin’ Navajo Burger on fry bread at the casino, we left around 6PM for the 7:56PM sunset. As we were getting ready to leave the casino, a Navajo security guard drove by just to say hi. We chatted a bit and he asked us where we were heading off to. I explained that we were going to shoot photos of Shiprock and assured him we would stay at the edge of the paved service road so as not to break tribal law. He said, “Oh no, you can drive right up to the base! There is a dirt road that leads from the north side of the dike right along the dike to the Shiprock formation”. Surprised, I told him about all the stuff I’d read about not being allowed to drive in but he assured me it was totally okay. Well that got my heart all in a tizzy so we figured we would drive up to the base and if anyone stopped us we would say the Navajo security guard said it was okay.
It took a little over a half hour to get to the turnoff from Indian Road 13 by the dike. There were a couple of cars that stopped by for a quick photo but no one stuck around. Armed with our new information, we boldly turned onto the dirt track and began heading in towards Shiprock. About a quarter of a mile in, we came across this sign.
Hmm
Now we were a little paranoid about proceeding any further so we parked there and took a few pictures. Then a car drove out from the direction of the formation. I flagged them down. It was two Navajo women so I told them about what the security guard had said and pointed to the sign and asked if they knew what the proper procedures were. They said mainly the Navajo don’t want people partying out by the rock and no one is allowed to climb on it or camp out there, but they also told us if we wanted to drive out there for a few photos it would be totally okay. So now with three Navajo approvals, we hopped back in the Jeep and drove closer to Shiprock. It is so big that there was no point in driving right up to the base. We parked about a half mile away and just hung out until the sun went down. There were several clouds that offered up the possibility of an epic sunset behind the formation, but I guess due to the angle of where the sun set, we never got the great cloud colors I was hoping for. Still, being so close to Shiprock was phenomenal and we had a very nice evening watching the sun go down in such a scenic spot.
Love this Jeep shot!
Shiprock
Shiprock and the east trending dike
Shiprock
Shiprock
Shiprock sunset