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KAYENTA
TO
MEXICAN WATER, ARIZONA
U.S. 160
After you have driven through Monument Valley, this road log, with the one from Mexican Water, will provide a loop drive back to Bluff.
Black Mesa, south of Kayenta, rises to an elevation just above 8,200 feet [2000 feet above the surface], even though it sits in a structural basin, which is roughly circular and about 90 miles in diameter. The top of the mesa slopes gently toward the southwest where the three Hopi Mesas are located. It dominates the scenery for many miles around.
Black Mesa is made up of Cretaceous rock very similar to what is found to the east, however, these rocks are younger than their eastern counterparts because the Cretaceous sea withdrew from this area earlier. Because of the age discrepancy the formations here have been given different names, although they are considered part of the Mesaverde Group. The rocks, moving upward from the base of Mancos Shale are: Toreva Formation, similar to the Point Lookout Sandstone; the Wepo, sandstone much like the Menefee; and Yale Point Sandstone, approximately age-equivalent to the upper Mancos Shale and Point Lookout Sandstone in the San Juan Basin. Both the Toreva and the Wepo are coal bearing.
ROAD LOG
Proceed east from the intersection of US 160 and 163.
As you leave Kayenta on U.S. 160 the road parallels Comb Ridge, the edge of the Monument Upwarp. There are several diatremes clustered here. Black Rock Standing is in the foreground, while Agathla sticks up on the other side of Comb Ridge, as does Lion Rock. Ahead, the Porras Dikes rise 300 feet above the ridge. These dikes were named for Fr. Francisco de Porras, who was a missionary to the Hopis from 1629 — 1633. He is believed to have been poisoned by some opposed to the new religion.
Diatremes are explosive eruptions of gases. Lava in these eruptions is sparse, the resulting plugs being composed largely of breccia that fell back into the pipe after the explosion. Many diatremes in the Four Corners are clustered around area of crustal weakness, such as Comb Ridge or the hogbacks along the western edge of the San Juan Basin. These diatremes are believed to have formed during middle Tertiary times.
Milepost 395. Agathla and Black Rock Standing are lined up at 9:00. The Porras Dikes are at 10:30, and Church Rock may be seen ahead at 11:00.
Milepost 400. Church Rock is a series of dikes and associated breccia. The maximum height is 300 feet. Just past Church Rock, the highway goes up a rise onto layers of the Morrison Formation.
Milepost 402. The road south goes to Chilchinbeto and Rough Rock, then continues to Many Farms and Chinle. At Chilchinbeto weavers created the two largest Navajo rugs ever woven. The larger, nicknamed “Big Brother”, is 36 by 26 feet in size, while “Little Sister” is 28 by 26 feet. The larger rug will not be sold, but the Chilchinbeto Chapter offered “Little Sister” for sale in May of 1998 through Sotheby’s in hopes of raising $3.5 million to fund the local health clinic. Twelve weavers labored for ten months to create Little Sister, which consists of 25 panels, each a complete design in itself. The rug did not sell at auction and sat in a warehouse for nearly two years until the community could raise the $3,200 required to have it shipped back.
As you approach Baby Rocks at milepost 408, look north to see a short, unnamed diatreme neck near Comb Ridge.
Baby Rocks Mesa is composed of, from top to bottom, the Salt Wash Member of the Morrison; Zuni [Cow Springs] sandstone; the striped Summerville Formation; and the Beds at Baby Rocks. The baby rock hoodoos weather out of a silty sandstone with contorted bedding. Some geologists assign the Beds at Baby Rocks to the Entrada, but others see them as part of the Summerville. The Entrada Formation does have a hoodoo bed, but as a middle member. It is seen at Goblin Valley, Utah, but the Beds at Baby Rocks overlie the upper Entrada. Don't let the disagreements among geologists spoil your enjoyment of the scenery. If you want to look at the baby rocks more closely, pull out at the west end of the area. A Navajo legend tells of a girl who refused to share her cornbread with her sister; the holy people changed her to stone, and now she is one of the baby rocks. Some Navajo families moved from Kayenta to the Baby Rocks area to farm, but a flood in 1912 destroyed their irrigation dams, cutting Laguna Creek down to bedrock. The settlement then moved to Dennehotso. The abandoned businesses at Baby Rocks were opened in the 1960s, but didn't last long.
Milepost 411. The stratigraphy of Red Point Mesa on the south is the same as Baby Rocks Mesa, although not as striking.
Milepost 413. The La Plata Mountains are visible on the eastern horizon beyond Sleeping Ute Mountain. The Carrizo Mountains are at 1:00, with the taller Lukachukais farther south.
Milepost 416. The highway traverses Navajo Sandstone for some distance. Freshwater limestone deposits occur in the Navajo along this stretch, and are seen capping hills. This rock is a dense, crystalline stone.
Milepost 417. Comb Ridge, lower and less sculpted here, swings away northward behind Garnet Ridge, which appears at 10:00.
In an article published in 1950, Wallace Stegner told of his experiences travelling this road pulling a trailer. He was advised in Kayenta that he could not make it to Shiprock with the trailer, so he should turn south at Dennehotso. Following that advice, within two miles he was stuck in sand. An Indian trader and some Navajos got him out so he could return to Dennehotso, where he realized that those who had helped him had not shown up. He went back and helped get their vehicle out of the dunes. The next day he drove the slickrock across to Mexican Water.
Dennehotso. The Mormon exploring party in 1879 left the vicinity of Kayenta following Laguna Creek, and passed by the present site of Dennehotso in May of that year. Farmers from the Baby Rocks area founded this community in 1912 after a flood wiped out their irrigation project there.
Some authors have written that Dennehotso translates as "people’s farms," however my Navajo friends say that is wrong. Linford gets it right when he says that the name means "upper ending of the meadow." Spelling of the name points out some of the inconsistencies in Navajo orthography. The name on the water tank reads, "Dennehotso," but a road sign is spelled with an i, "Dinnehotso." Perhaps that is part of the problem with the interpretation, "Diné" being the root for "people." Spelling and pronouncing Navajo names is sometimes confusing. For example, Tasile means "where the flow enters the rock." The root is "tse" [stone], but the name of Tsaile is spelled with and a instead of an e. Chinle used to be spelled "Chin Lee," which made the pronunciation more obvious, even though it looked Chinese. Many tourists say "Chin’-el" until they hear a local person pronounce the name.
Milepost 420. The road crosses Laguna Creek. Garnet Ridge is close by now on the north. It is three miles wide and eight miles long, running more or less parallel to the highway. Four diatreme pipes perforate it, but they are not visible from the road. Uranium was mined from near one of the pipes. Many of the diatremes in the Four Corners contain uranium or other radioactive minerals. In other parts of the world, including Arkansas and Colorado, diatremes bring diamonds to the surface. In the Four Corners some bear garnets and peridots, but the crystals are shattered into tiny flecks suitable, for the most part, only for decorating ant dens.
Milepost 423. For a short distance the road travels through the Carmel Formation.
Milepost 427. The four spired rock in the middle distance is Boundary Butte, another diatreme. It lies close to the state line between Utah and Arizona, but the name refers to the fact that it was the northeastern corner of the 1878 Navajo Reservation. The Abajo Mountains are visible at 10:00.
Milepost 428. You are traveling again on Navajo Sandstone in a slickrock desert with intermittent sand dunes. As you approach Tes Nez Iah, where you cross Chinle Wash, note the oasis situation in the bottom of the wash. The greenery includes tall cottonwoods that give Tes Nez Iah its name. The canyon is cut into the Wingate Sandstone overlain by the Kayenta and Navajo. Chinle Wash drains Canyon de Chelly and flows into the San Juan River.
Milepost 429. The road crosses Chinle Wash at Tes Nez Iah. Before the first bridge was built here in 1939, while the road was still marked by cairns and ruts in the slickrock, crossing Chinle Wash required negotiating a thirty-percent grade. It was another twenty years before US 160 was paved and the bridge replaced with the modern one.
Junction with 191. Continue straight ahead on US 160 to Mexican Water.
Walker Wash was named for Lt. J. G. Walker, who led a military exploration of this area in 1859. The headwaters of this ephemeral stream are in Alcove Canyon in the Carrizo Mountains, where there was a significant Anasazi presence.
The Mexican Water Chapter House is located about three miles north of this trading post complex that features some of the highest gasoline prices in the Four Corners. The post here dates back to 1907. The source of the name is obscure, but an earlier Navajo name translates as "Mexicans dug shallow wells." .
Major References
Baars, Donald L. Navajo Country. Univ. of NM Press, 1995.
Kosik, Fran. Native Roads; the complete motoring guide to the Navajo and Hopi Nations. Creative Solutions Publishing, 1995.
Glennon, Robert. Water follies; groundwater pumping and the fate of America’s fresh waters. Island Press, 2002.
Linford, Laurance D. Navajo places; history, legend, landscape. Univ. of Utah Press, 2000.
New Mexico Geological Society.
Guidebook of Monument Valley and vicinity Arizona and Utah. 1973.
Mesozoic geology and paleontology of the Four Corners region. 1997.
Stegner, Page, ed. Marking the sparrow's fall; Wallace Stegner's American West. Holt and co., 1998.
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