ShiprockSouthwest — Navajo & Hopi Mythology

In Navajo tradition, the great rock formation called Tse Bit'a'i — the Rock with Wings — was once a living bird of enormous size. When the Navajo ancestors were fleeing from their enemies in the north, the ground beneath them rose into the sky and became a great bird. It carried the people south on its back, flying for a day and a night, before landing in the desert and turning to stone.

Another telling says the rock was home to the Cliff Monster, one of the alien gods (naayee') who preyed on the Navajo people before the Hero Twins — Monster Slayer and Born for Water — killed them. The Twins climbed the rock, slew the Cliff Monster, and freed the people from its predation. The dark streaks of volcanic rock running down Shiprock's flanks are said to be the dried blood of the monster.

The formation is sacred. Climbing it is forbidden by the Navajo Nation, and the prohibition carries both spiritual and legal weight.

Shiprock rises 1,583 feet above the desert floor of the Navajo Nation in San Juan County, New Mexico. It is a volcanic neck — the hardened magma plug of a volcano whose softer outer layers eroded away over 30 million years. Three radial dikes of dark igneous rock extend outward from the base like the spokes of a wheel, the longest running nearly 6 miles.

The formation is visible from over 30 miles away across the flat desert. The nearest town is Shiprock, New Mexico (population ~9,000), about 12 miles to the south on US Route 491. There are no formal trails or facilities at the base. The rock sits entirely on Navajo Nation land.

Shiprock was first climbed by non-Natives in 1939 by a Sierra Club expedition. The climb was technically difficult and several subsequent attempts resulted in fatalities. In 1970, the Navajo Nation banned all climbing on the formation, both to protect the sacred site and in response to the deaths.

Geologically, the formation is approximately 27 million years old, the remnant of a maar-diatreme volcanic eruption. The radial dikes are sheets of minette, a rare igneous rock. The surrounding Mancos Shale eroded away over millions of years, leaving the harder volcanic rock standing alone.

The English name derives from the formation's resemblance to a 19th-century clipper ship. The Navajo name — Tse Bit'a'i, Rock with Wings — predates European contact and reflects the origin story of the flying rock.