Hesperus Mountain ( Navajo: ) is the highest summit of the

La Plata Mountains The La Plata Mountains are a small subrange of the San Juan Mountains in the southwestern part of Colorado, United States. They are located on the border between Montezuma and La Plata counties, about northwest of Durango. Their name is Spani ...

range of the

Rocky Mountains The Rocky Mountains, also known as the Rockies, are a major mountain range and the largest mountain system in North America. The Rocky Mountains stretch in straight-line distance from the northernmost part of western Canada, to New Mexico ...

of North America. The prominent

thirteener In mountaineering in the United States, a thirteener (abbreviated 13er) is a mountain that exceeds above mean sea level, similar to the more familiar "fourteeners," which exceed . In most instances, "thirteeners" refers only to those peaks betwee ...

is located in

San Juan National Forest The San Juan National Forest is a U.S. National Forest covering over 1,878,846 acres (2,935.7 sq mi, or 7,603.42 km²) in western Colorado. The forest occupies land in Archuleta, Conejos, Dolores, Hinsdale, La Plata, Mineral, Montezu ...

, northeast by east ( bearing 59°) of the Town of Mancos in Montezuma County,

Colorado Colorado (, other variants) is a state in the Mountain states, Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It encompasses most of the Southern Rocky Mountains, as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the wes ...

, United States. The summit of Hesperus Mountain is the highest point in Montezuma County.

Mountain

Though not of particularly high elevation for the region, Hesperus Mountain is visually quite prominent, as it is near the southern edge of the

San Juan Mountains The San Juan Mountains is a high and rugged mountain range in the Rocky Mountains in southwestern Colorado and northwestern New Mexico. The area is highly mineralized (the Colorado Mineral Belt) and figured in the gold and silver mining industry ...

and rises over above the area. Hesperus is notable as the Navajo People's Sacred Mountain of the North, ', which marks the northern boundary of the Dinetah, their traditional homeland. It is associated with the color black, and is said to be impregnated with jet. When First Man created the mountain as a replica of mountains in the Fourth World, he fastened it to the ground with a rainbow and covered it in darkness.Robert S. McPherson, ''Sacred Land, Sacred View: Navajo perceptions of the Four Corners Region'',

Brigham Young University Brigham Young University (BYU, sometimes referred to colloquially as The Y) is a private research university in Provo, Utah. It was founded in 1875 by religious leader Brigham Young and is sponsored by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-d ...

, . The San Juan Mountains have been the traditional homeland of the Ute People. http://www.dargnet.org http://uintahbasintah.org/maps/ubsw.jpg Along with Ute the La Plata Mountain Range has also been the early homeland of the Navajo People who had settled on and near this mountain and the La Plata Mountain Range. Hesperus1

References

External links

Hesperus Mountain on Hikearizona.com
{{Colorado Mountains of Montezuma County, Colorado San Juan Mountains (Colorado) San Juan National Forest North American 4000 m summits Sacred mountains Religious places of the indigenous peoples of North America Mountains of Colorado

Mountain

See also

References

External links