Dominguez Butte is a 4,476-foot (1,364 meter) elevation sandstone

summit A summit is a point on a surface that is higher in elevation than all points immediately adjacent to it. The topographic terms acme, apex, peak (mountain peak), and zenith are synonymous. The term (mountain top) is generally used only for ...

located south of

Lake Powell Lake Powell is a reservoir on the Colorado River in Utah and Arizona, United States. It is a major vacation destination visited by approximately two million people every year. It holds of water when full, second in the United States to only the ...

, in San Juan County of southern

Utah Utah is a landlocked state in the Mountain states, Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It is one of the Four Corners states, sharing a border with Arizona, Colorado, and New Mexico. It also borders Wyoming to the northea ...

. It is situated on

Navajo Nation The Navajo Nation (), also known as Navajoland, is an Indian reservation of Navajo people in the United States. It occupies portions of northeastern Arizona, northwestern New Mexico, and southeastern Utah. The seat of government is located in ...

land, northeast of the town of

Page Page most commonly refers to: * Page (paper), one side of a leaf of paper, as in a book Page, PAGE, pages, or paging may also refer to: Roles * Page (assistance occupation), a professional occupation * Page (servant), traditionally a young m ...

, and towers over 700 feet above the surrounding terrain as a landmark of the area. Dominguez Butte has a brief appearance in the 1968 film ''

Planet of the Apes ''Planet of the Apes'' is a science fiction media franchise consisting of films, books, television series, comics, and other media about a Apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic fiction, post-apocalyptic world in which humans and intelligent apes c ...

'', when a spaceship crash lands in Lake Powell.

Geology

Dominguez Butte is a

butte In geomorphology, a butte ( ) is an isolated hill with steep, often vertical sides and a small, relatively flat top; buttes are smaller landforms than mesas, plateaus, and table (landform), tablelands. The word ''butte'' comes from the French l ...

composed primarily of

Entrada Sandstone The Entrada Sandstone is a formation (geology), formation in the San Rafael Group found in the U.S. states of Wyoming, Colorado, northwest New Mexico, northeast Arizona, and southeast Utah. Part of the Colorado Plateau, this formation was deposi ...

, similar to Padres Butte to the north, and Boundary Butte to the south. The Entrada Sandstone overlays

Carmel Formation The Carmel Formation is a geologic formation in the San Rafael Group that is spread across the U.S. states of Wyoming, Utah, Colorado, north east Arizona and New Mexico. Part of the Colorado Plateau, this formation was laid down in the Middle Ju ...

, and below that

Page Sandstone The Page Sandstone is a geologic formation in Utah. It preserves fossils dating back to the Jurassic period. See also * List of fossiliferous stratigraphic units in Utah * Paleontology in Utah image:Map of USA UT.svg, The location of the state ...

at lake level. Above the Entrada layers is Romana Sandstone capped by

Morrison Formation The Morrison Formation is a distinctive sequence of Upper Jurassic sedimentary rock found in the western United States which has been the most fertile source of dinosaur fossils in North America. It is composed of mudstone, sandstone, siltston ...

. It is located in the southern edge of the

Great Basin Desert The Great Basin Desert is part of the Great Basin between the Sierra Nevada and the Wasatch Range in the western United States. The desert is a geographical region that largely overlaps the Great Basin shrub steppe defined by the World Wildlife ...

on the

Colorado Plateau The Colorado Plateau is a physiographic and desert region of the Intermontane Plateaus, roughly centered on the Four Corners region of the Southwestern United States. This plateau covers an area of 336,700 km2 (130,000 mi2) within w ...

. Precipitation runoff from this feature drains into the

Colorado River The Colorado River () is one of the principal rivers (along with the Rio Grande) in the Southwestern United States and in northern Mexico. The river, the List of longest rivers of the United States (by main stem), 5th longest in the United St ...

watershed.

History

Francisco Atanasio Domínguez Francisco is the Spanish and Portuguese form of the masculine given name ''Franciscus''. Meaning of the name Francisco In Spanish, people with the name Francisco are sometimes nicknamed " Paco". San Francisco de Asís was known as ''Pater Comm ...

(1740–1805) was a Franciscan missionary and explorer who led the 1776

Domínguez–Escalante expedition The Domínguez–Escalante Expedition was a Spanish journey of exploration conducted in 1776 by two Franciscan priests, Atanasio Domínguez and Silvestre Vélez de Escalante, to find an overland route from Santa Fe, New Mexico, to their Roman C ...

. Guided by local Native Americans, the expedition attempted to cross the Colorado River at

Lee's Ferry Lees Ferry (also known as Lee's Ferry, Lee Ferry, Little Colorado Station and Saints Ferry) is a site on the Colorado River in Coconino County, Arizona in the United States, about southwest of Page and south of the Utah–Arizona state l ...

, but found it too difficult. A second ford of the Colorado River, named the Crossing of the Fathers, was successfully made two miles north of Dominguez Butte on November 7, 1776. The descent to the crossing was so treacherous that they had to carve steps into the stone to ensure the livestock could make it down to the river. Today, this ford lies beneath Lake Powell.The Dominguez and Escalante Expedition, NPS.gov
/ref> This butte's name was officially adopted in 1976 by the U.S. Board on Geographic Names to commemorate Atanacio Domínguez.

Gallery

File:Dominguez Butte in UT.jpg, West aspect File:Lake Powell Glen Canyon.jpg, West aspect File:Dominguez Butte UT.jpg, East aspect File:Dominguez Butte.jpg, Dominguez Butte from northwest File:Lake Powell aerial.jpg, Aerial view looking south. Dominguez Butte left of center nearest water's edge.
( Tower Butte upper right corner. Padres Butte in lower right corner. LeChee Rock centered on horizon) File:Dominguez and Tower.jpg, Dominguez Butte centered, Tower Butte far right. From the north.

Climate

According to the

Köppen climate classification The Köppen climate classification divides Earth climates into five main climate groups, with each group being divided based on patterns of seasonal precipitation and temperature. The five main groups are ''A'' (tropical), ''B'' (arid), ''C'' (te ...

system, Dominguez Butte is located in an

arid climate The desert climate or arid climate (in the Köppen climate classification ''BWh'' and ''BWk'') is a dry climate sub-type in which there is a severe excess of evaporation over precipitation. The typically bald, rocky, or sandy surfaces in desert ...

zone with hot, very dry summers, and chilly winters with very little snow. Spring and fall are the most favorable seasons to visit.

References

External links

{{commons category, Dominguez Butte * Weather forecast
Dominguez Butte
Colorado Plateau Landforms of San Juan County, Utah Geography of the Navajo Nation Glen Canyon National Recreation Area Lake Powell Buttes of Utah One-thousanders of the United States Sandstone formations of the United States