Hesperus Mountain (
Navajo
The Navajo or Diné are an Indigenous people of the Southwestern United States. Their traditional language is Diné bizaad, a Southern Athabascan language.
The states with the largest Diné populations are Arizona (140,263) and New Mexico (1 ...
: meaning "Big Mountain Sheep"
) is the
highest summit of the
La Plata Mountains 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 great-circle distance, straight-line distance from the northernmost part of Western Can ...
of
North America
North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere, Northern and Western Hemisphere, Western hemispheres. North America is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South Ameri ...
. 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 betwe ...
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, Montezum ...
, northeast by east (
bearing 59°) of the
Town of Mancos in
Montezuma County,
Colorado
Colorado is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States. It is one of the Mountain states, sharing the Four Corners region with Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah. It is also bordered by Wyoming to the north, Nebraska to the northeast, Kansas ...
, 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
The Navajo or Diné are an Indigenous people of the Southwestern United States. Their traditional language is Diné bizaad, a Southern Athabascan language.
The states with the largest Diné populations are Arizona (140,263) and New Mexico (1 ...
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) is a Private education, private research university in Provo, Utah, United States. It was founded in 1875 by religious leader Brigham Young and is the flagship university of the Church Educational System sponsore ...
, .
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.
Gallery
File:Hesperus Mountain Aerial (49806539151).jpg, Aerial view of the mountain
File:Hesperus Mountain from Centennial Peak.jpg, Hesperus seen from Centennial Peak
File:Hesperus aerial.jpg, Aerial from west: Hesperus, Lavender
''Lavandula'' (common name lavender) is a genus of 47 known species of perennial flowering plants in the sage family, Lamiaceae. It is native plant, native to the Old World, primarily found across the drier, warmer regions of the Mediterranean ...
, Moss
Mosses are small, non-vascular plant, non-vascular flowerless plants in the taxonomic phylum, division Bryophyta (, ) ''sensu stricto''. Bryophyta (''sensu lato'', Wilhelm Philippe Schimper, Schimp. 1879) may also refer to the parent group bryo ...
File:Hesperus Mountain Sunset.jpg, Hesperus Mountain (left) and Mount Moss (center) from the west at sunset
File:Hesperus1.jpg, Hesperus Mountain in Spring
See also
*List of mountain peaks of Colorado
This is a list of major mountain peaks in the U.S. State of Colorado.
This article comprises three sortable tables of major mountain peaks in Colorado.
The summit of a mountain or hill may be measured in three principal ways:
#The topographi ...
*List of Colorado county high points
This is a list of the 64 counties of the U.S. State of Colorado by their points of highest elevation. Of the 50 highest county high points in the United States, 30 are located in Colorado. The highest point in Colorado and the Rocky Mountai ...
*
References
External links
Hesperus Mountain on Hikearizona.com
{{Colorado
Mountains of Montezuma County, Colorado
San Juan Mountains (Colorado)
San Juan National Forest
Four-thousanders of the United States
Sacred mountains of the United States
Religious places of the Indigenous peoples of North America