Setting Hen Butte is a

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 ...

in San Juan County,

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 ...

, United States. Setting Hen Butte should not be confused with another butte named

Setting Hen Setting Hen is a summit in San Juan County, Utah, United States. Setting Hen should not be confused with another butte named Setting Hen Butte within the same county but further northeast at Valley of the Gods. Description Setting Hen is si ...

within the same county but further southwest at

Monument Valley Monument Valley (, , meaning "valley of the rocks") is a region of the Colorado Plateau characterized by a cluster of sandstone buttes, with the largest reaching above the valley floor. The most famous butte formations are located in northeas ...

, near

Eagle Mesa Eagle Mesa is a summit in San Juan County, Utah, United States. Description Eagle Mesa is situated northeast of Oljato–Monument Valley, Utah, on Navajo Nation land. It is, together with Setting Hen, an iconic landform of Monument Valley an ...

Description

Setting Hen Butte is situated west of

Bluff, Utah Bluff () is a town in San Juan County, Utah, United States. The population was 320 at the 2000 census. Bluff was incorporated in 2018. Ann Leppanen is currently the mayor. History Under the direction of John Taylor, Silas S. Smith and Danish ...

, in the

Valley of the Gods The Valley of the Gods is a scenic sandstone valley near Mexican Hat, Utah, Mexican Hat in San Juan County, Utah, San Juan County, southeastern Utah, United States. Part of Bears Ears National Monument, the Valley of the Gods is located north of ...

, on land administered by the

Bureau of Land Management The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) is an agency within the United States Department of the Interior responsible for administering federal lands, U.S. federal lands. Headquartered in Washington, D.C., the BLM oversees more than of land, or one ...

. Precipitation runoff from this iconic landform's slopes drains to the San Juan River via Lime Creek. Access to the butte is via the 17-mile Valley of the Gods Road which passes east of this butte.

Topographic relief Terrain (), alternatively relief or topographical relief, is the dimension and shape of a given surface of land. In physical geography, terrain is the lay of the land. This is usually expressed in terms of the elevation, slope, and orientati ...

is significant as the summit rises above the surrounding terrain in 0.1 mile (0.16 km). This landform's descriptive toponym has been officially adopted by the

United States Board on Geographic Names The United States Board on Geographic Names (BGN) is a Federal government of the United States, federal body operating under the United States Secretary of the Interior. The purpose of the board is to establish and maintain uniform usage of geogr ...

. It is also known as "The Anvil" by some rock climbers.

Geology

Setting Hen Butte is composed of two principal strata of the

Cutler Formation The Cutler Formation or Cutler Group is a stratigraphic unit exposed across the U.S. states of Arizona, northwest New Mexico, southeast Utah and southwest Colorado. It was laid down in the Early Permian during the Wolfcampian epoch. Desc ...

. The bottom layer is slope-forming

Halgaito Formation The Halgaito Formation is the basal Permian geologic member of the Cutler Group in southern Utah. The member consists of silty sandstone, siltstone and limestone. The Elephant Canyon may grade into the Halgaito and grades northward into the Cedar ...

and the upper stratum is cliff-forming

Cedar Mesa Sandstone Cedar Mesa Sandstone (also known as the Cedar Mesa Formation) is a sandstone Geological unit, memberThe Cutler Formation is sometimes classified as the Cutler Group (geology), Group, in which case Cedar Mesa Sandstone is classified as a Formation ...

. Cedar Mesa Sandstone is the remains of coastal

sand dunes A dune is a landform composed of wind- or water-driven sand. It typically takes the form of a mound, ridge, or hill. An area with dunes is called a dune system or a dune complex. A large dune complex is called a dune field, while broad, flat ...

deposited about 270 to 300 million years ago, during the

Wolfcampian The Cisuralian, also known as the Early Permian, is the first series/epoch of the Permian. The Cisuralian was preceded by the Pennsylvanian and followed by the Guadalupian. The Cisuralian Epoch is named after the western slopes of the Ural Mount ...

(early

Permian The Permian ( ) is a geologic period and System (stratigraphy), stratigraphic system which spans 47 million years, from the end of the Carboniferous Period million years ago (Mya), to the beginning of the Triassic Period 251.902 Mya. It is the s ...

). The buttes of Valley of the Gods are the result of the Halgaito Formation being more easily eroded than the overlaying sandstone. The valley floor is

Honaker Trail Formation The Honaker Trail Formation is a Formation (geology), geologic formation in Utah. It preserves fossils dating back to the Carboniferous Period (geology), period. It is a member of the 3-member Hermosa Group and is located above the Paradox For ...

.Dan S. Chaney, ''The Carboniferous-Permian Transition''
New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science, 2013, p. 64.

Climate

Spring and fall are the most favorable seasons to visit Setting Hen Butte. 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, it is located in a

cold semi-arid climate Cold is the presence of low temperature, especially in the atmosphere. In common usage, cold is often a subjective perception. A lower bound to temperature is absolute zero, defined as 0.00K on the Kelvin scale, an absolute thermodynamic ...

zone with cold winters and hot summers. Summers highs rarely exceed . Summer nights are comfortably cool, and temperatures drop quickly after sunset. Winters are cold, but daytime highs are usually above freezing. Winter temperatures below are uncommon, though possible. This desert climate receives less than of annual rainfall, and snowfall is generally light during the winter.

Gallery

File:Valley of the Gods - Setting Hen Butte.jpg File:Grand Staircase 201812 0237 (42847933165).jpg, South aspect File:Valley of the Gods sep 2012 02.jpg, South aspect of

Rooster Butte Rooster Butte is a summit in San Juan County, Utah, United States. Description Rooster Butte is situated west of Bluff, Utah, in the Valley of the Gods, on land administered by the Bureau of Land Management. Precipitation runoff from this ic ...

(left) and Setting Hen Butte (right) File:2004-05-07 68 - Valley of the Gods, UT.jpg, Rooster Butte (left) and Setting Hen Butte (right) File:Hitting the road in the Valley of the Gods (8227806909).jpg, South aspect

References

External links