Navajo Mountain is ignored by most peak-climbing "high pointers" and hikers, since you can travel a rugged nine-mile, four-wheel-drive road to its forested summit and also because it sits inside the Navajo Reservation.
This humpy mountain also isn't as spectacular-looking as others, with its lack of pointy summits. Nor is it a county high point, or a peak to "bag" on the standard outdoor lists. Navajo is also not featured in any Utah or regional hiking guides or books.
Much more popular today is the Rainbow Bridge trail, which skirts the north side of Navajo Mountain and travels to this famed natural formation near Lake Powell.
But a trip up Navajo Mountain isn't about conquest or peak bagging, it's about eye-candy views of the territory and of also feeling a connection with mountain and land, as some Navajos may do.
You don't get where you want to go in this territory without knowing exactly where you're going. The region holds a maze of sandstone and slot canyons.
Accessing the mountain requires a route coming from Arizona, between Monument Valley and Page. And not just anyone can traverse this remote area at will. A backcountry permit ($10 a person) is required by the Navajo Nation to leave the main roads. Obtaining a verbal OK to access the mountain from the Navajo Chapter House is also a wise idea.
The rough road to Navajo's top, which is is adorned with many loose boulders, passes near War God Springs, on a 9,000-foot-elevation plateau. Most visitors choose to park their vehicles there and hike the rest of the way.
While some off-road vehicles may have the clearance to miss most loose rocks on the road going up the mountain, coming back down is a different situation. Because portions of the road are so steep — probably a 16 percent grade — braking will lower that clearance slightly.
Some of the switchbacks up the mountain are also so sharp that you have to do two passes to make the turns.
Snow graces the upper elevations in winter and even into spring. A drive up Navajo should never be attempted in wet or threatening weather, as the road becomes impassible when wet.
"Welcom (sic) white man" is painted on a rock about one-third of the way up the mountain.
A hike of about three-fourths of a mile is required on the summit to go north past the transmission towers to a viewpoint where the trees clear and reveal Rainbow Bridge, Lake Powell and Henry and Abajo mountains. (Mountains to the south, like Navajo, are forested at higher elevations than their northern counterparts.)
The mountain has a pristine, serene and peaceful atmosphere, and the commanding view of the area its summits offer are unequaled outside of an airplane. Visitors also may not see another person during their trek up the mountain.
Lynn Arave, Ray Boren and Ravell Call went to the top of Navajo Mountain on Sept. 15, 2003. They obtained permission from the Navajo Mountain Chapter House president to do so, as well as purchasing backcountry permits.
E-mail: lynn@desnews.com