Shiprock

Shiprock, on the Navajo Indian reservation, San Juan county, New Mexico. The height is 1,400 feet from the base to the highest pinnacle. The table land from which it rises is about 100 feet higher than the surrounding country. As is well known, New Mexico occupies a lofty plateau which reaches its greatest elevation in the northern and western part, sloping to the south and southeast. The plateau is nowhere less than 3,000 feet above sea-level. Santa Fe has an altitude of 6,998 ; and Albuquerque on the Rio Grande, 5,008 feet. Numerous sierras rise from the table land east and west of the Rio Grande, also numerous peaks, more or less isolated, as in our picture, and belonging to the Rocky Mountain system. The Sangre de Christo range (or mountains of the Blood of Christ) of Colorado extends far into New Mexico, with many component ridges whose principal and many towering peaks rise from 12,000 to 14,000 feet above sea-level. San Juan country lies in the extreme northwestern part of the state, and is drained by San Juan river and its tributaries.