The Utah Town That Isn't In Utah!

Many times jokes are made about Park City and/or Moab not really being Utah towns, based on their social and religious differences with most other municipalities in the Beehive State.
However, the one single town in Utah that truly isn't in Utah is Navajo Mountain.
Although this town's trading post, schools, Navajo Tribal office and U.S. Post Office are all at least three to five miles inside the Utah border, that's all there is to Utah about it.
The vast majority of vehicles you will spot in Navajo Mountain sport Arizona license plates.
The area code there is 928, Arizona based.
Also, the U.S. Post Office there states Arizona, instead of Utah.
Navajo Mountain is in southeastern Utah, with Page, Arizona, as the nearest town of significant size.
To reach this community, you have to travel deep into Arizona by way of Page or Monument Valley. Then, between the small Navajo towns of Kaibito and Shonto, just off highway 98, you go north into Utah.
So, the only access to this town is from Arizona. Hence, likely why Arizona dominates this Utah community.
Sitting on the southeast corner of Navajo Mountain, a free-standing, huge, whale looking kind of mountain that rises to 10,388 feet above sea level.
The photos below show: 1. a doctored sign near the community of Navajo Mountain; 2. what it looks like on the top of Navajo Mountain, looking north to Lake Powell; and 3. how rough and rugged the jeep road is up Navajo Mountain.

"Navajos consider Navajo Mountain as a sacred area, and ascending it is forbidden," as stated on the official Navajo Tribe recreation Web site,
http://www.navajonationparks.org/permits.htm
Notwithstanding, myself and several friends did officially aquire outdoor permits from the Navajo Mountain Tribal Office and visited its summit in 2005.
Although I had verbal permission days earlier from the area's tribal president to visit Navajo Mountain's summit, it took the explanation of a bet I had with my two buddies that you could see Rainbow Bridge with your naked eye from the top and north side of the Navajo Mountain Summit, to get them to issue us permits.
I did win the bet, as you can easily spot Rainbow Bridge from on top.
A rugged, narrow, winding jeep road accesses the summit of the mountain.
There are some cell towers on top of Navajo Mountain, so it could be argued it is not as sacred to the Native Americans as it used to be.
In fact, boating or camping on the south end of Lake Powell, you likely wont' have any cell phone service unless you can see Navajo Mountain -- a line of sight kind of thing.
Navajo Mountain was originally known as Paiute Mountain until about 1933.
It remains a mysterious place, full of solitude and solace.
The mountain domninates the area landscape and I'm very thanful I was lucky enough to visit it and enjoy its spectacular landscape.

Where's the Lost Rhoads Mine?

The Rhoads Mine is more than a Utah pioneer legend or fanciful story.
I believe it truly exists.
But, like Bigfoot, the Three Nephites, or the Lost Ten Tribes, it might be next to impossible to find.
If you are not up to speed on what the mine is, click on the link below, as it accesses a site that reprints one of the best single articles ever written on the Rhoads mine, a story by one of my friends and past colleagues, Twila Van Leer.
Most people up to speed on the Rhoads Mine seem to believe it exists somewhere in the Uinta Mountains.
I'm now leaning to a different location, further south.
I'm suspecting it may reside within the Uintah and Ouray Reservation.
The place is off limits to just about anyone, except some Native Americans.
It is rugged territory and seems the perfect place to hide such a feature.
With the Book Cliffs and the Green River on its western boundary, it is a secretive and forbidding place.
There have been some reported Bigfoot sightings inside the reservation too, but none can enter to check them out either.
I've had imaginative dreams of finding the Rhoads Mine in the High Uintas, but my dreams need to change to this reservation, because if you go by odds that's where I'm betting  it is.
Many states have legends of Spanish gold, or mines. However, in Utah's case,the gold for the Angel Moroni on the Salt Lake Temple came from somewhere and that's the Rhoads Mine.
-And, there may be 8 or more total lost gold mines in the Uintas, or the surrounding area!



http://www.utahgold.org/Ugpcjan2008.htm