#monitor butte

Old West

Clouds (No. 991)

Clouds (No. 990)

Plateau Viewpoint, UT (three pics)

Clouds (No. 989)

Plateau Viewpoint, UT (eight pics)

Monitor and Merrimac View Area, UT (No. 2)

The Monitor and Merrimac are two buttes towering 600 ft. above the Utah desert. They were named after their resemblance to the two Civil War ironclad ships whose epic naval battle forever changed maritime warfare.

Merrimac Butte is the larger of the two. It’s between 200 and 600 feet wide and 1,600 feet long. It stands about 200 feet high, at an elevation of 5,627 feet. The butte is named after the USS Merrimack, which was converted into a Confederate warship, the CSS Virginia. Monitor Butte is just to the east. It’s named for the USS Monitor.

The buttes are visible on the way to both the Island in the Sky district at Canyonlands National Park and Dead Horse Point State Park. A pullout along the road allows for the best views. There are interpretive panels at the pullout for more information.

Monitor and Merrimac View Area, UT (No. 1)

Merrimac Butte is a 5,627-foot (1,715-metre) sandstone summit located in Grand County, Utah, United States, about 12 miles northwest of the town of Moab. Merrimac Butte is a thin, 200–600-foot-wide and 1,600-foot-long east-to-west butte with 200-foot-tall vertical Entrada Sandstone walls overlaying a Carmel Formation base.

Monitor Butte is situated immediately east of Merrimac Butte. The two buttes were named after the Monitor and Merrimack, two ironclad steamships known for clashing during the American Civil War. They can be seen from Highway 313 after it climbs out of Sevenmile Canyon en route to the Island in the Sky section of Canyonlands National Park or Dead Horse Point State Park.