Chimney Rock is a sandstone rock pillar in Chimney Rock National Monument, a 4,726-acre site in the San Juan National Forest of Archuleta County in southwestern Colorado, between Durango and Pagosa Springs. The pillar itself stands about 315 feet tall and rises beside a companion pillar known as Companion Rock; both are part of a ridge whose bedrock is predominantly sandstone. The twin rocks held deep significance for the Ancestral Puebloans who inhabited the site roughly a thousand years ago: as the moon moves through its 18.6-year cycle, it appears to rise in the narrow gap between the two rocks during a lunar standstill lasting about sixteen months, and the nearby Great House Pueblo appears to have been built and expanded, in 1076 and again in 1093, to align with these lunar events. Companion Rock also serves today as a nesting site for peregrine falcons. This formation is unrelated to the Chimney Rock of Nebraska's North Platte valley, a sedimentary landmark on the historic Oregon Trail.
Facts
Classification
Protected StatusNational Park or Reserve 1 Connections
In Discipline
Source Chimney Rock (Colorado) (Wikipedia)
In the Other Atlases
Found In
Also in Geography Atlas: where this subject is found.
Sources
1. Chimney Rock (Colorado) (Wikipedia)
Lead section (protected-status)
It is situated 10.5 miles east of the community of Ridgway, and immediately south of Owl Creek Pass, in the Uncompahgre Wilderness, on land managed by Uncompahgre National Forest.
In Discipline: Geomorphology, Lead paragraph
Chimney Rock is an 11,781-foot-elevation (3,591-meter) pillar located on the shared boundary of Hinsdale County with Ouray County, in southwest Colorado, United States
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