Padres Butte is a
butte
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In geomorphology, a butte () is an isolated hill with steep, often vertical sides and a small, relatively flat top; buttes are smaller landforms than mesas, plateaus, and tablelands. The word ''butte'' comes from a French word mea ...
near the tip of
Padre Point
Padre Point is a cape on the south shore of Lake Powell in extreme southwestern San Juan County, Utah, United States.
Description
Located on the northern tip of the cape is Dominguez Butte. Formerly an island in the reservoir, but at lower wat ...
on the south shore of
Lake Powell
Lake Powell is an artificial reservoir on the Colorado River in Utah and Arizona, United States. It is a major vacation destination visited by approximately two million people every year. It is the second largest artificial reservoir by maximum ...
in
San Juan County,
Utah
Utah ( , ) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. Utah is a landlocked U.S. state bordered to its east by Colorado, to its northeast by Wyoming, to its north by Idaho, to its south by Arizona, and to it ...
, United States.
Description
The summit of the butte has an elevation of . It was formerly an island in the man-made lake, but land connecting the butte with the rest of Padre Point has been exposed as the lake's water levels have declined.
Padres Butte marks the site of the historical
Crossing of the Fathers
Crossing of the Fathers is a historical river crossing of the Colorado River, in Kane and San Juan Counties, Utah. The crossing, at an elevation of approximately , was a series of sand bars at a great bend in the river located a mile west of Pa ...
, a series of
sand bar
In oceanography, geomorphology, and geoscience, a shoal is a natural submerged ridge, bank, or bar that consists of, or is covered by, sand or other unconsolidated material and rises from the bed of a body of water to near the surface. It o ...
s along the great bend in the
Colorado River
The Colorado River ( es, Río Colorado) is one of the principal rivers (along with the Rio Grande) in the Southwestern United States and northern Mexico. The river drains an expansive, arid drainage basin, watershed that encompasses parts of ...
a mile west of the butte that once offered a fordable crossing of the river.
This geographical feature's name was officially adopted in 1961 by the
U.S. Board on Geographic Names
The United States Board on Geographic Names (BGN) is a federal body operating under the United States Secretary of the Interior. The purpose of the board is to establish and maintain uniform usage of geographic names throughout the federal governm ...
.
According to the
Köppen climate classification
The Köppen climate classification is one of the most widely used climate classification systems. It was first published by German-Russian climatologist Wladimir Köppen (1846–1940) in 1884, with several later modifications by Köppen, notabl ...
system, Gregory Butte is located in an
arid climate
The desert climate or arid climate (in the Köppen climate classification ''BWh'' and ''BWk''), is a dry climate sub-type in which there is a severe excess of evaporation over precipitation. The typically bald, rocky, or sandy surfaces in desert ...
zone with hot, very dry summers, and chilly winters with very little snow.
Gallery
File:Padres Butte, southeast aspect.jpg, Southeast aspect
File:Padres Butte, Lake Powell.jpg, Northeast aspect
File:Lake Powell aerial.jpg, Padres Butte in lower right corner
See also
*
Colorado Plateau
The Colorado Plateau, also known as the Colorado Plateau Province, is a physiographic and desert region of the Intermontane Plateaus, roughly centered on the Four Corners region of the southwestern United States. This province covers an area of ...
References
External links
{{commons category, Padres Butte
* Weather forecast
Padres Butte
Buttes of Utah
Pre-statehood history of Utah
Old Spanish Trail (trade route)
Landforms of San Juan County, Utah
Glen Canyon National Recreation Area
Lake Powell
Colorado Plateau