Agathla Peak

Agathla Peak, also written Agathlan and known in Spanish as El Capitan, is a peak south of Monument Valley in northern Arizona, seven miles north of Kayenta and visible from U.S. Route 163. It rises more than 1,500 feet above the surrounding terrain and is held sacred by the Navajo. The English name derives from the Navajo aghaałą́, meaning "much wool", apparently for the fur of antelope and deer that accumulated on the rock. Geologically it is an eroded volcanic plug of volcanic breccia cut by dykes of minette, an unusual igneous rock, and one of many such diatremes in the Navajo country of north-eastern Arizona and north-western New Mexico; it and Shiprock in New Mexico are the most prominent of them. The rocks belong to the Navajo Volcanic Field of the southern Colorado Plateau, and their ages cluster near 25 million years.

Where it is

Agathla Peak is a natural landmark near Kayenta, in Navajo County. It is one of the natural landmarks in this database, and appears in the statewide ranking of Arizona attractions.

How this ranking was reached

No official visitor count is published for Agathla Peak, so its score rests on public interest and tourism significance, and is capped below the level a measured attraction can reach. That is why the medium confidence above is not higher. The weighting is explained in full on the methodology page, and every axis is broken out under Facts and sources at the foot of this page.

Note on the data: No official visitor count is published for this attraction.

Sources

• Public interest: Wikimedia pageviews (en.wikipedia, human traffic), 2024
• Coordinates and designations: Wikidata(opens in a new tab)
• County: U.S. Census geography via FCC Area API, resolved from coordinates

Record last verified 2026-08-12.