Church Rock, Rock formation near Monticello, Utah, United States.

Church Rock is a solitary sandstone column along U.S. Route 191 near Monticello, Utah, standing prominently beside the highway. The formation features distinctive vertical walls and rises significantly from the surrounding terrain, making it hard to miss while driving through the region.

The 200-foot sandstone column was owned by rancher Claud Young of Monticello, who held about 2,000 acres of cattle range in Dry Valley before the highway came through. In the late 1940s he contracted workers to cut a 16 by 24 foot opening into the rock with dynamite, used to store salt licks and feed for cattle. The rock remains in the Young family, shared among Claud and Inez Young's children and their descendants.

Marie Ogden, a spiritualist who lectured across the U.S. in the 1920s, called Church Rock and San Juan County "the spiritual center of the universe." In 1933 she moved with a small band of followers onto barren land along Utah Route 211 and named it the Home of Truth. Members surrendered their worldly goods to Ogden and followed a strict code of conduct; women did domestic chores while men worked the arid farm acreage. Remains of the settlement, including a few buildings and a small cemetery, lie on a ridge called Photograph Gap.

This rock formation sits right along the highway and requires no hiking or special preparation to view and photograph. You can stop at the roadside to examine it up close or capture images from various angles throughout the day.

The 16-by-24-foot opening cut into the rock in the late 1940s was made with dynamite for rancher Claud Young, to store salt licks and cattle feed. It was not the start of a church carved by Marie Ogden's followers, as local myth claims. The rock remains in the hands of Young's descendants.