Lukachukai Mountains

{{Short description|Landform in Apache County, Arizona}}

File:Buffalo Pass, Lukachukai.jpg, Lukachukai Mountains, Arizona]]

{{Commons category|Lukachukai Mountains}}

The Lukachukai Mountains are a mountain range in northeast Arizona, entirely located on the Navajo Nation. The highest point of the range is an unnamed point at {{convert|9466|ft|m|abbr=off|sp=us}} above sea level.{{cite peakbagger|pid=3928 |name=Lukachukai Mountains High Point, Arizona}} While open during the winter, no road maintenance is performed and chains or four wheel drive with good snow tires are essential due to grades of up to 14% in many places.

The Lukachukai Mountain trail gives access to some of the scenic red-rock high country here. The trailhead is located just south of Buffalo Pass on Indian Route 13, a paved highway.Arizona Trails: Northeast, by P. Massey et al., {{ISBN|978-1930193024}} [https://books.google.com/books?id=_ICNTB72HrYC&pg=PA246&lpg=PA246&dq=%22Lukachukai+Mountains%22+Arizona trail guide] (2006) The trail is passable to OHVs in dry weather. A permit is required from the Navajo Nation government.{{citation needed|date=August 2015}}

There is a belt of uranium deposits that crosses the Lukachukai Mountains. The ore belt is within a bed of lenticular sandstone and mudstone that apparently provided sufficient permeable sandstone for the passage of ore solutions, and sufficient impermeable mudstone to restrict movement of solutions to particular sandstone beds. An unusual concentration of organic material (carbonized wood?) served as a precipitation agent.John Alan Masters, "Geology of the uranium deposits of the Lukachukai Mountains area, northeastern Arizona." Economic Geology; March 1955; v. 50; no. 2; pp. 111–126; {{doi|10.2113/gsecongeo.50.2.111}} [http://econgeol.geoscienceworld.org/cgi/content/abstract/50/2/111 Abstract ]