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My friend believes the image on the left to be the Praying Hands formation. I say Nay! It is the spire on the bottom left corner of the image on the right. My friend maybe older and wiser, and knows far more about Arizona history and landscape than I, but I'm convinced I've got him on this one. Help!

Interestingly, if you google it you get a lot of image hits.

I don't know the answer, but I recollect Ed Abbey had some choice words about our habit of naming every danged rock formation so that you are no longer able to look at something in its purity of form but you will have, in the back of your mind, some inanely stupid and trite name that some yahoo has given the thing, such as "praying hands." Spare me. I myself would lean toward Abbey's philosophy. Once named, it is hard to get that image of what the name represents out of your mind when you look at a rock formation. With some formations, of course, it is inescapable that the human mind will "see" the old man with a beard, or the Indian chief, etc. But for others it is a stretch, and I wish people would stop naming them. Or at least, name them with something that does not look like the rock, such as Comanche Point in the Canyon, which I can see in my mind's eye with the full moon rising over it from my camp at Tanner Beach. Love that place. I can call it Comanche Point without thinking of a Comanche, just a great-looking cliff.

azbackpackr wrote:
I don't know the answer, but I recollect Ed Abbey had some choice words about our habit of naming every danged rock formation so that you are no longer able to look at something in its purity of form but you will have, in the back of your mind, some inanely stupid and trite name that some yahoo has given the thing, such as "praying hands." Spare me.

Well said. When I was young I learned that the Apache called Weaver's Needle...Stallion's D!k and what was once Squaw Peak was actually Squaw's Tit.
Some friends of ours bought a home in the hills north of Shea and east of the Mayo. From their vantage point they renamed Camelback...Homer Mtn. It truly does look like Homer Simpson lying down, now I can't get the image and association out of my mind.

Alston Neal wrote: It truly does look like Homer Simpson lying down, now I can't get the image and association out of my mind.

DOH!

Hikers Guide to the Superstition Wilderness
Page 133
Marked as S on the map

Page 138
The hand formation is actually easier to see as you are driving from Apache Junction north on State Route 88

Another point of confusions, there's:
"The Hand"
and
"The Praying Hands"

in the same area.

Whatever your photo on the left is is a bad angle and hard for me to tell what it is.

nonot wrote:Another point of confusions, there's:
"The Hand"
and
"The Praying Hands"

Carlson writes twice as if they're same...
"Two of the more popular crags are the Crying Dinosaur and The Hand (Praying Hands)."

"The farthest one to the north is named Praying Hands [9-S]. The "hand" formation is actually easier to see as you are driving from Apache Junction north on State Route 88."

What? You mean to say there is no Praying Dinosaur?

In Moab, on the 24 Hour Race in Oct, I am usually at the first aid station at Prostitute Butte.

azbackpackr wrote:Prostitute Butte.

Does anyone know if that was named for it's physical or functional attributes!?

Hehehehe! I was waiting for that question! Honestly, I think someone came up with the name because it rhymes. I will ask around when I am at the race next month.