[4] Towering 1,200 feet (370 m) above its surrounding terrain, it is the highest point along the San Rafael Reef, and prominently visible from long distances.

This mountain consists of bleached, almost white Wingate Sandstone, which is the remains of wind-borne sand dunes deposited approximately 200 million years ago in the Late Triassic, overlain and capped by Kayenta Formation, together forming the massive San Rafael Reef, which bounds the San Rafael Swell.

Beneath these cliff-forming strata of the Glen Canyon Group are the lightly-colored slopes of the Chinle Formation which is composed of the Church Rock, Moss Back, Monitor Butte, and Temple Mountain Members.

There are accounts that she visited Temple Mountain during one of her trips to the United States because she wanted to see where ore of such high quality originated.

[6] During the uranium mining boom as a result of the escalation of the Cold War, a shanty town known as Temple City temporarily sprang up here.