Photo #6586 - Monitor and Merrimac Buttes View area. Elevation 4,800 feet. The Monitor and Merrimac Buttes are 600 feet high monoliths which are so-named because of their resemblance to the two Civil War ironclad ships. The Monitor, to the right, was the Union ship. The Merrimac was the Confederate ship. For the next miles, the North Fork and the South Fork of Sevenmile Canyon are to the right and left of this narrow finger of the Big Flat (or Island-in-the-Sky) peninsula. Dead Horse Point Mesa Scenic Byway