Upper Butler Wash Trail to Target Ruin

The Upper Butler Wash Trail is 1.25 mile route that visits three easily visible Ancestral Pueblo sites along the main trail. The trail begins 0.25 miles east of the well marked publisized Butler Wash Ruins Trail that is along Scenic Byway Utah Route 95 west of Blanding in southeast Utah.

Just inside the fence at the trail head for the Butler Wash Ruins Trail, there is a path leading to the right that follows near the fence to the Upper Butler Wash trail head. There is also parking space along the highway close to the trail head, but there isn’t a sign identifying the trail.

From the west rim, the Upper Butler Wash is a narrow green gash in the sandstone. Down below, the trail area has a meandering creek and many trees.

The Ballroom Cave site is visible in a large alcove about 40 minutes of hiking along the trail, and two more sites are a short distance further. Not visible from the trail, and easily missed is the alcove containing the interesting Target Ruins.

The side trail that I used leading to the Target site is about 800 feet back toward the trail head from the large Ballroom site. The trail climbs abruptly and is more visible on the return hike than on the outward trip to the Ballroom. Coming around a corner, there is an alcove visible on the left, but the right side view of the alcove with the Target ruins is startling.

The Target Ruins is well located to be seen, but not touched. It is one of the most attractive sites that is easy to get to in the Cedar Mesa area. The left side alcove that is visible first provides a place to climb up and get some different viewing angles. I’ve seen pictures that show a target pictograph inside the Target ruins, visible from high on the left side, but I couldn’t see it during my visit.
 

The left side alcove has a small structure that appears to be for storage. There is also a small target shaped petroglyph on the alcove wall. There also appeared to be another storage ruin in a smaller alcove to the left of the large left side alcove.
 

There is some minor rock art below the Target Ruins. I saw two turkey tracks and some white handprints. Below the handprints are some hard to see geometric designs that resemble the designs seen on pottery.

Between the Target Ruin and the Ballroom Cave, there is another vague and steep side trail leading to a small alcove. There is a small wall fragment in this alcove also. I climbed up here first, thinking this was going to be the Target Ruins site. The Upper Butler Wash Trail thus has five ruins sites to find. I spent 2:30 hours on this hike on a 65 F degree early May day.

Upper Butler Wash Trail and Ballroom Cave

The Upper Butler Wash Trail is an unpublicized 1.25 mile route that visits three Ancestral Pueblo sites along a sandy creek bed. The trail begins at the well marked Butler Wash Ruins Trail that is along Scenic Byway Utah Route 95 west of Blanding in southeast Utah.

Just inside the fence at the trail head for the Butler Wash Ruins Trail, an unnoticed path takes off to the right and follows near the fence for 0.25 miles. There is a BLM sign in box and an alternate place to park near the highway sign for the better known trail.

After about 40 minutes along a somewhat overgrown path, criss crossing the creek and stepping over a lot of small fallen trees, the first of three ruins sites appears in an alcove to the left.

I climbed up the sandy hill to the right, though left might have been a better choice. The first site is known as Ballroom Cave. There is some interpretive information in an ammo box on the right side of the site. Besides the main alcove there are side caves on each side.
 

On the alcove walls to the right are several small petroglyphs. I suppose the one to the left is a deer with a big rack, somewhat stylized.

 Room blocks to the right have some roof beams still in place. Stepping carefully past these, there is a cave room that appears empty but I didn't go in there very far.

Above the room blocks is a good multicolored pictograph. There are more handprint pictographs along the right side wall.

On the left side there are some wall sections and another deeper cave room that looked mostly empty but I didn't go down there. The view from the site is elevated and the creek bottom below is thick with cottonwoods and brushy plants. This site seemed to have a very thick sand layer below the sandstone layer. Along the left side of the site there may be a seep spring providing water.
 

Within the next 500 yards there are two more sites. The second site is hard to climb up into, and I just looked from below. The third site is mostly a small storage area in a small elevated alcove with a wall fragment down below. There is not much to see except to marvel at the placement of the sites and the environment they reside in. I spent about 2:00 hours on this trail.

There are two more ruins sites along the Upper Bulter Wash Trail that aren't obvious from the trail. On the return hike look for side trails that climb abruptly, on the same side as the Ballroom site. One of the side trails leads to the interesting Target Ruins site.