River House Ruins Trail at Comb Ridge

The River House Ruins Trail follows a sandy 4WD road along the southwest side of Comb Ridge for 4 miles to the San Juan River in southeast Utah about 7 miles west of the town of Bluff.

Besides the River House Ancestral Pueblo Ruins there are several historic sites along the trail associated with early pioneers and settlers. About 1.5 miles east of the Ruins site is the Butler Wash Petroglyph Panel.

The Trail Head is just to the west of Comb Ridge along Utah Route 163. There is an interpretive sign at the turnoff that introduces the difficulties that Mormon pioneers had in getting past the massive sandstone obstacle that Comb Ridge presented. A few minutes further down the trail is the Navajo Springs site.

The sign here describes the situation on December 27, 1879 when the starving Mormon scouts improved an Ancestral Pueblo Trail and made it over the Ridge. On the east side of Comb Ridge there is a marker for Hobbs Wash that describes the area where the scouts including George Hobbs spent that night before finally arriving in the area that is now Bluff.

The trail south is mostly flat, crossing a wash several times. The vegetation is mostly the invasive Tamarisk, though this tree offers a little shade that the native Rabbit Brush does not. About 3 miles south the trail starts to climb San Juan Hill; the area that the pioneers decided was the most feasible place to try to cross the rugged ridge. The interpretive sign describes how hard it was here on the animals and pioneers to labor up the steep rocky slope.

Further on is the area called the Rincone. In 1885 a trading post was established here at a point that was popular for crossing the San Juan River. Observing the terrain on the other side I wondered where anyone came from and where they went when they crossed at this point. It’s hard to see any travel routes on the other side. The bottoms area here is green with a lot of Cottonwood and Russian Olive Trees.

Most of the visitors to the River House Ruin arrive as part of rafting trips on the San Juan River. The trip from Bluff to Mexican Hat is popular. The ruins site is in the set of sandstone cliffs that are just above the river bottoms. There is a higher set of sandstone cliffs with a road below that could cause a hiker some confusion but these higher cliffs are well back from the river.

The River House appears to have about a dozen rooms and a circular kiva. It also has pictographs on the alcove walls including a large two toned snake. The left side of the alcove has several white hand prints and other figures.

There is a ledge trail from the west that leads to the ruins also. I followed the ledge trail by accident. About 100 yards west of the River House Ruin there is a small granary ruin site along the ledge trail. A hiker could arrive at the ruins and find no one here, or find a group of 21 rafters like I did.

The Butler Wash Petroglyph Panel is 1.5 miles further east from the River House. The 4WD road continues until the last 150 yards. There are several small petroglyph panels along the way giving a preview of the large and spectacular panel ahead. This area along the San Juan River is very rich in petroglyphs, the Sand Island site closer to Bluff being an easy site to visit.

The left side of the large panel seems to have the clearest images, featuring several large broad shouldered figures. The panel extends for about 100 yards to the right but the desert varnish appears to be recovering many of the figures making them harder to see.

I found at least one flute player here that appeared to use part of the natural rock for the headdress.

There is a shady area below the elevated panel with good views up and down the river. There is at least one small ruins site visible with binoculars on the south side of the river in this area. The Butler Wash Panel is a popular stop for the rafting groups.

I was 3:30 hours into my hike when I turned back to retrace my steps. It took me 2:30 hours to go the 5.5 miles back to my starting point and a total of 6:00 hours for the 11 mile trip. I carried 4 liters of water and drank it all. This early June day was a little cooler than average with the temperature about 65 F at 9:00 AM and about 85 F at 3:00 PM. There was some breeze in the afternoon that helped with cooling.

Todie Canyon to Split Level Ruin-Grand Gulch

Todie Canyon is one of the five or six entry points into the 51.7 mile Grand Gulch Primitive Area trail in the Cedar Mesa area of southeast Utah.

The Todie Canyon trail head is about 3.5 miles south of the Kane Gulch Ranger Station along Utah Highway 261, and then another mile down a dirt road. The BLM charges a $2 fee for day hiking in the Grand Gulch system.

The trail starts out as an easy walk along the canyon rim for about 0.5 miles and then descends very steeply to the canyon bottom. The route is a rocky jumble for about a mile and the going is slow, before smoothing out as it approaches the junction with the Kane Gulch Trail.

The junction is about 7.5 miles along the Kane Gulch trail, so Todie Canyon is a shortcut that allows a day hiker to view this more distant part of the Grand Gulch. There are several pools of water and huge boulders that require the trail to detour away from the canyon bottom for short distances. Take careful note what the route in and out of the canyon looks like as it can be confusing, though it is well marked.

The Todie Canyon has more small Ancestral Pueblo Ruins to view in the upper section than nearby Kane Gulch, though most of them are high on the canyon walls and inaccessible. There are at least five sites, one of the sites seems to be a series of granaries side by side.

There is a canyon floor level site just past the junction with the Kane Gulch Trail about 2.5 miles down the trail. This site doesn’t seem to have a name but has a number of small structures and a red geometric pictograph high on the sandstone wall.

The site isn’t completely obvious from the trail. The Pinon Pine and Utah Juniper trees obscure the view from the main trail, and it would be easy to walk past it. There are spur trails off of the main trail that lead to this site and the Split Level site.

About 3.8 miles down the route the highlight Split Level Ruins appears. About 100 yards before this south facing alcove site there is a small petroglyph panel. This petroglyph panel has two figures that look like long snouted mountain sheep standing up on their hind legs. They resemble the popular Kokopelli figures but without any sign of a flute.

The Split Level Ruin is also not immediately visible from the trail. The alcove is visible but the view is blocked by trees and you’re not sure if anything is there until you explore closer.

Split Level Ruin is one of the major sites in this area. It seems to feature a tower pressed against the sandstone wall, overlooking the low structures in front.

It took me 2:30 hours to arrive at Split Level Ruin. I had some trouble on the way back as I tried climbing out at the wrong point. I wasted about an hour and used about 6:00 hours for this 7.6 mile hike. There were very few hikers in this part of Grand Gulch on a 65 F, day in late April.

Kane Gulch Trail to Turkey Pen Ruins and Stimper Arch

The Kane Gulch Trail is a hiking and horse trail and is one of the five or six trail heads for the popular 51.7 mile Grand Gulch Primitive Area Trail in the Cedar Mesa area in southeast Utah.

The trail head is at the Kane Gulch Ranger Station a few miles south of the junction of Utah routes 95 and 261. Natural Bridges National Monument is nearby to this area. This is one of the canyons where the BLM charges a small fee for use of the trail.

The trail descends along the canyon floor with the sandstone walls gradually becoming deeper and massive. There are springs and water pools and some riparian habitat along the canyon floor and Pinon Pine and Utah Juniper and other desert vegetation along the canyon sides. A few of the narrow shady areas have some tall Douglas Firs.

In the first four miles I only saw one granary ruins high on the canyon side. Compared with nearby Arch Canyon near Comb Ridge, the canyon sides here are steeper and offer fewer sites for small ruins, at least in this upper section. The canyon floor seemed to be narrower and rockier.

At the 4.0 mile mark there is a good ruins site at the junction of Kane Gulch and Grand Gulch, known as the Junction Ruins. From the distance the upper level structures are visible. The wide lower alcove shelters several small structures.

It is a short climb up to view the low structures. The midden trash area in front of the site is more obvious than at most sites and has a chain around it to deter visitors from walking over it. The midden area has many pottery shards to view and a surprising amount of small corn cobs. I looked closely for rock art along the walls but didn’t find any here. The terrain at this deep canyon junction is wide and flat and very scenic and shady, a pleasant place to linger.

The Turkey Pen Ruins site is only 0.7 miles past the Junction Ruins. This is also a multi level site in a large elevated alcove. There is a squarish kiva like structure right at the entrance to the site, with several small structures pressed against the sandstone walls. During my visit the far half of the site was closed.

The Turkey Pen Ruins site is rich in pictographs, featuring many hand prints, with some big horn sheep and some humanoid figures. At least three colors are used here, white and red for the hand prints and brown for one of the broad shouldered humanoid figures. One of the big horn sheep was two toned in brown and white.

From the elevated area of Turkey Pen Ruins, it looked like there was a small arch visible across on the other side of the canyon, but it may have just been the light. The map I had mentions Stimper Arch 0.3 miles further around a meander on the canyon. After viewing Stimper Arch, I turned around here, at the 5.0 mile mark and returned to the trail head.

My total hike was 5:20 hours for the 10 miles I hiked. The going is uphill on the way back and I noticed the sandy sections more. The trail is a little harder to follow going uphill. Trail segments that aren’t part of the main trail can lead you astray. I carried three liters of water on a 70 degree F. mid April day and had a few swallows left at the end.

Bluff Great House

The Bluff Great House Site in southeast Utah, is thought to be at the edge of the regional culture that was centered on Chaco Canyon in New Mexico, 125 miles to the southeast.

The Bluff site is on a hill overlooking the San Juan River Valley. From the intersection of Road 3 East and Mulberry in the town of Bluff, follow the paved road that starts west and curves back north to the parking area next to an information kiosk.

There isn’t much of a hike here. The ruins site is an easy stroll across the road. The terrain here is dry and grassy with massive sandstone cliffs to the north. The San Juan River rises in the mountains to the east and flows west toward Lake Powell and the Colorado River above Glen Canyon Dam. Bluff is a launch point for rafting trips into the wild canyon areas to the west.

There is a large rubble mound that is the remains of the Great House. This structure is thought to have been constructed by 1100 AD and abandoned by 1300 AD. The interpretive information in the kiosk indicates that the Great House was rectangular with three circular kivas and about 20 rooms, with a section that was two stories tall. The University of Colorado is working on the site and there is a wooden structure that covers a trench where some of the wall remains can be viewed.

To the south of the Great House are the mostly unexcavated remains of a 45 foot diameter Great Kiva that rests six feet below the surface. All that can be seen for now is a shallow depression.

Related sites in the area are the large petroglyph panel at Sand Island, a few miles to the west and the large site at the Edge of the Cedars Museum in Blanding about 25 miles to the north. There are also many small sites and hikes in the Comb Ridge area about five miles to the west.

Top of Comb Ridge Trail-Procession Panel

Comb Ridge is a massive wedge of uplifted sandstone that runs north and south for 80 miles in southeast Utah. The east side of Comb Ridge along Butler Wash Road has many eroded canyons that offer interesting hiking.

One of the trails allows a moderate route to the top of Comb Ridge and also has the Procession petroglyph panel.

Butler Wash Road starts about 5.0 miles west of Bluff along Highway 163, near the San Juan River. The trail that begins about 6.6 miles north of the south gate of Butler Wash Road offers a route to get to one of the high points of Comb Ridge offering wide views of the remote Cedar Mesa area, an area rich with small Ancestral Pueblo ruins sites.

 This trail starts on a short side road from the Butler Wash Road and doesn't have a BLM sign in box or any trail head information.

The trail is mostly over sandstone without a marked route. Head for the reddish ridge and stay to the south of the deep canyon, working along the south rim. There are visible trail segments on the areas that aren't bare rock.

The trail leads to a view point between two rugged peaks of Comb Ridge. To the right are some flat vertical south facing cliffs. The environment here is scattered Pinon Pine and Utah Juniper trees with Mormon Tea, Prickly Pear Cactus, and maybe Blackbrush. This area is very hot in the summer with spring and fall being the best times to visit.

To the upper west end of the cliffs is the Procession petroglyph panel. The trail doesn't lead directly to the petroglyph panel so you'll have to steer up to the right.

There doesn't seem to be any ruins in the vicinity of this panel, though ruins are present in the adjacent canyons. This panel features three long lines of small figures marching toward a circle along with several animal figures.

I notice that among the marchers are a few larger figures, with birds on their heads and carrying long staffs.

The nearby Sand Island petroglyph site has several flute player figures, and ducks on the heads of figures are also found there and  in several other sites.

The line of marchers extends around the natural corner of the rock and they keep coming. Another petroglyph site that appears to show a procession is along the Hidden Valley Trail near Moab, Utah.

Some of the marchers seem to be in particularly good spirits, waving to the viewers from across the gap of deep time. I spent about 2:30 hours on this hike and walked about four miles, including the walk past the petroglyphs to the top of Comb Ridge. At the top, there is a ruins site in view in one of the canyons to the north.