
Five Kiva Ruins and arch
These ruins and are the closest ruins to see from Blanding. They are quite large and easy to access.
For independent travelers who want to dig deeper
House on Fire Ruins
Bears Ears National Monument consists of over 1.3 million acres and gets its name from the two buttes that rise 2000 feet over the surrounding lands that look like the ears of a bear.
It is bordered by Canyonlands National Park to the north and anchored by Valley of the Gods to the south with Cedar Mesa, the Comb Ridge formation, and Grand Gulch being the main destination for hiking and backpacking.
This area was home to thousands of Ancestral Puebloans (also known as the Anasazi culture), they thrived here for a time and left their marks on the land through their artwork on the canyon walls, and with granaries and homesites built under ledges almost always built on the north side of canyons in order to capture the solar warming of the sun in winter.
Vallery of the Gods
Some of the sites are easily accessible while many others are more remote and require day hikes or overnight backpacking. This remoteness has helped preserve these sights extremely well and provide those who seek them out an amazing experience that can’t help but connect you with the people who lived here so long ago.
Finding pottery sherds or 900-year-old corn cobs near metates (grinding holes) is not unusual. Just make sure to take nothing but photographs so future generations can enjoy this pristine outdoor museum also.
Signs of the Anasazi culture you will find on your hikes
This is not a place of visitor centers and crowds, but remoteness and wilderness. You will need to be self-sufficient and look out for your own safety as it’s not unusual to be the only visitor for a week in some of the more remote locations.
The main towns to explore from are either Blanding or Bluff. Blanding is 30 minutes drive to the north of Bluff and is larger and has more resources. Bluff is tiny, but is closer to the southern parts of the area and Comb Ridge which is a north-south running ridge filled with ancient Indian rock art and hiking trails.
Bluff has a direct historical connection to the area, being founded by the Mormon pioneers following their epic Hole-in-the-Rock odyssey from 1879. From either town you can easily day trip out into the region to explore.
Comb Ridge is a fantastic place to hike and explore, specifically the eastern side along Lower Butler Wash Road. This was a major home to Ancestral Puebloan Indians and they left many ancient rock art panels, granaries and cliff ruins, most are accessible from short hikes from trailheads along the road.
Grand Gulch and Cedar Mesa
Cedar Mesa is a wooded plateau riddled with small canyons for day hikes and Grand Gultch is a major canyon network for major backpacking adventures as well as shorter day hiking. Both areas were also inhabited extensively by ancient Puebloan Indians and are filled with evidence of their lives with ruins and rock art.
These ruins and are the closest ruins to see from Blanding. They are quite large and easy to access.
Arch Canyon has ruins and three arches, explore Walnut Knob to see amazing petroglyphs of hunting parties and game
There are many ruins in the canyon, but House on Fire ruin is the most famous of them, getting its name from the effects that the sunlight has on the sandstone cliff of the overhang that it is built under
Road Canyon contains many ruins, granaries, and kivas. “Fallen Roof Ruin” derives its name from the elaborate pattern created by the missing sandstone slabs of rock that fell out of the roof of the alcove in front of it.
Choose to view the ruins from an overlook or hike up the wash and explore the ruins close up
A petroglyph panel with a graphic representation of a large crane and sun symbol
See a higher and lower set of ruins with painted handprints, metates, rockart and impressive mud mortared rock walled structures still standing
A large intact ruin on top of a 400-foot rock pedestal with views out over Comb Ridge
Hidden up a side canyon of Comb Ridge is an impressive ruin complex with petroglyphs, pottery sherds, corn cobs, sharpening grooves, and grinding metates.
Hike to see multiple rock art panels with one with a unique wolfman like figure, across the canyon are ruins you can continue to
See two sets of Allosaurus dinosaur tracks from 160 million years ago
A short easy hike to a large cave with handprints and metates, there are a number of smaller ruins to see along the trail.
The hike to a ruin split over two ledges is filled with hundreds of pictographs, large rocks covered in metates, sharpening marks, pottery shards, and painted handprints
The park’s viewpoint overlooks the meander of two giant bends (goosenecks) of the San Juan River. Geologists consider this part of the river to be one of the finest examples of “entrenched meanders” anywhere in the world.
Sit 400 feet above Arch Canyon and enjoy a great sunset
This is a little visited but interesting location full of goblins and hoodoos contained in three main groups of formations relatively close to each other
On Highway 162, stretching for 3 miles east from Bluff there are multiple rock art sites sitting right next to the highway.
Valley of the Gods is a beautiful treasure waiting to be discovered, unlike Monument Valley, it is free, and you can explore without having to hire a tour guide
Photography tips for making the most of your visit to this iconic location that has been the backdrop of countless movies, commercials, print ads, calendars and much more.
There are two large concentrations of rock art to see at two sites that accumulated artwork over 2000 years.
A famous rock panel carved with about 650 individual petroglyphs of abstract shapes and symbols to more recognizable human and animal figures
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