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Fishmouth Cave Hike
Lower Fishmouth Cave is a short easy hike in the Lower Butler Wash Road area of Cedar Mesa. The most difficult section is just the final ascent of the talus slope once in the mouth of the cave.
There are interesting things to see once you arrive, there are handprints and remnants of the ancient ones such as their metates on some large boulders, plus there are a number of smaller ruins to see on the trail along the way.
Note
- Porta potties at turn off
- Dogs okay
- Keep your eye out for pottery sherds placed in little groups along the trail where people put them so everyone else can see them
Getting there
- Turn off from Lower Butler Wash Road is at ( 37.428342, -109.628711 ), 12.7 Miles from the south, 10.1 miles from the north
- The trailhead for Fishmouth Cave is one of the easiest to find because you can see the large cave to the west from Lower Butler Wash Road.
Distance
1.7 miles total out and back, 400 feet of elevation gain
Parking
Follow the sandy road from the turn-off until it dead ends
Route
From the parking area cross the shallow wash and begin following the well-worn trail toward the cave that you can see in the distance.
Soon there will be a long outcropping of rocky “wall” to your right, keep your eye out for the telltale signs of some ancient ruins. Keep looking down at the ground along the trail as you go you might see some pottery shards left near the trail to see.
You will soon turn left and descend down into a small cottonwood grove area and back out, and then begin following a narrow gully upstream eventually coming on a ruin in an alcove to the right with a small trail if you want to get closer and explore it.
Continue on up the gully and another smaller ruin in an alcove on the left will appear.
Eventually, you will come to slick rock rising upwards in front of you and the cave in sight above you, ascend the slick rock.
Sometimes there are large potholes with water in them. As you get closer, you should see a minor cave to the right with a small ruin in it.
The last challenge is making your way up the loose talus and scree slope to reach the cave mouth. The path up is not obvious, but as you get going you will eventually start to make out the way.
You will work up a sweat getting up the talus, but the inside of the cave is a nice cooling reward.
There is a big boulder in the center of the cave, look closely for metates and some ancient corncobs, and a few pottery shards hopefully still there for you to see.
In the back of the cave to the right look for the ancient hand prints and the ghostly figure to the right of them.
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