800-Year-Old Cliff Dwellings Hide in Plain Sight Along This Utah Canyon Trail

Butler Wash Ruins, Utah

The Butler Wash Ruins tell a simple truth about desert life: people have always found ways to make it work. Tucked into Utah’s rocky walls, these stone homes have lasted 800 years in the harsh sun. Here’s how this ancient neighborhood in the cliffs came to be.

Building These Magnificent Ruins

Ancestral Puebloans built Butler Wash Ruins between 1200-1300 AD during what archaeologists call the Pueblo III period. The ruins stand 14 miles southwest of Blanding, Utah at mile marker 111 on Highway 95.

These cliff dwellings now sit within Bears Ears National Monument, which protects over 100,000 archaeological sites across 1.36 million acres. The settlement includes living rooms, storage areas, and ceremonial chambers preserved in the dry desert climate.

The Strategic Cliff Dwellings Location

Ancient builders placed their homes in alcoves high above the canyon floor for protection. Three separate alcoves contain ruins, with the largest serving as the community’s center. The site’s position gave excellent security with paths that defenders could easily control.

People farmed the rich soil of the canyon bottom directly below their homes and grew crops on broader lands extending down the wash. Families built in these natural shelters to guard against both enemies and harsh weather.

Four Distinctive Ceremonial Kivas

Butler Wash contains four kivas arranged in the front row of structures. Three follow the round Mesa Verde tradition with smoke deflectors and central fire pits for community gatherings.

The northernmost kiva has a square shape showing Kayenta cultural influence. Unlike typical Mesa Verde kivas built underground, people constructed these chambers above ground on natural ledges. Kivas functioned as gathering places for ceremonies, community meetings, and social events among Ancestral Puebloan groups.

The Cultural Boundary At Comb Ridge

Butler Wash sits along Comb Ridge, a 120-mile long rock formation that archaeologists consider a dividing line between Mesa Verde and Kayenta cultural territories.

The ruins show Mesa Verde style building dominates, with the square Kayenta-style kiva showing cultural mixing. Pottery pieces found at the site mainly match Mesa Verde traditions.

This blending of styles reveals how different Ancestral Puebloan groups shared ideas and practices across boundaries. These distinct pottery and building methods help archaeologists track ancient population movements and cultural connections.

The Multi-Story Living Quarters

The community centered its activities in the largest alcove, which held most sleeping rooms.

Front rooms typically served as sleeping quarters while families used rear rooms for storing food and supplies. Multiple families lived together in a small area with tightly packed rooms.

The settlement has more storage rooms than living spaces, a pattern common in Pueblo III sites built during this period. This layout protected valuable food stores while making the most of limited space in the protective alcove.

Daily Life In The Cliff Community

People used plaza areas and kiva roofs as shared spaces for daily tasks like food processing, tool making, and socializing. The canyon bottom directly below provided good farmland for crops.

Built during the Pueblo III period (1150-1300 AD), Butler Wash marks the late phase of Ancestral Puebloan culture in the region. The flat plaza in front of the kivas created an open-air workspace where community members gathered for daily chores.

This setup encouraged community teamwork essential for survival in this challenging landscape.

Sipapus And Sacred Structures

Each kiva contains a sipapu, a small hole in the floor marking the portal through which the Ancestral Puebloans believed their ancestors emerged into this world from the one below. These holes linked their ceremonial spaces to the spiritual underworld.

Kivas served both religious and social purposes, working much like modern community centers or churches. The ceremonial structures reflected core spiritual beliefs that guided daily life for the people who lived here.

These sacred spaces kept connections between the community, their ancestors, and spiritual forces.

Agricultural Techniques Along Butler Wash

The community used farming methods specially adapted to the dry environment. They grew the “three sisters” crops—corn, beans, and squash—as their main foods, a practice dating back thousands of years to Mesoamerica.

These complementary plants provided key nutrients for survival: corn gave carbohydrates, beans added protein, and squash supplied vitamins. Farmers likely used seasonal rainfall in the wash to water crops during dry spells.

This farming knowledge helped communities feed themselves in a landscape getting less than 10 inches of rain each year.

Butler Wash Beyond The Main Ruins

Butler Wash stretches from northern Comb Ridge south to the San Juan River, holding numerous archaeological sites along its length.

Beyond the main ruins, visitors can find other important sites including Wolfman Panel with its rock carvings, Double Stack Ruin, and Procession Panel. The area contains about 50 significant canyons, many still unexplored by archaeologists.

The Great Puebloan Migration

Ancestral Puebloans lived throughout the Four Corners region from about 700 CE until the late 1200s CE. By 1250, the San Juan region became one of North America’s most crowded areas, with thousands of people across many communities.

Archaeological evidence shows most groups moved eastward toward the Rio Grande Valley in New Mexico and Arizona around 1300 CE. Descendants of these ancient people live today in modern Pueblo communities including Hopi, Zuni, Acoma, and Rio Grande Pueblos.

Visiting Butler Wash Ruins

Butler Wash Ruins is located along Highway 95 in southeastern Utah, about 11 miles west of Bluff. Look for the small pullout and trail marker on the north side of the road.

The hike to the viewpoint is easy and takes about 20 minutes each way. Follow the well-marked trail across the slickrock for roughly half a mile. The ruins sit high in the cliff face across the wash, so bring binoculars for the best views.

No entrance fee is required. Dogs are allowed but must be leashed.

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