Ruins near Blanding

We visited four Native American ruins outside of town. Butler Wash is a nice short hike.

  

A short hike on the same road took us to  the Mule Canyon Ruins. 

The Mule Canyon trail takes you to the House on Fire ruins. The hike takes you back and forth and sometimes through a wash. Luckily it was dry for our trip.

The ruins are called “on Fire” due to the reflection of the sunlight on the swirling rock of the ceiling area at a certain time of the day. We were a bit late, but we could see what they mean.

The humor to this was that there was a guy there who told us the best picture is by lying on the ground and aiming toward the ceiling area. He was right, but it was funny to see John, a German couple, and a Korean couple lying on the ground trying to get the perfect picture.

There were also some hand prints on the rocks at this stop.

Just south of Blanding is the Five Kiva Pueblo. It’s back a couple of miles from the main road but right off the parking lot.

Just for the fun of it, there’s Comb Ridge, a step-like fold in the earth. The road cuts through the ridge and is called Comb’s Cut by locals. Also in this area is a rock formation called Bears Ears. Up close I don’t see the resemblance.

Farther away I can see it (very small on the mountains in the background). You can see these “Ears” for miles and they were used as a landmark before GPS.

Next controversy (lots of them in this area) is the Bears Ears National Monument. Obama formed this monument in 2016 with 1.35 million acres. Trump reduced it 85% (!) to only 0.2 million acres in 2017. No president has made such a large reduction before. After visiting this area, I can see there are some amazing lands that are now unprotected.