Butler Wash - West Fork - Travel Guide

Butler Wash – West Fork: Ballroom Cave, Target Ruin, Tower House

Ballroom Cave

Ballroom Cave was inhabited between A.D. 1150 and 1350; there is a main alcove plus two caves.  The climb up to the alcove and into the caves is quite steep.

 Target Ruin

The Alcove is filled with various rooms with a curtain wall fronting the alcove and rooms behind it at one end. The Target Ruin is named for a large target or bulls-eye design painted on the side of a wall inside the curtain wall.

Tower House

Tower House is a 1000 year-old cliff dwelling, also known as the "Waterfall Ruin" as during rainfall, a waterfall falls over the cave opening.

·          Location is 34.9 miles from Monticello, take Hwy. 191 south into and through Blanding, 24.6 miles, until the junction of State Hwy. 95, make a right onto Hwy. 95 and travel 10.3 miles.  There is roadside pullout on the right (northeast) side of the road near the sign for the “Butler Wash Ruins”, park in the pullout. If you reach the turnoff for the Butler Wash Ruins (Overlook) you have gone too far. Turn around and head back 3 - 10ths of a mile to the pullout.  There will be a fence to walk through with a BLM mylar marker.

• Distance: 3.2 miles (round trip) to see three (3) Ruins along West Fork of Upper Butler Wash.
• Elevation: 5,215-ft. at Trailhead, 5,315-ft. at West Fork of Upper Butler Wash
• Elevation Gain: 100-ft.  
• Difficulty: easy-moderate on well worn, dirt trail; steep climbing near ruin sites.
• Admission: Free
• Camping: Dispersed, no water or vault toilets.
• Pets: Allowed, must be leashed, owners expected to clean up after pet (s).

 Bring lots of drinking water for this hike, and don't forget the picnic!

Mary Cokenour

Butler Wash Ruins - Pueblo Overlook.

Butler Wash Ruins - Pueblo Overlook

Butler Wash Ruin is a cliff dwelling that was built and occupied by the Ancestral Puebloans, sometimes known as Anasazi, in about 1200 AD.  There are habitation, storage and ceremonial structures, including four kivas.

·         Location is 35.0 miles from Monticello; take Hwy. 191 south into and through Blanding, 24.6 miles, until the junction of State Hwy. 95, make a right onto Hwy. 95 and travel 10.4.  There will be a sign indicating the turn off into the parking area.

 ·         Round trip hiking distance is 1 mile and takes approximately 30-60 minutes.

·         Difficulty: Moderate.  Trail to the site winds its way across slickrock and into/out of washes to reach an overlook of the cliff dwelling. An interpretive sign is located at the overlook.

·         Vault toilets, parking area; but no drinking water available.

·         Admission: Free

·         Camping: Not Allowed

·         Pets: Allowed, owners are expected to clean up after pet (s).

There are a couple of benches along the trail; sit and enjoy the scenery.  Bring a picnic lunch, but whatever you pack in, must be packed out!

Mary Cokenour

Double Stack to Fishmouth - Comb Ridge, Part Two.

If you plan on doing the entire Comb Ridge road (CR 262) in one day; then you better plan well for it.  You'll need loads of water, healthy snacks and stamina!   Otherwise, the options are to camp at one of the numerous sites along the road; stay in a hotel/motel; or simply keep going back for short trips until you get it all done.  Roy and I, since we live in Monticello, have the advantage of being able to go back whenever we want, and hike whichever trail we feel like doing.

This write up is basically to give my readers an idea of what the entire road has in store for them.  After doing the Wolfman Panel and Ruins; we spent the rest of the many hours in the area simply investigating trails and taking many photos of this most beautiful area.

To follow along better, I'll repost the same map I posted in my part one write up of Comb Ridge.  If you need to know the hiking and driving mileage, just refer to the map; the pertinent information is there.

On this adventure, we're starting from the fence that is located at the trailhead to Wolfman Panel and heading north towards State Highway 95.  About a half mile from there, look eastward and there is a cave, with what looks like ruins, within the cliffs; even my zoom lens couldn't make them out too distinctly.  Actually, you'll see many cave openings along the way; what might look like ruins turns out to be simply dried mud and naturally carved sandstone.

Cave eastward with possible ruins.

Naturally carved mud and sandstone within cave.

The next trailhead you'll come to is for Double Stack Ruins; there will be, to the west, three trails; the center and right trails lead to the trailhead and camping sites; the left leads to a camping area.  After parking, you'll have to descend into Butler Wash, but going in and out at this section is easy as paths have been dug out of the walls.  This is a 2.5 mile one way (5 mile round trip) hike to the ruins through areas of vegetation, desert and slickrock.  Besides the ruins, there is rock art at this location (pictographs and hand prints).

Easy descend into Butler Wash.



Easy ascend out of Butler Wash.

From the three way trail off CR 262, you'll see this Mesa up ahead.

Pretty much the terrain on the hikes is the same; in and out of Butler Wash; desert, vegetation, slickrock.  The road though is an adventure in itself; sand, rocks, potholes, chunks missing off the sides, miniature dry ravines caused by flood run off.  4 wheel drive is a must!





















The next three trails are for Procession Panel, Monarch Cave Ruins and Cold Spring Ruins; the scenery along the way is gorgeous!

Close up shot of the mesa's pinnacle.



From a distance, it resembles "rock art".



It's simply natural discoloring, but there is a pinnacle nearby.

On the way to Split Level Ruins, you'll come to a junction; CR 230 takes you past Tank Mesa and right back around to CR 262 again; it's simply a short detour if you want to take it, or not.

Approaching Tank Mesa and junction for CR 230.

Tank Mesa

Looking back at Tank Mesa from CR 262 heading North.


Split Level Ruins is only a 3 mile round trip hike; it's getting in and out of Butler Wash that is that most difficult of the trail.  It is very overgrown with vegetation; the hand and foot holds on the walls are extremely unstable.  Suggestion for this is carrying a lightweight, folding ladder to help get into and out of the Wash.


















Once again, don't forget to stop and take a good look at the scenery as you travel from Split Level Ruins to Fishmouth Cave.

The closer you drive towards Fishmouth Cave, the more apparent it becomes in the wall of Comb Ridge.  While it is a pretty awesome site, seeing the formation next to it only adds to the aquatic theme; it looks like a giant Ammonite.  In case you don't know what I'm referring to, it is a marine fossil that looks like a spiral; Utah is known for these type of fossils, since it was underwater for a long while.



Approach to Fishmouth Cave Trail.

Area across from Fishmouth Cave Trail.

Fishmouth Cave and "The Ammonite".

Fishmouth Cave.

"The Ammonite"

If you stay on CR 262, State Highway 95 is only 8.3 miles away; you'll notice how Comb Ridge begins to lose its "comb" structure. 





Now notice how I wrote, "If you stay on CR 262..."; a half mile before you reach SH 95, the road will split; to the left is SH 95, but to the right...  The right is also CR 262 and it goes for three miles before you reach CR 233 and this will also take you to SH 95 in a mile.  Of course we took the road to the right, we weren't ready to stop adventuring yet!  The condition of the road is still pretty much like it was going along Comb Ridge, but the scenery is gorgeous and you will eventually see SH 95 and Butler Wash Ruins in the distance.

There you go, a good basis for your journey(ies) to Comb Ridge along CR 262.  As Roy and I return and do the separate trails, I'll post write ups with photos.  Don't wait for us though...Go, hike and enjoy!!!

Mary Cokenour

Wolfman Panel and Ruins - Comb Ridge, Part One.

Comb Ridge; depending on the book you're reading ("Comb Ridge and its People" by Robert S. McPherson), or one of the many websites/blogs, about it, is 80 to 120 miles long from the base of the Abajo Mountains on the Blanding side to Kayenta, Arizona.  A monocline (step-like fold in rock strata consisting of a steeper dip within a horizontal or gently-dipping sequence) which, from a bird's eye view, resembles the teeth of a comb.  In the Navajo language, it translates to "Rock Extends in the Form of a Narrow Edge"; to the Mormon pioneers of 1880, it was another obstacle on their trek to settle along the San Juan River in an area they named "Bluff".

San Juan Couty Route 262 (Lower Butler Wash) is 21 miles long and extends between State Highway 95 (south of Blanding) to State Highway 163 (about 9 miles southwest of Bluff).  There are seven major points of interest along this route containing ruins and/or rock art; hiking, climbing and camping are side benefits...NO ATVs allowed past Butler Wash as you travel west towards the Ridge.  Map time!

If you don't like my map, let me recommend "Utah Anasazi Canyons - Cedar Mesa/Comb Ridge - 2014 Canyon Atlas" by Joe Berardi; even though they're topographic like maps, there is a lot of detail that made it so easy to navigate the area.

Roy and I spent about 9 hours along CR 262 divided between hiking, climbing, picnic lunch, trying to figure out where the trails are (it's BLM land and almost NO signs to help you figure out where you are).  If you don't buy the book I recommended, you will be thanking me for the semi-homemade map above; definitely use your odometer for this trip to figure out where the trails are exactly.  We chose to start at the Bluff end of CR 262.  "Why?", you ask?  Simple reason, we wanted to stop at Bluff Fort and pick up some of the made fresh daily cookies/brownies to add to our picnic lunch.

Taking almost two hundred photos of our journey, it's best that I divide up the story; starting with the Wolfman Panel and Ruins; two hours were spent just there!  One guide book describes the hike to the panel and ruins as "short, easy and interesting"; the "interesting" part was the most truthful of the description.  I'm getting ahead of myself, first I should tell you how to find CR 262 from Bluff.  As you leave the main section of Bluff, you'll go about nine miles to the junction where Route 191 turns south towards Arizona; Route 163 takes over to lead you towards Mexican Hat and Monument Valley.  8/10ths of a mile further along Route 163, there will be a closed cattle gate, the sign for CR 262 just beyond it; set the odometer to zero, open the gate, go through and re-close the gate.

Almost immediately there will be a split, go left; oh yeah, the road is completely dirt, rocks, potholes, small to large crevices created by flash flooding, twisty, sharp inclines and declines...four wheel drive is the must!  At the second split in the road, go right; from Route 163 you need to travel one mile to the Wolfman Panel trail, so hope you set your odometer at the gate.

At one mile there will be a cattle guard and a road will go out to the left, towards the Ridge; take that left hand trail.  It's only about 1/10th of a mile before you come to a parking area; get ready to hoof it from there; bring water!

Now here comes that short, easy hike....yeah, right.  From the posts (see above photo), if you walk in a northwesterly direction over the slickrock, you will quickly notice a cave; keep going for there are ruins there.  The dry wash that is between where you are standing and the ruins is Butler Wash; this will run parallel to CR 262 all the way up to State Highway 95.

Now comes the real "fun", finding the Wolfman Panel and Ruins.  Turn south and begin walking over the slickrock; eventually you will see two sets of cairns (small stones piled atop each other) next to each other; begin walking downward towards the dry wash and then parallel to it.  When we were there, someone/thing had knocked down a good many of the cairns, so our good deed was to re-stack them to mark the trail to the rock art and ruins.

...and then you'll see the trail itself.  WARNING: If you are claustrophobic and/or afraid of heights, this may not be a hike for you.  There will be sections where you will either have to squeeze between large boulders and the rock wall, or climb down over large boulders to a steep, rock strewn ledge.  When you get to the cave (evidence of it being used for camping), the ledge you need to walk gets even more narrow and tilts to a forty-five degree angle, downwards towards the dry wash.

Yes Roy, better make sure those hiking boots
 have their laces tied!

The Wolfman Panel

The Wolfman

Ranchers used this section as their personal shooting range.

Across from the Panel is another large cave; at first we thought this was the ruin site, but it is just sandstone and dirt that has been formed into interesting shapes by the weather.  There is a good number of these caves all through Butler Wash and Comb Ridge.


The Wolfman Ruins are further south from the Panel; you have to climb down into the dry wash ( a steep descent) walk along the wash until you see the remains of a beaver dam; walk over that to a steep ascent and the ruins should be a little further south from there.  It's about a half mile trek...we didn't do it, simply too exhausted after the "short, easy" hike to the Panel and we still had to get back to the SUV!  We do plan on going back and accomplishing this trek to the Wolfman Ruins though; we'll be better prepared.

So now I only have to go through the remaining 100 photos of the rest of CR 262, and then I can write up the other parts of Comb Ridge.  Oh, there is camping all along Butler Wash, some spots are tree lined, shady and quite lovely.

Mary Cokenour