Bears Ears April 2026

 We took a  trip to Utah to Cedar Mesa. Stayed 4 nights in Bluff and hiked 3 days in Bears Ears National Monument. The first hike was in Lower butler wash to the San Juan river.

Claret Cup Cactus blooming

On the drop into the canyon there are some old carved wolf prints in the wash floor. They are very hard to spot.

Along the way we passed this petroglyph on the left side of the trail.

There was a ruin up on a ledge on the right.

Up close to the ruin

Desert Spiny Lizard

Petroglyphs at a site shortly past the ruin

Petroglyphs at the River.

As we returned to the car we missed another ruin on the far side of the canyon. This is a petroglyph of footprints taken with a telephoto lens there.

Rare flower

After that hike we decided to try the road to River House and were able to make it all the way. Quite an adventure

Shortly past the River House is the Kachina Panel at the end of the road.

The next day we went to the House on Fire and explored up canyon for other ruins we heard about.