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South Comb Wash | River House Ruins

Saturday, November 21, 2009

After our fun hike to The Citadel, Amanda and I headed back out Cigarette Springs Road, took a left on UT 261 and made our way down the Moki Dugway. We made a quick stop at Goosenecks State Park since we were in the area.

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Then we made our way back towards Bluff. Before heading through Comb Ridge, I decided to take a right onto South Comb Wash Road. I have driven the sections of Comb Wash north of US 163 before, but I had never headed south towards the San Juan River before, and I wanted to see if there was anything cool along this route.

As I suspected, when I got near the San Juan River I came across some of the markers indicating this was part of the Hole in the Rock route.

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I followed the markers down a short spur until I reached San Juan Hill, where the road ended anyways.

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After heading back to the main road I passed by the remains of a trading post on The Rincone

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Just a little further up the road we came upon a large alcove that contained the River House Ruins. We spent some time checking out these ruins.

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Some petroglyphs
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Above the ruins in this photo, you can see a large snake painted on the back of the alcove. Another name for these ruins are the Snake House Ruins.
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While we were checking out these ruins, we chatted up a Bluff local who was here at the same time and he told us about an interesting granary and some more petroglyphs along the ledge we were on a few hundred feet away, so we went to check them out before leaving.

Some of the petroglyphs
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This definitely was an interesting granary….built around a fallen piece of rock that had naturally created a semi-enclosed area
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The entrance was hidden behind the fallen rock
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After heading back to the highway, we continued on towards Bluff, but made one more stop at the Sand Island Petroglyphs.

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We finally reached Bluff just before sunset and then headed north to Blanding to end our day at the hotel after grabbing some dinner.

Stay tuned for Sunday….

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