Day 21 – Bluff, UT – Hike to ‘The Citadel’

We both woke to another morning of excitement. We were headed back towards where we had gone the first day of our adventures in Bluff, over by the Moonhouse. Back over the Mogi Dugway. We quickly were back off the main highways and on the BLM backroads headed for some vague landmark to again look for a somewhat hidden trail marked by Cairns only, hopefully leading us to another ruin site known as The Citadel.

We headed down a wash looking everywhere for the specific landmarks of the trail again and this time we were constantly second guessing ourselves as I think we were scared we might get off trail again and miss out on this ruin.

However, luckily for us we soon found a distinctive trail with heavy footprint traffic and more cairns. It was again a beautiful day in Southeast Utah, the sun was shining and the temperature was great for hiking, somewhere in the mid to high 50s. We soon found our selves out of the wash and on the rim of a huge canyon.

We continued on the canyon rim and could coon see where the ruin laid ahead. We had to make our way down some tricky slick rock canyon parts to access the land bridge which led out to the ruin site. The view was spectacular. The land bridge led in an arc out towards the site and had several hundred feet drops on both sides of us.

The land bridge led out to a large rock mass that was literally surrounded by canyon on all sides. At the very top you could see above the entire canyon rim for hundreds of miles in all directions. We saw a few other hikers on this day at the site. It was a Saturday and we realized that other people do in fact know of these places, obviously. Which we knew the entire time, but when you literally don’t see anybody where you are for days and days, you start to think that maybe only a limited few know of some of these places. And it feels incredible when you are the only ones there. It didn’t take away from what we saw today by any means, but I think it did feel a bit different to see others out in the middle of nowhere Utah backcountry, looking at ruins.

We quickly got out to the site and were excited to check out the ruin. Didn’t see any pottery fragments today, but the ruin was very interesting nonetheless.

This ruin seemed more modern than the others we had viewed. Let the pictures tell you maybe.. this seemed to be made of a brick style wall, built into the side of the cliff. It was built of rock and mud, but the style was reminiscent of the way a brick building is constructed.

There was a way to climb up to the top of the rock that overhung the dwelling, so of course I had to climb up to the top to catch the view.

The view as awesome, and definitely worth the effort. You could now see over the canyon rim in all directions. From the dwelling, you could not. It appears that the dwelling was meant to be hidden and that the inhabitants could then climb up above to see what was going on around them in all directions, possibly to see if an enemy was approaching. There was a small, shin high, arcing wall built at the top, seemed like it was built, so you could lie at the top and watch for enemies without being spotted yourself. This was a really fun hike and an amazing canyon that we were able to check out. We made our way back to the car but because we were hiking into the late afternoon/early evening sun, we were being blinded and soon found ourselves off of our trail. We ended up on a road and after consulting the map realized that we were just barely off of our trail and that if we followed this road out to the main road we came in on we would only be about a quarter mile from where we had left the car. Luckily, this was the case and not just our guess at where we were. We made it back to the car and headed back to town.
We were tired of our backpacking meals and eating in our hotel room, so we headed straight into downtown Bluff to the only open restaurant-the Twin Rocks Café. I had the nights special, Meatloaf, and Lauren again had the homemade chicken noodle soup and a salad. We were now well fed and ready for some rest, as we were unfortunately going to be leaving Bluff the next morning.
It’s strange leaving some of the places we have stayed. You’re torn in both your excitement for the next place and what lies ahead, yet also a bit disappointed to leave because you are having such an amazing time, as we both were in Bluff. The BLM lands and roads that take you through the country is amazing. It was super fun to get to do some legitimate off-road driving and just see the beautiful canyons that you are surrounded by. As well as the seemingly never ending exploring that you could do in that part of the country. Sad to leave, but super excited to check out Canyonlands National Park, Arches National Park, and Moab; which was all on the agenda for the next week of our trip. I should also add that this extra week was a bonus as Lauren and I both thought that Thanksgiving fell on the 18^th for some reason. After talking to my mom about Thanksgiving plans and when we would arrive, we were both dumbfounded to learn that Thanksgiving fell on the 25^th… anyhow, another week to explore Southern Utah was OK by us!