Atlas › Region
Cedar Mesa
26 canyons.
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2ABallroom Cave
Part of the Upper Butler Wash ruin cluster on Comb Ridge, visited on the same short walk that reaches Target Ruin. Climb-Utah dates the cliff dwellings in this complex to around 1200 AD.
Blanding, UT Unknown flood -
3BBlack Hole of White Canyon
The swimming is the route, not the rope work. No mandatory rappels, but long corridors of White Canyon narrows where the water spans wall to wall and the only way through is to get in.
Blanding, UT Unknown flood -
3BBushWhack Boogie
Named for what the approach does to you. The slot itself is short and pretty, with rappels that stair step down at each change in the sandstone layers and small pools and seeps at the base of the drops.
Blanding, UT Unknown flood -
3BCheesebox Canyon
A 5 mile multi-pitch Cedar Mesa descent with zero to five rappels, swims, a hidden arch grotto, and a tight rabbit-hole section, all reached via a long 4WD approach.
Blanding, UT High flood -
n/aChinle Wash
Not a slot but a long wash walk. Chinle Wash carries the drainage out of Canyon de Chelly north to the San Juan River, cutting through the southern tail of Comb Ridge on the way.
Bluff, UT Unknown flood -
2ACitadel Ruins
A masonry ruin on an isolated point above Road Canyon, reached by walking out a narrow neck of rock with a drop on either side. The defensive siting is the whole story of the place.
Blanding, UT Unknown flood -
3BCowboy CanyonUnknown flood
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3BDhalgren CanyonUnknown flood
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3BDuckett SlotUnknown flood
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n/aFish Mouth Cave Ruins
The alcove is the reason to come, one of the deepest on Comb Ridge, with four separate cliff dwellings spaced along the small canyon that leads up to it.
Bluff, UT Unknown flood -
n/aFortknocker Canyon
An east side tributary of White Canyon with roughly 4.5 miles of shallow but colorful Cedar Mesa sandstone narrows, banded in red, pink and grey, ending at a dryfall above the White Canyon junction.
Blanding, UT Unknown flood -
3BFry Canyon (Cedar Mesa)Unknown flood
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1AGrand Gulch
Kane Gulch to Bullet Canyon is the standard traverse, normally three days, past cliff dwellings, granaries and rock art left by people who occupied the canyon between roughly 700 and 2000 years ago.
Blanding, UT Unknown flood -
3BGravel CanyonUnknown flood
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n/aHideout CanyonUnknown flood
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3BLong Gravel Canyons Loop
Absolutely spectacular backpacking canyoneering experience. Up Long Canyon is not technical, but there are two or three challenging up-climbs that will be nice to have assistance.
Blanding, UT Unknown flood -
2AMoon House Ruins
The room the site is named for has a moon painted on opposite walls. The compound went up roughly 800 years ago across McLoyd Canyon, and much of it still has original roofing and interior wall decoration.
Blanding, UT Unknown flood -
n/aProcession Panel
One hundred seventy nine figures walk in a single line across about twenty feet of rock, converging on one of the few places a person can get over Comb Ridge.
Bluff, UT Unknown flood -
2ARock Canyon (Cedar Mesa)Unknown flood
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2ASeven Kivas
A ruin built around an unusual concentration of kivas, the round semi subterranean rooms that anchored Ancestral Puebloan ceremonial and social life. Climb-Utah calls it one of the most significant sites on Cedar Mesa.
Blanding, UT Unknown flood -
n/aSheiks Canyon
A quieter Grand Gulch tributary holding the Green Mask pictograph panel and the Yellow House ruin, the latter close enough to the trailhead to be a half hour errand.
Blanding, UT Unknown flood -
2ASlickhorn Canyon
Slickhorn escaped the late 1800s pot hunting that stripped much of Grand Gulch, and the loop hike visits the well preserved structure known as the Slickhorn Perfect Kiva.
Blanding, UT Unknown flood -
n/aTarget Ruins
Named for a target painted on the wall beside the dwelling, which sits on a ledge with no way up from the ground. Two shallow holes in the slickrock below probably steadied the bottom of a ladder.
Bluff, UT Unknown flood -
1A
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3AUrban CowboyUnknown flood
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n/aWhite Canyon (Lower)Unknown flood