South Fork of Mule Canyon

We drove out to the South Fork of Mule Canyon on Cedar Mesa in the Bears Ears National Monument. We spent the day hiking along the canyon and scrambling up to see various ruins. We saw 8 different ruin sites in this canyon. Overall we hiked 12 miles and gained around 1,600 ft going up to the different ruins.
Descending down the canyon floor was very moderate.

Lots of interesting sandstone canyon walls

and many large boulders

Wind, water and sand sculpt the canyon walls in many interesting ways

About one mile down the trail is House on Fire Ruins. This ruin is close to the canyon floor in an alcove.

For hikers who arrive around 10 in the morning will see the sun light up the rocks above the ruins. (We were at the ruins much earlier than 10 am)

We continued the gentle descent into the south fork of Mule Canyon

It is fun to hike in these canyons, admiring the sandstone walls and looking in the many alcoves for different ruins

We also had fun on the boulders

When we thought we could see ruins up in the alcoves we would hike/scramble up to get a better look

more ruins

Even without ruins, these are beautiful canyon walks

There are lots of juniper and pine trees here. We also found some small pools of water

Some of the ruins were more difficult to access than others, these we enjoyed from a distance

zoom

some creative scrambling

other ruins

pottery shards, they should be left where they are found. We found these already on top of this boulder

sometime the ruins are a few scattered rocks

pools of water in the bottom of the canyon floor

beautiful canyon walls

interesting canyon floor

more ruins in this canyon

pottery shards and ruins

We also saw some petroglyphs on the canyon walls

Heading up on the tributaries in the canyon

Wall Ruin

more pottery shards

we continued to hike down Mule Canyon

Some of the wildflowers we saw along the trail today: