Round Trip Distance: 3.6 miles
Difficulty: Moderate
Elevation: 6065 - 6421 feet
Cellphone: 0-3 bars
Time: 2 hrs.
Trailhead: 37.37124, -109.88963
Fee: $5/person/day
Attractions: cliff dwellings
Little Citadel is a set of cliff dwelling ruins that tower above Lime Canyon in the Cedar Mesa Area of Bears Ears National Monument west of Bluff, Utah. Like the more well know Citadel site it sits out on the point of a ridge that juts out into the canyon below. Found at the site is a kiva with several rooms attached and a handful of granaries or storage rooms that are stretched out along the ledge. Near the middle of all of these ruins is the remains of what was once a large square 2 story structure.
From the Kane Gulch Ranger Station head south on UT-261 for 12.7 miles and turn left onto the 4WD road. A short distance down the road there is a kiosk and pay station. Entering the GPS coordinates of the trailhead will get you turn-by-turn directions to within a half mile of your destination. Driving apps aren't aware of the 4WD road beyond that point.
After traveling 1.35 miles from UT-261 there is a junction where you will want to stay to the right. In another 0.4 miles you will come to a locked gate. There is a good place to park near a primitive campsite just before the gate.
From the gate it is 1 mile of easy hiking to where the privileged few with a key to the gate can park.
There is a well worn trail that leaves the 4WD road but unfortunately it is braided with several confusing alternate routes. Using a GPS with our track loaded will make it easier to follow the best route. Basically you want to head toward a side canyon that has an easy drop in to Lime Canyon. The trail courses through the trees and sagebrush until it reaches the wash where there is some slickrock. Once you reach the slickrock begin following the shallow wash downstream.
Right before reaching the drop in point the trail climbs out of the wash, which is now becoming clogged with brush, on the left side and drops down a short easy ramp. After a few more yards it comes to a short spillover. If you dodge around a tree on the left side of the spillover you will find an easy route to get below it; if not you can scramble down the right side of the spillover.
Once below the spillover it becomes pleasant to continue down the drainage which ends at a huge spillover. Before reaching that point you should be able to see some of the ruins out on the point of the bench below the huge spillover. To get down to that bench go to your right and hike around the point to the next drainage to the south.
Hiking around the point is only the matter of an hundred yards or so to get to the next drainage where there is a suitable route down to the lower bench.
If the route down to the lower bench looks daunting in this photo it is actually not difficult at all. There are plenty of hand and foot holds and no exposure. Scooting down it is easy enough and in our opinion climbing back up it on the way back was even easier.
Once you get down onto the same bench as the ruins all you have to do is follow it around to the opposite side of the canyon. There are a couple of places where you can find a less exposed route that isn't right on the edge of the bench which allows you to get all the way to the ruins without any real exposure at all.
The first ruin that you come to is a kiva where the front wall has collapsed causing the roof to fall in.
Looking down through the gaps in the roof you can see the inside of the kiva that is still in good condition.
Connected to the kiva are maybe as many as 4 adjoining rooms.
The next intact structure that you come to is a small storage room.
Next are the remains of a square tower. Looking at the face of the cliff you can see where at one time this tower was 2 stories high. Some of the original mortar is still adhering to the cliff.
Past the square tower are the short rubble outlines of another room or 2 followed by some granaries or storage rooms.
The first room makes use of a boulder for part of its outer wall.
One of the boulders has a few grinding slicks and another has 3 pestals.
The last granary is part stacked stones and part caliche like cemented mud.
We noticed some potshards up on the mesa but didn't notice any around the ruins.
