Et Al Great House

Rating: 
Round Trip Distance: .02 miles
Difficulty: Easy
Elevation: 6526 - 6535 feet
Cellphone: 0-3 bars
Time: 20 mins.
Trailhead: 37.41088, -109.94807
Fee: $5/person/day
Attractions: pueblo ruins

The Et Al Great House is in the Cedar Mesa Area of Bears Ears National Monument west of Blanding and Bluff, Utah. Et Al is a term archeologist use to describe a network of Cedar Mesa sites that include great kivas, shrines, roads, and other monumental features. The Et Al Great House site includes the rubble pile ruins of a minimum of 35 rooms and at least 2 kivas.

For turn-by-turn directions to the trailhead enter 37.41088, -109.94807 into your driving app. The turnoff of UT-261 is 8.6 miles south of the Kane Gulch Ranger Station and 1 mile before the Cigarette Springs Road.

After turning off of UT-261 head west for just under a quarter mile and turn left.

The unmarked trailhead comes up in less than 2 tenths of a mile after the last turn. The site is surrounded by a pole fence. Stepping through the fence in the area of the chains puts you about 250 feet from the main rubble pile of the ruins.

The size of the rubble pile from the main block of rooms suggests that most of the rooms were several stories high.

A few sections of standing walls are still exposed at the site.

One the south side of the main room block there are 2 kiva depressions. Further south through the trees is a larger oval depression that may have been a great kiva.

Shards of pottery at the site show the various styles that were used. Be sure to leave all artifacts where you find them.

The most interesting aspect of the Et Al Great House might just be that it is there and that it appears to be a Chacoan Outlier which gives it a connection to something grander than itself.  Further to the north of Et Al is the Fortified Mesa site and even further north is the Owen Site. All 3 great houses would have been contemporary of each other. If you would like to see the Et Al Great House for yourself all you have to do is 'Take a hike'.