Round Trip Distance: 0.4 miles
Difficulty: Easy
Elevation: 4968 - 5003 feet
Cellphone: 0-2 bars
Time: 45 mins.
Trailhead: MM 29.7
Fee: none
Attractions: cliff dwelling, petroglyphs
The Two Shields Ruin is located in the Montezuma Creek area between Blanding and Monticello, Utah. The ruin consists of a cliff dwelling that had 4 or more rooms that were built within a rectangular cavity in the side of the cliff. The straight lines of the rectangular cavity give the cliff dwelling a very unique appearance. Also found at the site are a few petroglyphs and pictographs that include 2 large shields.
There are multiple ways to get to the Two Shields Ruin depending upon your direction of travel. If coming from the north you can turn off of US-191 5 miles south of Monticello onto the unmarked graveled Montezuma Creek Road, CR-187, and follow it south for 29.7 miles. According to Google Maps somewhere along the way CR-187 becomes CR-146. The ruin is visible in the cliff across the creek.
There isn't a marked route to follow leading through the greasewood between the road and the creek.
As you get closer to the creek you will want to search out a path that makes getting down the embankment and across the wash a cinch.
Water is rarely found in the creek nowadays as most all of it is captured and used for irrigation by the ranchers and home owners that live upstream. The exception would be right after a recent thunderstorm.
Getting up close to the ruin requires no more than an easy scramble.
It's interesting that the outer wall of this mostly intact room was built on the outside of the overhang.
The flat surface above the walls had some rock art on it at one time but looks like it may have been plastered. That would have made it show up quite well from a distance.
It's pretty easy to spot the shields on the face of the cliff nearby but we outlined them on the computer to make them stand out. There are some other very faint petroglyphs and pictographs on the same cliff. A dozen or so mysteriously looking circular and oval blotches are also very noticeable.
