Round Trip Distance: 350 feet
Difficulty: Easy
Elevation: 4111 - 4118 feet
Cellphone: 0-3 bars
Time: 15 mins.
Trailhead: Cliff Dwellers Stone House
Fee: none
Attractions: historic/prehistoric ruins
The Cliff Dwellers Stone House site is located along US Highway 89A near Marble Canyon, Arizona. Set against a backdrop of the Vermilion Cliffs the site includes the ruins of a former trading post and restaurant built in the 1920's by a former Ziegfeld dancer named Blanch Russel and her husband Bill.
For turn-by-turn directions you can enter 'Cliff Dwellers Stone House' into your driving app. Since it is more of a roadside attraction, rather than a destination, most people are only going to stop there en route to somewhere else.
The small ruin at the site is built around the overhang of a large boulder.
The inside of the ruin shows a handy natural occurring bench and shelf.
The larger ruin is built in the same fashion but on a much larger scale. This may have started out as a prehistoric ruin that was then repurposed.
Inside the larger of the rooms you can see how the walls were made to conform to the different boulders.
This room is on the opposite side of the same rocks.
As the ground has eroded away beneath the boulders in the area it has left some of them scenically precariously perched.
The frustrating part about the Cliff Dwellers Stone House site is not knowing for sure what may have existed before the Russel's did their building. The Russel's would hardly be considered 'Cliff Dwellers' so you get the impression from the name that something more ancient may have already have been here. It would hardly be the first time that ancient ruins have been repurposed. The site attracts the attention of many people daily that are driving through the area. There is a kiosk at the site but it is presently unreadable. If you would like to see it for yourself then all you have to do is 'Take a hike'.
