Round Trip Distance: 0.8 miles
Difficulty: Moderate
Elevation: 6336 - 6729 feet
Cellphone: 0 bars
Time: 1 hr.
Trailhead: Ruin Park MM 1.6-1
Fee: none
Attractions: cliff dwellings & pictographs
The 10 Room Ruin is located in the very remote area of Beef Basin that is just south of the Needles District of Canyonlands National Park and 67 miles northwest of Monticello, Utah. Within the Beef Basin area dozens of various Ancestral Puebloan ruins, consisting of pueblos (above ground structures located out in the open), cliff dwellings and granaries can be found. It wouldn't be surprising if there were also some pithouses and rock shelters to be found.
To get there travel north on Highway 191 from Monticello, Utah for 14.3 miles and turn west at the signs for Newspaper Rock and Canyonlands National Park. If coming from the other direction the turnoff is about 40 miles south of Moab. Continue for another 20.2. miles and turn left onto CR 107, the Bridger Jack Mesa/Beef Basin Road. There is a restroom and staging area with lots of parking at the turnoff. Follow CR 107 for 25.4 miles and turn right onto CR 104/aka FR 093. The sign at the turn says 12 miles to Beef Basin. We measured 9.4 miles to the sign in this photo. We strongly recommend 4wd with extra gas and since the area is so remote maybe even a shovel. From here zero your odometer and turn right toward Ruin Park.
At the 1.6 mile point from the last junction there are 2 roads that branch off on the right. Take the first road and continue for 0.8 miles to the trailhead.
From the trailhead the 10 Room Ruin is to the right or due east going along the cliffs. There is an obvious trail that climbs a small hill but what you want to do is hike around the hill on the right and head toward the wash.
After hiking up the wash a short distance a well worn trail that leaves the wash comes up.
Within a few more tenths of a mile the ruins and pictographs can be seen beneath an overhang above the trail. It is possible to scramble up to the ruins from directly below but it is pretty steep. For an easier scramble up to the bench the ruins are on continue along the base of the sandstone for a few hundred more feet.
However you go about it once you get up to the bench it is easy enough to hike along the cliff.
The mostly connected series of rooms is strung out under a shallow alcove.
This well built storage cyst is still mostly intact.
Most people refer to rooms like this one as a granary. It might be more proper to think of it as a room used for storage but there probably isn't really any reason to be technical. The roof isn't blackened so it was apparently used for storage and not for living. Any food items would probably have been put into clay pots with lids and then set inside and a flat rock placed over the door opening. There might have been pots with grain, corn, beans, pinyon nuts, roots and herbs or maybe dried meat. We make that assumption after reading the journal from the Dominguez/ Escalante Expedition where it mentions them obtaining some stuffs from a Hopi granary.
The pictographs are a little reminiscent of those at the Moon House Ruin in Cedar Mesa but also similar to strings of white dots found elsewhere in the area.
There is a nice view from the ruins looking out over the Middle Park area of Beef Basin. Just over the red boulder on the left House Park Butte is visible. It can be helpful to be aware of reference points when exploring out here in the boondocks to keep track of your location on a map.
