Round Trip Distance: 800 feet
Difficulty: Easy
Elevation: 5408 - 5496 feet
Cellphone: 0 bars
Time: 20 mins.
Trailhead: Perkins Road mm 4
Fee: none
Attractions: cliff dwelling
The Perkins Road Ruin is a perfectly intact single room cliff dwelling that was built into a small cave in a short band of sandstone cliffs that are just above the Perkins Road as it descends into Recapture Canyon.
From Blanding drive south on US-191 to the Browns Canyon Road and turn left. Turn right at the junction with the Perkins Road and measure about 4 miles to the unmarked trailhead. At this point the road is heading downhill toward where it crosses Recapture Canyon. If you come to the big culvert at the bottom of the hill then you drove about 860 feet too far. The ruin is visible from the Perkins Road.
After parking off to the side of the road you can start out by spotting the 3 boulders in this photo and heading up the hill from there.
There isn't an official trail leading up to the ruin but there is no mystery to the route finding. If you happen to see tracks going in that direction try to follow them and eventually a good trail should develop.
The ruin has a little terrace below it near ground level. It probably made a good work area and place to sit and look out over the valley below.
From the black soot on the top of the cave it is evident that the single room was used as a humble single room dwelling.
Other than what could be caught during a rain storm the nearest water would have been down there in Recapture Canyon. Any arable land and hunting would have been down there also.
