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Round Trip Distance: 1.5 miles
Difficulty: Moderate
Elevation: 6574 - 6752 feet
Cellphone: 0 bars
Time: 2 hrs. 30 mins.
Trailhead: Pipeline Cut
Fee: none
Attractions: cliff dwellings
The Cliff Swallow Ruin is located east of Blanding, Utah, off of the Alkali Ridge Road, in Devils Canyon. Originally built with 3 or 4 rooms the Cliff Swallow Ruin sits on a high bench within a shallow alcove with a scenic view overlooking a small stretch of Devils Canyon. Another smaller ruin can be found an hundred yards or so to the north and near the pipeline cut that provides access into the canyon there is a good looking ruin that is located on the west side of the canyon.
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To get there from Blanding drive north toward Monticello on US-191 for about 8.7 miles and turn right onto the unmarked Alkali Ridge Road.
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For this post we are using a pipeline cut that crosses the canyon and comes up to the Alkali Ridge Road near the 2.2 mile point from US-191. There is a pullout just before that where the powerlines cross the road and where there is an overlook from which 2 of the ruins can be seen. It is a good first stop to get oriented and could also be used as a suitable place to park.
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The Cliff Swallow Ruin is on a ledge directly beneath the powerlines on the east side of the canyon as viewed here from the overlook.
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For this post we parked in the bar ditch and began hiking at the top of the pipeline cut. The pipeline cut is fenced off to keep cattle from straying down into Devils Canyon. There is a gate just down the hill on the south side of the cut that will get you through the fence.
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A layer of loose rocks makes footing a little precarious at times going down the pipeline cut but it is a short distance and better than any other routes down into the canyon that we saw. For route finding you can follow the swath of the pipeline across the wash to the east side of the canyon and then pick out sections of game trails through the oakbrush until you are pretty much beneath the powerlines where you can cut up the hill toward the ruin.
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At the bottom of the pipeline cut look back over your shoulder to see a nice inaccessible ruin. The slab above the ruin looks like it is coming loose and has been propped up with a post. There are more ruins in a smaller alcove to the left and some down closer to the ground in a lower cave. We were going to work our way along the cliff below the ruin to get a more accurate GPS reading but ran into some poison ivy that we didn't feel was worth dealing with.
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The wash looks like it might be swampy at times but there wasn't any standing water or mosquitos when we crossed it in August.
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When you finally scramble up the east side of the canyon below the ruin you discover that there doesn't appear to be an easy way to get up onto the ledge. There is a crack with some rocks wedged in it for steps that the ancients probably constructed but it would take some good dexterity and a lithe body to go that route.
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Fortunately there is a much easier route an hundred feet or so to the right of the ruins where a moderate amount of scrambling makes a safe enough access.
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Once you scramble up to the base of the high wall the rest of the distance is comfortably wide and has very little if any exposure. It was a pleasant discovery to find the route.
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It's funny that the best overall photo that we took of the ruins was the one from the overlook all the way across the canyon using a Canon L-series 200mm - 600mm telephoto lens. Once you get right up to the ruin everything is right in your face and this is the best we could do with a wide angle Canon EF 16mm - 35mm 1:28 L-series lens.
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For this post we parked in the bar ditch and began hiking at the top of the pipeline cut. The pipeline cut is fenced off to keep cattle from straying down into Devils Canyon. There is a gate just down the hill on the south side of the cut that will get you through the fence.
-1.jpg)
A layer of loose rocks makes footing a little precarious at times going down the pipeline cut but it is a short distance and better than any other routes down into the canyon that we saw. For route finding you can follow the swath of the pipeline across the wash to the east side of the canyon and then pick out sections of game trails through the oakbrush until you are pretty much beneath the powerlines where you can cut up the hill toward the ruin.
.JPG)
At the bottom of the pipeline cut look back over your shoulder to see a nice inaccessible ruin. The slab above the ruin looks like it is coming loose and has been propped up with a post. There are more ruins in a smaller alcove to the left and some down closer to the ground in a lower cave. We were going to work our way along the cliff below the ruin to get a more accurate GPS reading but ran into some poison ivy that we didn't feel was worth dealing with.
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The wash looks like it might be swampy at times but there wasn't any standing water or mosquitos when we crossed it in August.
.JPG)
When you finally scramble up the east side of the canyon below the ruin you discover that there doesn't appear to be an easy way to get up onto the ledge. There is a crack with some rocks wedged in it for steps that the ancients probably constructed but it would take some good dexterity and a lithe body to go that route.
.JPG)
Fortunately there is a much easier route an hundred feet or so to the right of the ruins where a moderate amount of scrambling makes a safe enough access.
.JPG)
Once you scramble up to the base of the high wall the rest of the distance is comfortably wide and has very little if any exposure. It was a pleasant discovery to find the route.
.JPG)
It's funny that the best overall photo that we took of the ruins was the one from the overlook all the way across the canyon using a Canon L-series 200mm - 600mm telephoto lens. Once you get right up to the ruin everything is right in your face and this is the best we could do with a wide angle Canon EF 16mm - 35mm 1:28 L-series lens.
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One of the rooms is still completely intact. Be sure not to touch or enter it and maybe it will remain that way for some time to come. The part directly above the door looks like a house of cards as it is.
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The ledge that the ruin sits on is actually pretty roomy. The alcove is deep enough to allow a lot of space for several of the rooms. There is a nice bare area of the ledge on the outside edge that would have made a great work area. Looking out over the canyon from this ruin gives one a very pleasant feeling.
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Already being in the area a person may as well head up the canyon another few hundred yards and take a look at a little ruin that is there. The portion of the ruin in this photo is on an inaccessible shelf above a shallow, low ceilinged alcove where there was probably at least one other room at one time. Getting up to this ruin is almost an easy walk up compared to the other.
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Given more time and patience to deal with fighting your way through the brush a person could probably find a lot more ruins in Devils Canyon. We know that there are some ruins across from the Devils Canyon Campground that we posted several years ago but it is likely that there are even more between here and there. As far as the Cliff Swallow Ruin and its companions go, if you would like to see them for yourself then all you have to do is 'Take a hike'.
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