Speaking Springs Preserve

Rating: 
Round Trip Distance: 2 miles
Difficulty: Easy
Elevation: 4367 - 4383 feet
Cellphone: 3-5 bars
Time: 2 hrs.
Trailhead: Cottonwood Wash
Fee: none
Attractions: cliff dwellings, petroglyphs

The Speaking Springs Preserve is located in Cottonwood Wash, at the end of 3rd West Street, on the north side of Bluff, Utah. The Preserve was created after The Wildlands Conservatory purchased a corridor of private property in Cottonwood Wash. On the west side of the Preserve, on land that is within Bears Ears National Monument we have identified 9 cliff dwelling type structures and several panels of petroglyphs.

For turn-by-turn directions to the trailhead enter Cottonwood Wash Bluff Utah into your driving app and pick the hiking area location north of town. (Sometimes the driving app picks the trailhead and sometimes it chooses the wash itself on the south side of town.) Alternatively you can enter the GPS coordinates of the trailhead 37.29547, -109.56485. From US-191 in Bluff you will be directed north on 3rd West Street to the trailhead.

From the trailhead the route passes through a gate where you continue on foot along the same road that maps even still label as 3rd Street.

About a quarter mile from the trailhead there are some cottonwood trees on the left. Although it isn't visible from the trail there is a good size pond behind the trees that is kept full by a flowing well. Just past that there is a butte on the left where the first cliff dwelling type ruins can be spotted. A good pair of binoculars come in handy to be able to see some of the smaller ruins. We circled 2 of them in this photo. There are 3 more around the left side of the butte and several more on the front side facing the road.

The ruins are perched high up on the cliff in places that you would think that only the eagles would dare to nest.

The ruin in this photo is right in the middle. It should give you a good idea of why binoculars will come in handy for some of the ruins.

This is one of the 3 ruins that is further around on the left side of the butte.

Here are 2 ruins that are side by side on the front of the butte facing the road.

This one is located near the right front corner of the butte to the right of the corral. If you look close you can see one of the juniper logs that was once part of its roof.

The next ruin sits quite a ways back from the road but it is easy to spot from the road if you know where to look.

The ruin is quite a bit larger and is still in relatively good shape.

The next 2 ruins are on the south facing side of a point. The large boulder on the right that is all the way down at the bottom of the cliff has petroglyphs on 2 of its sides. An old road leads to these ruins from the main road. It has a brown mylar marker letting you know that you are passing into Bears Ears National Monument.

The south facing ruin on the left is in near perfect condition.

The south facing ruin on the right seals off a recessed crack or cave.

The petroglyphs on the boulder are what look like a couple of Ute ponies. There are a few archaic looking designs on the opposite side of the boulder.

The next cliff dwelling that we noticed is right around the 1 mile point of the road.

It is perched on a ledge near a crack in the cliff. It's hard to tell from below if the ruin has any of its roof left but it looks doubtful.

The last thing that we will point out is another large boulder with petroglyphs on 2 of its sides. The lower images in this photo look quite a bit older than the others. There are a few anthros and what might be a pair of moccasins. The top anthro looks to be a male figure and the bottom one might be a woman giving birth.

The images that we thought were really interesting are those on the opposite side of the boulder that are made up of thin scratch lines. We roughly traced them on our computer to make them show up better. At first we thought the image on the left was a dreamcatcher. But then we noticed that they are actually a couple of interestingly drawn anthropomorphic figures. The one on the right looks to be a female and the one on the left a male.

This is a closer look at the umbrella shape above the male figure without any of our computer tracing.

The one mile point is about as far as most people will want to venture. Presently, once the road drops down into the wash the route disappears into the undergrowth. The more experienced and venturesome hikers may want to consider continuing on to what we are calling the Secret Alcove Ruins that are tucked away deep into the next side canyon. We'll make a separate post for those with all of the details.

Maybe the nicest thing about The Wildlands Conservatory purchasing this property is that it now won't end up as a housing project. Cottonwood Wash, in Bluff, is a rather unique area where you have one side of the canyon lined with petroglyphs and the opposite side lined with cliff dwellings. Kudos to the Conservatory and thank you for allowing free public access.

If you would like to see it for yourself then all you have to do is 'Take a hike'.