San Juan

The San Juan River is a great multi-day river trip and this section features one of the finest collections of petroglyphs in the southwest. This section is often run as a three day trip but can also be the start of a longer trip that continues on downstream past Mexican Hat to Clay Hills Crossing.

The put-in is at Sand Hills Crossing near Bluff, Utah approximately half a mile upstream of the Highway 191 Bridge. Sand Island has a ranger station, several campsites including group sites, drinking water, toilets, trash collection, and a wide boat ramp that provides enough space for a few trips to stage simultaneously.

The run begins in open desert country. The first six miles have several petroglyphs and moki steps carved in the sandstone as toeholds for Native Americans who traveled through these canyons in centuries past. Particularly impressive panels with an incredible density of petroglyphs are visible just upstream and downstream of Butler Wash. A short hike up the wash takes you to some smaller ruins and petroglyphs.

Six miles into the trip you reach the pullout for Riverhouse. It is about a 1/4 mile hike from the river to the base of the cliff. This ancestral puebloan ruin from the thirteenth century is built in a sandstone alcove overlooking the river. With 14 rooms this is the largest ruin along the river. It is visited by river runners and those on jeep tours. Given the heavy visitation, it is important to stay off the walls and out of the rooms so the structure remains undamaged for the benefit of future visitors. Less than a mile downstream of the Riverhouse is Barton's Trading Post. An interpretive sign marks the site which was established in the 1880s. The old trading post is at the base of San Juan Hill which was one of the last natural barriers encountered by Mormon pioneers who were searching for a route from Escalante to Bluff. Over the winter of 1879-1880, the pioneers sought to establish a settlement in the region to the east of

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