The final stop on my list for the morning was the Butler Wash Ruins Overlook. I knew it would be a quick stop as the trail is a little under a mile total. The trail is easy to follow, and we arrived at the overlook within fifteen minutes.

From the overlook, you have a view of several ruins tucked inside the cliffs. Used by the Anasazi, these ruins provide a full picture of their lifestyle with evidence of habitation, farming, hunting, and religious rituals. They were abandoned before 1300 AD and have sustained some destruction (whether natural or inflicted). The remaining walls have been reinforced to aid in their preservation.

The information board mentioned that the erosion pattern which caused the wash below to form didn’t occur until the 1890s, so the area would have appeared differently when the Anasazi occupied it.

All in all, it was a great pit stop and it certainly whet my appetite for more explorations into Bears Ears.