If You Look Long Enough | Finding the Juniper Tree Ruin

Comb Ridge. There, somewhere, is a ruin that I've been searching for over the course of several years. While not unknown, this ruin - with walls supported by a Juniper Tree trunk - is infrequently visited and photographed, and the location is kept well under wraps by those who have been lucky enough to visit.

And I'm fine with that. I appreciate it and understand why. Still, even as I've failed to find it on several previous occasions, I knew I'd have to keep searching until I found it.

This would be our third full day with feet on the ground, and after looking through the - relatively little - material I have been able to collect on the ruin, I'd stumbled on a note I'd either missed or not deemed relevant in my previous research. It gave me a new idea, so it was with high hopes that we hit the dirt and headed for a 10-mile stretch of cliff walls that I'd marked on the map.

Perhaps, finally, we'd find the Juniper Tree Ruin!

- - - - -

Our flight to Las Vegas touched down at 3:30pm, and after a quick provisioning, we were on our way east. We had a long drive ahead of us - Las Vegas is certainly closer than Seattle, but it's still a long way from Comb Ridge - but we were looking forward to a fabulous plate of nachos (and a carne asada burrito) at Tacos Plaza in St. George to tide us over.

We always tend eat at the same places. We don't mind, since there's usually a good reason!

From there, we queued up the podcasts and pointed ourselves into the headwinds sweeping across the Arizona Strip and drove into the dark. It was right around 2:00am when we pulled into camp site at the end of a spur road we'd explored on a previous mission to find the Juniper Tree Ruin, and after quickly deploying the tent, we were fast asleep.

Nestled into a small drainage under a half-moon.

Having no idea how long we'd need to search for the single ruin we were looking for, I'd normally have suggested that we break camp at the crack of dawn. However, after a long drive and having lost an hour on our way east, we decided to sleep in until shortly after 8:00am in the hopes that the extra recharge would bode well for our hunt. And so, when we finally climbed out of the tent, the sun and moon were sharing the sky, and Comb Ridge was gleaming across Butler Wash.

What a beautiful way to start the day!

With a bit of a late start, we broke down camp but decided to hold off on breakfast for an hour or so, allowing us to explore a couple miles of mesa wall before taking a break. Not only that, but I knew that while we weren't going to find the Juniper Tree Ruin in the first spot I wanted to poke around, there was another smaller rock art panel to enjoy, which and I thought that could be a great way to kick off the day.

Of all the geological formations I've seen, Comb Ridge - the backbone of the earth - is always one of my favorites. More to come on this later.

Pulling the Tacoma into a small camp site at the end of a spur, we hopped out and surveyed the landscape. There looked like a couple good possibilities for rock art canvas to our north and south, each about half a mile away, so we set out across the tundra to investigate.

Finding nothing to the south, we turned north. Here, we got our first slickrock scampering - always so fun given how sticky the rock is - of the day, but as we headed back toward the Tacoma, we'd come up empty. This was a little disconcerting, given that I knew there were petroglyphs here, which was more than I could say for the ruin search that would consume most of our time.

Wondering if we'd missed something obvious, I wandered over to a point as @mrs.turbodb poured us a couple bowls of cereal.

Found it!

I thought this was a neat feather - or grass - or roots - along the crack.

Selection of spirals.

Relieved to have found something that we knew existed, we enjoyed our cereal in the sun - it was a chilly morning even though the sun was out - and then set of towards the first spot that looked promising for an elusive ruin.

And then the second. And third.

With only so many places to look, and the hours of the day ticking by, I was starting to wonder if - this time - the third time wouldn't be the charm. Still, it's not as though we weren't in beautiful country.

Through a colorful landscape.

We spotted this interesting arch cairn along the side of the road.

This was a cool hoodoo along the way.

Getting a little flexy along the way.

Stopping at one spot - where we decided to have lunch - I wandered off in search of ruins as sandwiches were assembled on the tailgate. As with the previous spots, I didn't find what I was looking for, but there above the wash I did spot something totally unexpected.

Well, what have we here?

Not sure if ominous or intriguing.

Heading inside, I was surprised at how deep this adit of the ▮▮▮▮▮▮▮▮▮▮▮▮▮  Mine burrowed into the mountain. I wasn't sure what these folks were after, but the ground was unlike the usual adits we see in the Mojave, and my guess - confirmed once we returned home - was that these guys were after Uranium.

Reverse handprint.

Current resident.

The light was really nice as I headed back to the entrance.

After lunch, the search continued. One thing that wasn't quite so obvious to me on satellite imagery - as I scoped out possible locations - was just how many levels, nooks, and crannies there were to the mesa along Butler Wash. Of course, multiple levels and all manner of ledges and alcoves are totally normal; they are exactly what makes this area so perfect for the structures dot the landscape. The issue - obviously - was that it added a lot more ground for us to cover in our search!

Even as we were unsuccessful, there was no reason to complain about climbing around in a landscape like this all day!

The monocline of Comb Ridge rising up in the near distance.

It was right around 3:00pm when I spotted a ruin on a high ledge. I could tell immediately that it wasn't the one we were after - it was a much-too-small granary - but having found nothing else through the course of the day, we headed toward the slickrock base of the mesa to check it out.

That's when I glanced a different direction and saw it!

This is the ruin we've been looking for.

The 10-year old in me - generally dominant - wanted to immediately abandon our current course and head toward the Juniper Tree Ruin, but the 48-year-old-that-I-am (shhh) knew that a little more anticipation would only add to the greatness. Plus, it looked like we needed to be find our way up to the same slickrock level in either case; so, that's what we did!

Self-storage units with a view.

I always love how water can't help but to create its own abstract art on the colorful canvas.

After poking around the granarys for a bit, we let our excitement get the better of us, and headed for the subject of our three-trip search.

A closer view.

The most interesting aspect of these ruins are the use of a Juniper Tree trunk in the construction.

Mixed media.

A couple small access holes gave those inside a way to vet visitors.

Our curiosity finally satisfied, we worked our way off the ledges and back across the slickrock to the Tacoma. Our first search for this ruin had taken place in 2021, and four years later - and after a day that seemed as though it might end in another defeat - we'd done it!

Plus, we had a few more hours of daylight - maybe just enough to position ourselves for the next leg of our adventure - and plenty of time to distract ourselves with other nearby attractions!

The main thing I knew I wanted to do was to send the flying camera up into the sky over Comb Ridge. As I mentioned earlier, I really love this formation, and I've always found it hard to photograph from ground - or even ridge-top - level. The scale just doesn't come through, and so I hoped that there was some way for me to capture this beast from the air that would really do it justice.

Naturally however, as we worked our way to the roadcut that would shuttle us through the sandstone monocline, I couldn't help but to suggest we stop for one of the more popular petroglyphs in the area. We'd seen it on our first trip to Butler Wash back in 2021, but I can assure you that the memory of 48-year-old me isn't what it once was, so a second visit would be a welcome refresher.

The Wolfman.

My favorite glyph at the Wolfman site continues to be the plant-in-a-bowl. The alien head and shield are pretty nice too. Not sure why one dude is pushing the other off a cliff though; that doesn't seem too nice.

Perhaps the two wolf prints are what give the panel-with-a-man on it, the name.

The Wolfman Panel isn't hard to get to, so within half an hour or so of disembarking the cab, we were back in our seats and on our way. We'd have only one more stop before finding camp along the edge of Grand Gulch, but a lot of ground to cover before then.

Comb Ridge from the air.

Turns out, altitude limits on flying cameras are only a fraction of what's really needed to get the most dramatic views, but it was still nice to watch Comb Ridge stretch into the distance.

Where we're headed.

After depleting a battery in an attempt to get just the right angle on the backbone of the earth, I realized that my love for this place could keep me there until sunset, and that if we wanted to find a spot to camp while there was still a bit of daylight, we needed to get a move-on.

Plus, driving almost due west, we'd get to enjoy driving into the blinding sun the entire time! Still, it's hard to complain when you've just found a ruin you've been searching four years to find!

Watching this unfold in the windshield, I couldn't help but hop out of the truck for one last photo.

 

Four Year Search for the Juniper Tree Ruin

 

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