Bullpup Canyon's Cliff Ruins, and ATV Friendly Too.

On Route 191, at mile marker 56, if you park on the shoulder, you can make out ruins along the cliff, looking southeast. 2/10ths of a mile from the mile marker is a dirt trail (CR 238) that leads down into the canyon, Bullpup Canyon. Now I have to mention a little something that even now makes me laugh; while trying to find information about Bullpup, I found one photo someone had added to Wikipedia. While they had labeled it as Bullpup Canyon, it is very obvious that it is actually the town of Bluff and Bullpup does not reach that far down. I'm going to correct the misinformation with this write up and post actual photos of the canyon, since we did drive through it, well as far as we could with the SUV.  Bullpup Canyon's inner trails are more suited for ATVs and hiking.

Alright then, how to identify the road leading down to Bullpup just in case you miss the green mile marker sign.  Before you reach Recapture Reservoir from the north, or after you've past it coming from the south, you'll see a guardrail on the eastern side of Route 191.  Don't blink, or you'll miss seeing the dirt trail that leads off of the highway and down to the canyon. I have to mention again that this is San Juan County Road 238 (CR 238), but it's another of those roads without a sign and good luck finding it on a map.  Before you head on down, stop and take a view of the entire canyon before you, it's pretty inspiring.

A little background about Bullpup; it was mainly settled in the 1970s when Dr. Kay Shumway moved his family there and become owners of the 1200 tree orchard which is still there.

We could only go about 1 and 1/2 miles before a rotted irrigation ditch stopped us in our tracks.  While an ATV or someone hiking could easily go over, our SUV would surely have sustained damage.  At this point there is a wonderful rock formation which has fine outcroppings similar in looks to a delicate oyster mushroom.




















At this point you can also get a view of additional cliff ruins other than the ones visible from Route 191.  We were very disappointed about not being able to travel further on to see what other treasures we could see.

...and so ends this short, but sweet adventure. 

Mary Cokenour