What Is The Fallen Roof Ruin And Where Is It?
The Fallen Roof Ruin as it is sometimes referred to is a unique collection of 4 structures often referred to as granaries tucked under a cliff in a remote section of Utah. Fallen Roof Ruin is in the Cedar Mesa area of Utah.
Fallen Roof Ruin is named as such because of the “fallen roof’ near the granaries built and nestled under the overhanging rock. When you go there you can see the fallen slabs of the “fallen roof” scattered around on the ground. The area from where the slabs have fallen out has some cool natural designs and textures that help to create a very photogenic scene.
Fallen Roof Ruin is located in Road Canyon area of Cedar Mesa in Utah. This is sort of in between Blanding, Utah and Mexican Hat, Utah. From either one you’ll drive on the paved UT-216 and turn off onto Cigarette Spring Road. Cigarette Springs road is a generally good dirt road. ON that road you’ll drive about another 3.5 miles to get to the trailhead. Please check with the local BLM office as these directions are only approximate. Road conditions are subject to changing conditions.
What Is It Like To Travel To The Fallen Roof Ruin In Cedar Mesa?
Fallen Roof Ruin is in a fairly remote section of southern Utah. It is a great place to go it you want an escape from city life and an escape from the increasing craziness of the Utah national parks that everyone swarms to. If you are flying into the region, you might consider the Durango, Colorado airport, the Grand Junction, Colorado airport, or even the Flagstaff airport. If you’ll be touring more southern Utah sights you may want to consider the St. George Airport or the Las Vegas airport too.
Regardless of which airport you choose to go to you’ll need to get a rental car. If you’re heading into the back roads like this, a high clearance SUV with 4wd or AWD may be a good idea. If you need to stay in a hotel, you’ll probably want to look for one in the little towns of Mexican Hat, Bluff or Blanding, all in Utah. If you plan to go to the Valley of the Gods, Mexican Hat will be the best place to stay. If you plan to go to the House On Fire in Cedar Mesa, then Bluff or Blanding will be more convenient. There is a nice basic campground at Natural Bridges National Monument. If you are just road tripping, this whole area is pretty remote so you can probably just find a place to pull off and sleep in your car.
For the drive out to the Fallen Roof Ruin trailhead you’ll want to hope for good weather, no rain, no heavy recent rains and a sunny day if you are going out for photography.
What Does It Take To Get A Wall Art Quality Photo Of The Fallen Roof Ruin?
Your number one challenge for getting a wall art quality photo of the Fallen Roof Ruin will be planning and executing a trip out there. Once that is out of the way, the hike to the ruin is a little challenging. It’s about 2.5 miles round trip. You’ll start out hiking on one side of a canyon, drop down into the wash and climb back up the other side. There is not much in the way of trail markings through their may be some cairns along the way. If you are new to this type of hiking you may want to bring a partner with you in case of a fall of if you get lost.
The best time to photograph the Fallen Roof Ruin is in spring, summer and fall. Somewhere between 10:30am and 1pm is likely to be the best time to photograph the Fallen Roof Ruin. You’ll get some light reflecting off the other side of the canyon and up toward the Fallen Roof Ruin. This is about the same time of day you’ll get the best light for photographing The House On Fire.
If you plan to do both of them the best bet is to plan to go to each on a separate day. You may want to go shoot the House On Fire first, then go scope out the hike and the figure out how you want to photograph the Fallen Roof Ruin in the same day. Go back to the Fallen Roof Ruin the following day when the light will be best.
What Is The Best Gear For Photographing The House On Fire?
For photographing the Fallen Roof Ruin, you’ll want to have a tripod and a camera with a pretty good sized sensor. You’ll want a good DSLR or mirrorless camera. For most compositions at the Fallen Roof Ruin, you’ll want the widest angle lens you have. Ideally you’ll have something that will go as wide as 16mm or 17mm on a full frame camera.
The area in which you will be photographing the Fallen Roof Ruin is rather compact. You’ll climb a pretty steep slope up to the Fallen Roof Ruin. There is not much room to zoom in or out with your feet so you’ll need to be able to do it with your camera lenses. A 17mm-40mm lens would be your best choice and you might be able to get by with a 24mm-105mm lens but wider is better. A circular polarizer could come in handy. It’s not a necessity but something that may come in handy.
Specifically at Fallen Roof Ruin, there is no need for a panoramic setup. If you want to shoot panoramic photos of the surrounding landscape or the canyon below you might want a panoramic setup but not for the ruin itself.
What Is The Story Behind This Fallen Roof Ruin Photo Print?
During the summer of 2013 I was on my 4th year of wandering around the US to experience and photograph the national parks and other cool stuff a long the way. In August of 2013 I was baking in the Utah summer heat around Moab. I’d seen photos of The House On Fire and the Fallen Roof Ruin along the way. After some time in Moab at the Lazy Lizard Hostel, I headed farther south to see the more remote and less crowded sights down between Blanding, Utah and Mexican Hat.
These included Natural Bridges National Monument where I almost died in White Canyon, Valley of The Gods, The Moki Dugway, and the two ruins sites in Cedar Mesa that I was most comfortable accessing. I first went to the House On Fire a few days in a row and then planned to head down to the Fallen Roof Ruin.
Down in this part of Utah, there is BLM land all over the palace where at least at that time I could pull over and sleep in my car for the night on some back or even main road. That’s what I did while wandering through this part of the country. It was another long stretch with no showers because there were none that I knew of.
On the day I made my way down to the Fallen Roof Ruin, I work up in the car with the Urah summer sun blazing through the windows. Though I probably spent a total of 3 or 4 years sleeping in the front seat of the Subaru Outback, it was not often very comfortable. That meant I did often sleep that well but as a result I often woke up fairly early in the morning.
After an early start, the first stop was as the Cedar Mesa Kane Gulch BLM Ranger Station. It’s always a good idea to stop and get some real, good info on road and hiking conditions before venturing off into new, rugged, remote, unfamiliar territory. The weather looked OK, they gave me directions and some hiking tips and said the road should be good to go with a Subaru Outback.
With some good info in hand and the confidence I wasn’t getting myself into something I couldn’t handle, I was off to seek out the Fallen Roof Ruin. I headed down UT-261 and made the turn onto Cigarette Spring Road, went though a gate and pulled into what looked like a god parking spot for the Road Canyon trailhead. Once there I packed up the camera gear (DSLR, Tripod, and wide angle lenses), added a flashlight, plenty of water and some snacks into the mix. I took a book with directions and additional information about the hike with me as well.
While the Fallen Roof Ruin hike was not very long, the terrain was rather rugged and I didn’t know exactly where I was going. The hike wasn’t particularly challenging but it was like stepping back in time to an ancient place with no real trail and not much if anything to guide the way. I didn’t have a GPS or anything like that to tell me whee i was, how far I’d gone or how far I had to go. I had a rough description and knew about how far I had to go and where to look to find the Fallen Roof Ruin.
I descended down into the canyon and walked along the bottom of it while looking up to my left for signs of the granaries. For the first 20 or so minutes I didn’t pay close attention to what was up on the left because I figured it would take at least 20 minutes to walk the roughly 1.2 miles to find the location.
After about 30 minutes I started to pay more attention to what was up on my left and at about 40 minutes I finally spotted what looked like it could be the target location. The hike up to the Fallen Roof Ruin was a little challenging. You could tell people had been there in the not too distant past by close inspection of the ground and the area around leading up to the granaries. It was still nothing like a well worn trail you’d find in a national park, nor even an unofficial social trail formed by people walking off an official trail.
Sweaty and slightly winded from the climb up to the Fallen Roof Ruin, I was finally there. Like the House On Fire, the whole place looked smaller in person that it dd in photos. Without a person or some other frame of reference in photos of these ancient structures it is hard to tell the size unless it is a massive complex or house like Pueblo Bonito at Chaco Canyon or the large houses at Mesa Verde.
Fortunately when I arrived, I was the only one there. There isn’t room at the Fallen Roof Ruin for more than one person to photograph it unless those multiple people are standing close enough to feel each others pulse. In the camera bag I had a Canon 17-40mm lens and a 24-105mm lens. It would have been nice to have something even wider than 17mm but I just worked with what I had.
The weather was a mix of sun and clouds. For much of the time in southern Utah it had been near perfectly clear skies. This particular spot is best photographed in late morning to a little after noon when the sun is shining down in the canyon and some light bounces up to the granaries and the naturally occurring “art” on the ceiling where some slabs of the room have fallen off.
Since this is such a small area, there weren’t that many different angles from which to photograph the granaries, the roof and the slabs of the roof that had fallen onto the floor. I took a bunch of photos, including one of myself there, lounged around for a bit and then made the trek back to the car.
The hike back to the car was a little challenging since of course that wasn’t marked either. I took note of some landmarks ahead of me and behind on the way down to make it easier to chart the path back to the car. Many times in unfamiliar terrain like this I’ll take some photos with the phone or the regular camera along the way to help with navigation in the way back. Those photos probably saved my life when I got lost and spent the night in White Canyon while hiking at Natural Bridges National Monument.
I got back to the car without incident, sat there and rested while guzzling water and sucking down some Beeraroni and then made my way back out along the dirt road to the paved road and headed down to the Valley of the Gods (not to be confused with the Garden of the Gods in Colorado)
What Formats Is This Fallen Roof Ruin Print Available?
This print of the Fallen Roof Ruin is available in sizes up to 40×60 inches and comes on metal, acrylic, wood, paper and canvas. If you plan to hang it in an area with diffused lighting, any print material with any surface (glossy or matte) will look great. Anything glossy or metallic will have a brighter, more vibrant look to it while a canvas or paper with a matte finish will have a more subtle look to it. If you’ll be hanging it in an area with a lot of bright direct lighting or exposed light bulbs, then a print with a meta finish will likely look better and not reflect the bright light.
If you’d prefer something for the bathroom, this image comes on high quality shower curtains and can be paired with matching bath towels. If you’d like something for the living room or the bedroom, a Sherpa fleece blanket can be an excellent choice. It can even be paired with matching throw pillows.
As plastic shopping bags vanish from stores and you need a shopping bag or bags, a high quality canvas tote bag can make a great replacement for those disposable shopping bags. The larger sizes make great beach bags as well. If you’d like something smaller, you can order this image on a cel phone cover for your new Apple or Samsung phone to protect it and give it a unique look.
Finally, if you like brain teasers, why not order a jigsaw puzzle? This image comes in 500 and 1,000 piece jigsaw puzzles that make perfect gifts for anyone who loves historical images from the US desert southwest.
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