House on Fire Ruin is a great little hike to several ancient Ancestral Pueblo ruins. The ruins are some of the most photographed in the state and easily some of the most edited to make the colors more vivid and saturated. I admit that I have been seeing pictures of House on Fire for many years now and seeing the heavily edited photos just turned me off to the entire hike. Nevertheless, I was in the Cedar Mesa area and had an afternoon off and wanted to do a “popular” hike and decided to do this one.

The trailhead is located right off of Highway 95 down about 1/4 mile. But first you will need to make a quick stop at the fee kiosk to grab an envelope to put your cash inside. Make sure you bring some cash! From here, head down to the trailhead. The road was built over the creek below and you just park on the road and hike to down the west side until you see another sign giving you information about the ruins. I read a little bit then began the adventure! On this particular day, I didn’t see many hikers.

The trail was easy and went in and out of the dry creek for the entire length of the hike. There were several times that I would skip the actual trail and just follow the dry wash until the trail came back down into the wash. You won’t gain much elevation on this hike either.

It’s overall a quite pleasant trail with lots of tall trees and plenty of bushes and shrubs, After hiking for 1 mile I saw a sign in the middle of the trail that pointed to my right. The ruins are located up from this sign underneath a large rock overhang.

I could now see why this is such a popular hike. The ruins DID look like the house was on fire. The way the sunlight was hitting the ground and then reflecting up on the ruins made it seem like it was indeed on fire. The ruins are really neat and require your protection.

Please do not enter the ruins. Just stick your head or camera in and enjoy them. It’s clear that some of them have been rebuilt to a degree. The ruins are most likely 700-1000 + years old. These ruins were most likely granaries or some type of storage structures.  Make sure to check the tops of where the ancient Puebloan peoples put the mortar to hold the structures together – you can still see finger and fingernail prints.

They are located very close to the Mule Canyon Kiva which is located on the mesa nearby here. Feel free to explore around the boulders and cliffs. It was fun to explore a bit and get pictures of the ruins. Enjoy the silence of this canyon!