House on Fire

After our "rest" day with minimal hiking and another soak in a hot tub last night, we were ready for another full day of hiking adventures.  Our first hike of the day brought us to Mule Canyon on Cedar Mesa, to an ancient Anasazi ruin known as the "House on Fire".  Since we were now at a higher elevation than we had previously been on the trip, the environment was a bit different from what we had seen so far.  Mule Canyon was a beautiful hike with a LOT of trees and shrubs and even a little bit of water in the canyon.  It was a shock to do a hike with so much vegetation, because most of the hikes we had done so far were in open desert and extremely dry with very little vegetation. 

The hike to the House on Fire ruins was a very pleasant one with minimal elevation change.  After about a 1.5 mile walk we rounded a bend in the canyon and immediately noticed the ruins on the right.  House on Fire is just one of several ruins in Mule Canyon, and was occupied by the Anasazi.  According to literature that we saw about the area, the ruins in Mule Canyon are over 800 years old and have never been excavated or restored in any way.  The House on Fire ruin is so named because of the overhanging cliff above the ruins that has patterns in it resembling flames.  If you visit the ruins in the morning all of the light illuminating the House on Fire is reflected light from the opposite side of the canyon, which means that the roof above the ruins glows with warm light and contributes to the "fire" look.  We found it a fascinating site to visit.  We would have loved to hike through more of the canyon to see some of the other ruins but we had a long hike planned within Natural Bridges National Monument so after taking in the wonder that is the House on Fire, we hiked back to the truck and continued on to Natural Bridges.