Blanding
©
Blanding

Blanding

Southeastern Utah town on the Colorado Plateau, a base for Ancestral Puebloan sites and canyon country.

Blanding is a small town in San Juan County, in the remote canyon country of southeastern Utah. It is not a destination in itself, but it is the best-supplied town in a vast and empty region and makes a practical base for exploring some of the most rewarding archaeology and landscape in the American Southwest.

To the west lies Cedar Mesa, a high plateau cut by canyons that shelter hundreds of Ancestral Puebloan sites — cliff dwellings, granaries, and kiva ruins — most of them accessible only on foot and often visited by no one else. Grand Gulch, the most spectacular of the canyons, requires a permit and at least a night in the backcountry. To the north, the Abajo Mountains offer forest scenery and cooler temperatures in summer.

The town has motels (including a Best Western), a couple of grocery stores, and basic restaurants. The Edge of the Cedars State Park Museum in town has an excellent collection of Ancestral Puebloan pottery and artifacts from the region.

Guide

Getting There

Blanding is in one of the more remote corners of the continental United States. The nearest commercial airport is in Moab (about 90 miles north on US-191), which has limited service. Most visitors drive, typically from Salt Lake City (about 5 hours), Moab (about 1.5 hours), or Monument Valley (about 45 minutes south).

US-191 is the main route through Blanding, running north to Moab and south to Mexican Hat and Monument Valley. US-95 runs west through Cedar Mesa toward Capitol Reef. There is no public transport to or within Blanding. A car is not just helpful but essential — the sites you came to see are scattered across a large and roadless landscape.

Fill up on fuel in Blanding before heading into Cedar Mesa or Grand Gulch. The next gas station to the west is a long way away.

Guide

Things to Do

Blanding is not a destination — it is a base. The town itself has one worthwhile museum and a historic building. Everything else worth doing is out in the canyon country that surrounds it: Cedar Mesa to the west, Grand Gulch below it, the Abajo Mountains to the north, and Bears Ears National Monument encompassing most of it. For archaeology and landscape, the area around Blanding is among the best in the American Southwest.