16 Room House is one of a number of ruins located near the San Juan River in the area around Bluff and Mexican Hat Utah. Many of these ruins are only accessible by boat from the river. 16 Room House is an exception - you can get to it by driving county roads. 16 Room House is not a large ruin or especially well preserved, but it is an interesting Pueblo III, Mesa Verdean style ruin. As is typical of many Pueblo III ruins, 16 Room House seems to have a very “defensive” nature.

     While a number of ruins are known by multiple names, 16 Room House has more names than any ruin I know of. I’ve seen it called 16 Room House, 16 Room Ruin, 16 House Ruin, 17 Room Ruin, 17 Room House, 14 Room ruin, 14 Window Ruin and Echo Mesa Ruin. I’m sure there are more variations as well but no matter what you call it is a great place to visit.

     For the sake of this article I am using the name 16 Room House as this is the oldest name for the ruin that I have encountered. In 1896 a large group of people gathered at the site and posed for a photo. The caption to the photo calls the ruin 16 Room House so that is what I am using here. If you are interested, view the 1896 photo of 16 Room House 

     16 Room House is located southeast of Bluff on the south side of the San Juan River in a large alcove facing north overlooking the flatlands adjacent to the river. Although most ruins face south to take advantage of sunshine in the winter, 16 Room faces north. This provides good shade in the summer but does not provide any solar heating in the winter months. However, in such a perfectly sized alcove, it is not surprising to find ruins. The alcove has just a single long ledge and the structures were built along the back of the alcove in a single row.

      It used to be quite easy to visit 16 Room House if you were near Bluff, UT. A little east of Bluff on Highway 162 there was a swinging foot bridge that connected the two sides of the river. Built in 1957, the bridge served as the primary connection between the schools, stores and health care in Bluff on the north side of the river with the Navajo reservation located on the south side of the river. The bridge provided an easy access in both directions and was widely used by both sides. Unfortunately, the bridge was washed away in a major flood in 2007.

     16 Mile Ruin is very close to the south end of the bridge crossing. In fact, to visit the ruin today, you drive there on Foot Bridge Road. When the bridge was in place visiting the ruin was highly recommended to any visitor to the area. However, since the destruction of the foot bridge, far fewer people visit the ruin. It’s actually quite easy to get to the ruin by driving county roads that are suitable to any type of vehicle (assuming normal road and weather conditions).

     16 Room House is reached by taking US 191 south from its junction with US 163 about 2 miles west of Bluff. The junction is just west of the Sand Island Petroglyph Panel located at the major river access site and campground. Turn south at the junction of 191 and 163 and you will immediately cross the San Juan River. Continue south for several miles while looking for either County Road 441 or County Road 438. 441 is the first road you will encounter when driving south on 191. It is a maintained gravel road that provides the shortest access to the ruin. However, County Road 438 is paved and the pavement lasts for more than half the distance to the ruin.

      County Road 438 actually takes you right to the ruin. About 4.7 miles from the ruin there is an intersection where 438 and 441 cross. At this point, 441 is running north/south and 438 is running east/west. 441 is paved to the south while the roads are gravel in the other three directions. If you have come from US 191 on 441 it is about 7.7 miles from 191. At this intersection head north on 441, staying to the right until the road drops down to the river bottom flats from here it is a short drive to the large alcove that you will see.

     Once you’ve driven to 16 Room House Ruin it is very easy to access the structures. The trail is very obvious and had almost straight up to the ruin. The ruin stretches along the back of the alcove in a single row and there are access trails on each side of the alcove. Although the trail is short, it is steep and can be a very slick buried in some conditions so take care with your footing. The lower section of the alcove are a vast field of wild columbines. If you visit in the spring you will and early summer you will delight in the beautiful flowers that are like a carpet on the ground. While it is not unusual to find columbine flowers in Anasazi country, it’s unusual to find this many in one huge patch.

     Once you have climbed the alcove, access to the ruin is easy and obvious. There is a gap near the center of the room block where you can climb up onto the ledge to view the rooms in each direction. This is a very skinny ledge and the ruins occupy all of the space between the edge of the ledge and the back wall. The Anasazi surely moved both through and on top of the rooms. However, today we can only look at the crumbled walls and imagine what the ruin was once like. At one time there were three or four sets of rooms to the east (left as you face the ruin) that were two story buildings. They all had roof entrances as well as connecting door ways on the second floor. To the west (right) were 9 single story rooms that all had roof entrances only. Many of these rooms have peep holes in their walls facing the river.

     While there are no kivas at 16 Room House, there is a fire pit chipped into the floor of the lower level room in the two story block. It has been reported that this large room served the same function as a kiva. However, I have not seen any confirmation of this.

     If you choose to visit 16 Room House, please take the utmost care. It’s possible to enter the room blocks without climbing over any walls or ruins. Once you are in the room block you can step over some of the room walls to explore the rooms. However, to get into some of the rooms you have to climb on the walls DON’T DO THIS!  If you're at a place where you can’t access the next room without actually putting your weight on a rock or rock wall, don’t do it. The rooms you will see our the same as the one you are in, and the only way we can ensure that these ruins will last into the future is if we all refrain from ever touching them climbing on them or putting our weight on them in any way.

     16 mile ruin sits above broad, flat, fertile river bottom land that today is farmed and certainly must have been extensively farmed by the Anasazi. It’s easy to gaze out from 16 Room House and imagine the view being not too different from that of the ancients.