Bluff provides some of the most beautiful unencumbered red rock flying in the Southwest.

Bluff Utah is a small community of 340 people along the San Juan River in the southeastern corner of Utah. It serves mainly as a stopping off point for those traveling in the area and as a base for those running the river. Bluff is on Hwy 163/191 about 26 miles south of Blanding and 45 miles northeast of Monument Valley.

In the mid-19th century, Utes were hired by explorers and pioneer groups to guide expeditions and fight neighboring Navajos, who had migrated from northern Canada and spread into southern Utah. Navajos farmed the San Juan River flood plains and pastured sheep in the nearby mountains. While Paiutes no longer have a presence in the region, these three Native American tribes played significant roles in the development of the area.

Historic Bluff City was founded in 1880 by the famous "Hole in the Rock" expedition of Mormon Latter-Day Saint pioneers, whose mission was to establish an agrarian community on the San Juan River.

During the livestock boom period, 1886-1905, Bluff's original rough log cabins were replaced by substantial hand-hewn red sandstone houses in the Victorian Eclectic style, some quite large and elegant, others built of wood frame lumber. Today, Bluff is an active center for artists and crafts people as well as others involved in oil exploration, farming and ranching.

Edge of the Cedars State Park Museum is the site of an Ancestral Puebloan archeological site, an archeological repository, and a modern museum. Cowboys from nearby Bluff camped here in the late 1800s and called the site Edge of the Cedars because it sits on the edge of a natural boundary, separating a heavily forested region and a treeless landscape to the south. Cedar is a term locals use for the Utah juniper tree, known for its shaggy bark and blue-green berries. Because of its archaeological significance, the site was designated a State Historical Monument in 1970. Today, the facility serves as the primary repository for archeological materials excavated from public lands in southeast Utah.

The Four Corners Monument is located on the Colorado Plateau west of U.S. Highway 160, 40 miles southwest of Cortez, Colorado. It is centered at 36°59?56.31532?N, 109°02?42.62019?W. The point was originally declared by congress to be 37°N, 109°W, but an early surveying error misplaced the location. The US Supreme Court later ruled that the current location had become so standard that it should be officially recognized as the actual boundary between the four states.

Not only is the point a perpendicular corner intersection, it is the only point in the United States shared by four states, leading to their being called the Four Corners region. The position of the point was initially surveyed by E. N. Darling in 1868, and marked with a sandstone marker. The first permanent marker at the point was placed in 1912. I remember the sandstone marker. It was replaced in 1992 with a granite marker embedded with a large circular bronze disk around the point, surrounded by smaller, appropriately located state seals and flags.

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