Comb Ridge - Fishmouth Cave

The view from Fishmouth Cave. You can just barely see the black speck of the Jeep, off in the distance.

I went to Fishmouth Cave on one of my recent trips to Comb Ridge. The cave is enormous, and easily visible from the Butler Wash Road. And…it looks like a huge fish’s mouth.

On the hike in to Fishmouth Cave, I stopped at two beautiful sets of ruins.

The first one was especially interesting. There were a number of relatively complete ruins under a deep alcove. A portion of these ruins was corded off with a small chain - I’m assuming there was an ongoing excavation there. But there was plenty to see without crossing the cordon.

Ruins on the way in to Fishmouth Cave. These ruins were spectacular. You can see a cable that is stretched as a barrier to keep visitors away from from the ruins to the lower right of the photo - it looked like they were currently being excavated.

Closer view of ruins on the way to Fishmouth Cave. A neat thing - look at the spot in the left-middle of the picture where the rocks do not appear to have adobe cement around them. Was this an old entrance or hole in the building that they bricked up, or was it a repair? There is a similar spot on the vertical wall near the center of this photo.

Another view of the ‘bread oven’-looking ruins in the back of the ruins, on the way to Fishmouth Cave. I’m not sure why these ruins have this strange texture. Where they excavated out of the mud and dirt directly, or did the Ancients just a lot more adobe on these buildings for some reason? These are in the back of the alcove, more protected by the elements than the other ruins. Maybe *all* of the ruins looked like this before, and the adobe “stucco” has worn off of the less protected ones?

Me peering around in ruins on the way to Fishmouth Cave. I don’t look near as tired in this photo as I will be on the hike out.

Corncob on the ground at one of the ruins on the way to Fishmouth Cave. I’m betting that was grown by the Anasazi. You can see a couple of pieces of pottery on the rock in the right of the photo, probably put there by other visitors.

More ruins on the way to Fishmouth Cave. Note the smoke-blackened roof of the alcove.

Fingerprints in the adobe of one of the ruins on the trail to Fishmouth Cave. Finding signs-of-life like this is very, very fun. The fingerprints make it easier for me to imagine what it was like to build these places.

Ruins in an alcove on the way to Fishmouth Cave. Look how the lintels and door stops are still in place. Note the smoke-blackened roof of the ruin’s alcove.

The second set of ruins that I stopped at were also really, really neat. I did not try to go among the them, though - they looked too fragile. I was afraid I might clumsily damage a wall.

More ruins on the way to Fishmouth Cave. The doorway on the left of the picture looks like it’s the remains of a T-shaped door.

More ruins on the way to Fishmouth Cave

After a short hike to the head of the canyon, I scrambled up a steep talus slope and into Fishmouth Cave itself. It was a steep climb, and my legs were so tired that they were shaking by the time I entered the cave. I’m getting too old and fat for this stuff!

The cave was big, and the floor of it was covered in a deep layer of shattered stone. I could see the remains of a few ruins, but it was not as much of a ‘lost city’ type of feeling, as I got at Monarch Cave.

Mainly, I spent time soaking in the view from the cave. Wow.

The view from Fishmouth Cave. Just to the right of the center in this photo, you can see the dirt road that leads to the trailhead. That little tiny black speck is the Jeep.

Corncob in Fishmouth Cave. Good chance this was grown by the Anasazi. The floor of the cave was strewn with big piles of rubble - the ruins that were here originally have all fallen down, or perhaps a chunk of the cave roof had fallen on them?

Metates (corn/grain grinding grooves) on the floor of Fishmouth Cave.

At the rear of Fishmouth Cave, near the top of a pile of rubble, you can just see some handprints on the cave wall.

Pictograph handprints on the cave wall at the rear of Fishmouth Cave - both positive and negative.

After an hour or so, I picked my way down the steep talus slope to the canyon floor. I managed to slip part way down the slope and landed on a prickly pear cactus.

My legs were very, very tired after the climb up the pile of sharp rubble to Fishmouth Cave. On the way down, they were shaking like sewing machines. I slipped and fell, got a bunch of Prickly Pear Cactus spines in my hands - Oh Noes!

Yup, I am indeed getting too old for this stuff. But oh, my - what a beautiful trip this was.