River House

We hired a guide, Robbie, to take us to ruins. River House is a stabilized ruin along the San Juan River. It was occupied by Ancestral Puebloans between AD900 and the late 1200s. At the ruin you can walk among stabilized ruin walls, admire rock art, painted and etched on the overhang walls and ceiling, and examine fragments of pottery and stone tools.

River House was a multi-room dwelling with rectangular rooms used for both living space and for storage. Circular rooms, or kivas, were used primarily for religious purposes. Rock art motifs at the site include human hands, and a large snake figure. Human figures, spirals, and mountain sheep are also depicted. Many figures are abstract or their meaning is open to interpretation. People who lived here were farmers, growing primarily corn, beans, and squash.