Recapture Canyon

Recapture Canyon, along Recapture Creek east of Blanding in southeastern Utah, is both a natural landscape and an important archaeological site on federal land. It preserves evidence of Ancient Pueblo occupation, including cliff dwellings built between about 1150 and 1300 AD, burial sites, and other artifacts that connect the canyon to the region’s long human history. In recent decades, it has also become a flashpoint over access and land use. After damage from illegal trail construction, the Bureau of Land Management closed it to motorized vehicles in 2007, and a 2014 protest ride led to Phil Lyman’s trespassing conviction before his 2020 presidential pardon.

Utah · United States