The hike to Ballroom cave is mostly very easy and access is simple – you actually park on the roadside of Utah 95.

Approaching Ballroom Cave the first feature you’ll see is the remains of a curtain wall that extend along the top of the cave entrance. The cave is quite steep and the area in front of the curtain wall is littered with large boulders. Many of these large boulders are significantly grooved with metates where the Anasazi spent many hours grinding corn on the rock.

Behind the Curtain wall, the cave falls off steeply and a large cave area is exposed. In the Southwest, many alcoves are called caves and it’s the common name for any large opening in a cliffside. Few of these are actually what we would consider to be caves but Ballroom Cave is an exception.

Although the main cave area is behind the curtain wall, there are some structures at the other end of the cave. These rooms were well constructed and the remaining walls and roof beams show the secure construction techniques that are typical Mesa Verde style construction. These rooms are near the very front of the cave and were once multi-storied rooms. However, most of the upper levels are long gone. On the wall above the rooms you will find the only rock art in Ballroom Cave. The pictographs are particularly interesting for the three stick man figures that are each a different color – one is red, one is gold and the third is brown.