Visiting Bears Ears? Make the Bears Ears Education Center Your First Stop

Deep in a rocky wash, I’m tickled to find that the two-foot-high grasses that drop heavily over the trail are still lush and green from spring rains. Layered sandstone walls stretch toward an untouchable and impossibly blue sky. The prickly pear are blooming in highlighter yellow, pink and creamsicle. As I scramble up the rocky trail just before it dead-ends at the San Juan River, the view I’ve actually come to see presents itself: a wall of petroglyphs hundreds of feet long overlooking the quiet flow below. And I may never have found this mesmerizing and culturally significant spot without a tip from the volunteers at Bears Ears Education Center in Bluff.

What is the Bears Ears Education Center?

Spanning 1.3 million acres, the remote and rugged landscape of Bears Ears National Monument presents a daunting adventure to visitors.

This is why the Bears Ears Partnership launched a crowdfunding campaign in 2016 to open the Bears Ears Education Center. Brands like Chaco and The North Face, plus several foundations, also sponsored the project.

Designed as a vital first stop before heading into the sensitive Bears Ears landscape, the education center offers visitors essential travel info and safety tips, alongside a deeper understanding of southeastern Utah’s archaeology and cultural context.

The "Visit with Respect" Guidelines: How to Protect Ancient Sites

But the center is more than just a visitor center — a place to stop for souvenirs, pick up a hiking map or learn a few fast facts. It also hosts educational programs, guest presenters and Indigenous art markets. Program director Semira Crank emphasizes that it’s an education center –– a place to slow down and learn about the monument and the unique landscape, and most importantly, the cultural heritage of the protected area.

It’s where responsible visitation of the monument begins. Inside, you’ll find educational displays about pottery, rock imagery and history. There are books by local authors and activity books for kids, a place to stamp your national park passport and volunteers who eagerly share stories and answer questions.

But the highlight of the center is the Visit with Respect campaign. This multi-faceted education initiative provides well-intentioned travels with easy-to-remember principles to encourage responsible exploration and curb degradation of sensitive cultural spaces.

Shifting Perspectives: From Outdoor Recreation to Sacred Ancestral Lands

The campaign, which kicked off in 2016, has since been shared in other ancestral landscapes like Mesa Verde in Colorado, but were born in Bears Ears. The goal: to transform visitors’ understanding of the region from one based on outdoor recreation to one of a living, sacred ancestral home.

That perspective is key. “We want them to remember at the end of the day that these ancestral landscapes are sacred,” Crank states.

"This isn't a time capsule of a vanished people,” says Carolyn Harmon, BEEC’s education specialist. It’s an ancestral land of living and breathing cultures.

A Monumental Mission: Why "How You Visit" Matters More Than Where

That mission becomes even clearer once visitors start asking for hike or ancestral site recommendations. Volunteers and employees only direct travelers to a handful of locations that have been approved by the BLM. These specific spots have been developed for increased visitation with amenities like parking areas, vault toilets and informational signage.

But that includes only a smattering of sites and routes. The rest of Bears Ears is an exercise in finding your own adventure, which makes a stop at the education center even more important. "It's more about how to visit than where to visit,” explains Jeff Stewart, a volunteer from Tennessee who works with his wife Patricia in the education center for a month at a time.

“You’re going to come across a cultural site or two, and when you do, [these] guidelines not only protect you but also preserve these cultural spaces,” Crank says. There are more than 100,000 cultural sites within the monument boundaries, many of which haven’t been rehabilitated and are highly sensitive. Visitors must absolutely travel with reverence and respect whether on foot trails or dirt roads.

Essential Travel Tips for Visiting Bears Ears and Bluff, Utah

Take your time: Don’t rush through the area. There’s plenty to see in Bears Ears and surrounding communities like Bluff. Take your time to enjoy the landscape.

Take a guided tour: Sign up for an Indigenous-led hiking or river rafting tour with a company like Ancient Wayves to learn more about the land and its historical and sacred significance from the area’s original caretakers. This promotes responsible tourism in Utah and supports locally-owned businesses.

Stock up: Stock up on supplies before you arrive as amenities are sparse around the monument. In Bluff, stop by Cow Canyon Coffee for a morning cup and the new Sweetwater Market for specialty beverages and snacks.

Fill up: Don’t head into the monument with a half-empty tank. The distance between destinations is often farther and takes longer than you think.