Hermit's Cabin (Marjum Canyon)

Bob Stinson’s rock house in Marjum Canyon

Hermit’s Cabin — also called Hermit’s Cave House — is a one-room stone dwelling built into a natural limestone alcove along Marjum Pass in the House Range, Millard County. BLM manages the site under the Fillmore Field Office as part of the House Range Recreation Area. The builder was Bob Stinson, a World War I veteran who arrived in the west desert in 1929.

Stinson set out for Delta to see a brother after the war and after personal setbacks at home. His wheeled house failed on the Marjum Pass road — then a primary east–west link between Delta and Nevada — roughly forty-five miles short of town. He claimed a small natural cave in a side canyon, closed its mouth with local stone, and stayed. Locals nicknamed him for that solitary life in the pass. Federal work kept him employed clearing rock and debris from the route. Side income came from trapping bobcats and coyotes, mixing grasshopper poison under contract, and running a handful of sheep. Guests sometimes received homemade brew. When a paved highway opened several miles south in 1951, the road job ended; Stinson, already past seventy, relocated into Delta for easier living. He lived to eighty. After cremation, family and friends returned his remains to the foot of the stone house he had built in the canyon.

What remains is the stone facade closing the alcove, the enclosed room, and the canyon setting — a sheer limestone slot through the range. The structure is fragile: a standing vernacular building in an eroding desert canyon. BLM asks visitors not to lean on the walls, not to leave marks, and to pack out all trash.

Finding the cabin

Leave Delta westward on US-6/50. After roughly thirty-three miles, take the signed right turn for U-Dig Fossils onto gravel and stay north for a little over ten miles until a four-way junction. From that crossroads, go left (west) onto the Marjum Pass track for about thirteen miles. Watch the north wall of the pass for the final small side draw before the route opens again — the cabin is tucked in that alcove. The walk from the road into the stone front is short. The limestone walls rise quickly on both sides.

The road is gravel and dirt through open west-desert country. High-clearance is wise; 4WD helps after rain or snow. Soft sand, washboard, and rock steps show up without warning. There is no cell service, no water, and no services between Delta and the Nevada line on this corridor. Carry spare water, a full tank, and a spare tire. Summer heat on the valley floor is extreme. Winter storms can close Marjum Pass entirely. Leave a trip plan with someone who expects your return.

Dispersed camping is allowed on surrounding BLM land under standard regulations; there is no developed campground at the cabin. Fire restrictions are common in dry years — check before lighting anything. Marjum Pass itself is still a through-route with limestone walls, open range views, and far less traffic than Utah’s red-rock parks.

Chaining the House Range day

Hermit’s Cabin sits well with other House Range stops. Notch Peak Wilderness Study Area lies south of Marjum Pass — the limestone summit with the multi-thousand-foot west face above Tule Valley. Viewing Notch Peak from Tule Valley Road (off US-6/50) or hiking toward the rim from eastern high trailheads each takes a full half-day on its own. Stacking a long summit hike and a deep Marjum drive on the same afternoon needs an early start and contingency fuel.

Antelope Springs trilobite collecting areas and the Amasa Valley / Miller Canyon road network open other high-clearance loops. Commercial fossil digs near the U-Dig turnoff run under their own rules and fees, separate from the free cabin visit. Give bristlecone stands and cryptobiotic crust on higher ground a wide berth.

Treat the cabin as a historic residence. Do not climb on the walls or use the site as a party camp. Do not enter any mine workings elsewhere in the range. For current road conditions, fire stage, and any temporary closures, contact the BLM Fillmore Field Office (95 East 500 North, Fillmore) before a long dirt-road commitment. The stop is the story of one man who lived alone in a limestone alcove for two decades, and the intact stone work that still marks the canyon — if visitors leave the walls standing.