Courthouse Wash Rock Art, Arches National Park

The best and most accessible rock art in Arches National Park is found right at the south edge of the preserve, accessed from US 191, on the north side of Moab - a large panel of intricate, multicolored pictographs plus assorted petroglyphs, viewed by an easy walk of half a mile. The designs are on a west-facing cliff of Wingate sandstone overlooking the lower end of a lengthy drainage, Courthouse Wash, where it joins the Colorado River, historically an important location for cross-country travel, beside an ancient fording place of the river.

The designs are difficult to date accurately but are known to have been added in stages, the oldest maybe 4000 years ago, the most recent around the 1500s. The most ancient designs are representative of the Barrier Canyon Style, characterized by large, red, human-like figures with elongated triangular bodies, while the later additions include white shields.

Although partly shielded from rain by a protruding section of the cliff, the rock art does receive direct sunlight in the afternoons and hence is rather faded yet some of the figures remain quite distinctive. The panel was however greatly damaged in 1980, when someone scoured the surface with a wire brush, removing much of the pigment; extensive restoration work followed but inevitably the panel is less spectacular than before.