Courthouse Wash Rock Art, Arches National Park, Utah

Outside of Arches National Park is an amazing assortment of petroglyphs and pictographs created hundreds of years ago. One such area is actually inside the boundary of Arches National Park, but to get to it, you need to go out of the park. Just outside of the park is a small parking area, and from here, walk south, over the bridge. To your left you’ll see a sign that leads to a once-spectacular display of pictographs. Carefully following cairns, you’ll walk up a rocky area to the panel, where the best remaining pictographs can be seen on the top left.

What is unfortunate about this panel of pictographs was that in 1980, someone vandalized this panel with acid, thus destroying this incredible piece of history. Although the National Park Service tried to restore what was once there, the acid did damage beyond repair.

We visited this panel 15 years ago when we were in Arches the first time, and were surprised to see now that it is even more faded – from the sun we suppose, as the one area with the best remaining pictographs seems to get more shade.

If you enjoy looking at pictographs or petroglyphs, this is a nice quick stop to enjoy some history of the area.