The map that is provided at the trailhead gives you an ambiguous path to follow to the rock art.  At first glance, you may be confused as to where you need to go – I was too!  If you are a Trek Planner Insider Member, you have access to the trail map and GPS coordinates located above this text.  If you are not a TP Insider Member, then you will need to find them on your own.  Luckily, they aren’t too hard to find!

For the easiest and safest route to the rock art, you can park at the Moab Canyon Pathway parking lot at the GPS coordinates I listed above.   Then you simply follow the concrete path across the Courthouse Wash bridge.  Go another 100 yards past the bridge and then turn left on the dirt trail.  You will see some cairns and just follow those to the rock art.  You will see a big sign that gives you some fascinating information about the rock art.

This is what the sign says:

“Rock art is often found at crossroads in the landscape, such as here where Courthouse Wash joins the Colorado River.  Along the cliff face above, Archaic Indians painted long, tapered figures known as the Barrier Canyon style of rock art.  Painted on top of these pictographs are white shields of the prehistoric Anasazi or the historic Ute people.  Petroglpyhs – images pecked, incised or abraded on stone – by the Utes are also here.

In 1980, this ancient rock art was vandalized.  The National Park Service cleaned the defaced rock art but can never restore it.  Much of the bright, contrasting pigment has been lost forever.

Most damage to rock art is done inadvertently.  Help preserve rock art by not touching it, and by not leaving marks or graffiti on this or other canyon walls.  Watch where you step – there are petroglpyhs on the flat surface below the painted figures.”

I was busy looking at the beautiful landscape below and almost stepped on this dead desert fox!  It didn’t have any blood or anything on it so I wonder if it ate something bad? 

If you follow the sandstone wall to the right you will continue to find more petroglpyhs.  You will find sheep, other animals, people, symbols, shields, and more.