It was only after a decade and a half of visiting Moab that I finally 'discovered' the Courthouse Wash panel. Located immediately across from the location we were staying and on a major highway, I'd heard from my family that there were petroglyphs there. I took off across the highway to visit the location, not quite knowing where they were or what they were.
This first picture is actually from my last day in Moab, when there was a group of tourists led on a trip to the main panel. Here they are standing before the main panel, givin a sense of the scale and magnificence of this location.
The view looking across from the panel is delightful, with the Colorado River at one's feet winding into a narrow canyon to the west. There is also a tremedous open field there, undoubtedly a rich source of riverbottom soil for farming for many centuries prior to it's current use.
Unfortunately the panel itself was vandalized with a steel brush in 1980 by persons unknown, which has caused a serious deterioration in the portions of the panel which could be easily reached. As part of the Arches National Monument the affected areas of the Barrier Canyon Style Archaic figures have since been restored, but in the next photo the effect on the underlying matrix of the lower portion of the panel can still be seen.
The portion to the right, above a large pedestal, is in much better shape and retains much more of the original grandeur that helped place this site on the National Register of Historic Places.
The next view is from beneath the main portion of the panel, petroglyphs typical of the Moab region. There are also several petroglyphs above the Barrier Canyon Style figures as well.
Below is a detail of some anthropomorphs, quadrupeds and more abstract elements from this petroglyph panel.
On the base of the higher pedestal to the right of the panel there are also some virtually horizontal petroglyphs of quadrupeds, difficult to view and easily missed. The highlighting in this photograph may also be revealing some additional light petroglyphs beneath the pictographs.
Futher to the east of the main pictograph panel there are additional petroglyps. Many of these are much more difficult to access (there is a fairly well marked trail up to the main panel from the road, as well as a marker) but interesting in there own right. Below are some of the unusual circle motifs which are located there.
There is, of course, always speculation about the meaning of petroglyphs, but I do have to admit that this one reminds me of the Crab Nebula supernova of 1054; the crescent moon certainly seems similar to the pictograph at Penasco Blanco in Chaco Canyon. That panel is also associated by some with the Halley's comet appearance several years later, and this circle with a dot inside it and three trailing rays are reminescent of European depictions of that comet.
This circle motif is more prominent at this location; this next photograph is of the same location but of a larger segment; in it one can count seven separate circular enclosures, if one counters the rayed circle.
A number of older petroglyphs, seemingly of a Barrier Canyon Style, were also present, as well as even more circle motifs, including this gridded circle with a more recent (?) spiral superimposed over it.
This panel alone would have been worth the visit to the site, but it was late and getting dark, the wind was vicious, the footing was precarious, and somehow I made that mistake of thinking I'd be back later to explore the rest of this site.
Well, not yet, but I do look forward to getting back to this, one of the most imminently accessible and impressive sites in the Moab region.
