Camping at Courthouse Rock

Courthouse Rock served as a campsite along the Old Spanish Trail because it offered feed, fuel, protection, and water at nearby Courthouse Spring, and it lay about a day's trek between the Colorado River to the south and Floy Wash to the north, with average travel roughly 25 miles a day. Native Americans and Old Spanish Trail traders also camped here for the same advantages. In 1855, a hand-picked group of 53 men chosen by Latter-day Saint leader Brigham Young traveled through here on the Old Spanish Trail and camped at Courthouse Rock in a venture to settle Spanish Valley, present-day Moab. Scouts who went ahead earlier in the fall of 1854 hired a Ute guide and interpreter named Sun Cloud. This expedition is the earliest record of wheeled vehicles being used on this portion of the Old Spanish Trail.

Utah · United States