Courthouse Towers Viewpoint

Courthouse Towers is the roadside viewpoint at the south end of the Park Avenue Trail, where sandstone walls and towers rise around the parking area. You can take in the formations without leaving the lot, or follow the trail for closer views and changing angles. The full out-and-back is listed at 1.8 miles, about an hour, and 322 feet of elevation change. It climbs through a mostly smooth canyon bottom before rock-cut stairs; turn around before the stairs for an easier walk. Stay on the trail in both directions instead of walking along the road.

Nearby towers have names worth learning: The Three Gossips (also called Three Kings), Sheep Rock, The Organ, and Tower of Babel. Look for Baby Arch in the wall left of Sheep Rock; it is small enough to miss if you do not know where to look. A wayside by the lot interprets arches that have fallen. From the parking area, keep the narrow Three Gossips in the same frame as the taller, blockier walls to show how different the formations are; the trail gives you new angles.

The park's geologic story reaches back about 65 million years, when this area was a dry seabed. As the region rose, buried sandstone warped and cracked above a salt layer that bulged into domes. Once exposed, water and winter freeze-thaw slowly widened cracks into fins and arches. Fallen arches are part of the story here, and Wall Arch's 2008 collapse is a reminder that erosion is still changing the landscape.

This is the first major cluster of sights after the visitor center and the steep switchbacks, so it is an easy early stop on the park road. The listed amenities are auto parking and an interpretive wayside. Restrooms, drinking water, and food service are not listed for this exact stop, so plan around that. The trail has sand, uneven footing, and stairs; it is not wheelchair accessible, and dogs are not allowed on the trail.