Valley of the Goblins: Goblins Galore!

After a wonderful long labor day weekend catching up with friends and exploring Arches, Canyonlands, and Capitol Reef (guest blog post on that coming soon!), we headed an hour and a half drive east from Moab, to Goblin Valley State Park.  By this point we were pretty familiar with erosion structures in the Utah parks, but that doesn’t make another park filled with them any less fabulous.  Each park has its own unique geological features that make me awe-struck and speechless.  The main attraction of Goblin Valley State Park is the Valley of the Goblins, a three square mile area of hoodoos that is appropriately named, in my humble opinion.  The entrance to the Valley of the Goblins is from above – you park at an observation point where you have an almost birds-eye view of the expanse of the valley, which appears endless.  There is a path where you can descend into the Valley and from there, the world is your oyster!  This hike was unlike any other, because there was no designated path or route, just a maze of kooky hoodoos that you can roam through freely.  It is a choose-your-own adventure story filled with tall goblins and dead ends that make you re-evalate your path at every turn.  The valley also plays with your imagination as you recognize forms and figures in the erosion structures.  I felt like a kid again, but instead of staring up at the sky and exclaiming what I see in the clouds, I was naming what I saw on the ground.  Whether it was the hoodoo that seemed like a spooky witch with a big long nose, or a small rock resembling a whale in the middle of the dry ocean, it was great fun to let our imaginations run wild.  We walked through the valley for what felt like hours, until we were hot enough (there was little shade among the goblins) that we headed back to the campsite for the evening.

Camping out in Goblin Valley

Camping out in Goblin Valley was also a new experience for us.  We were lucky to snag one of the park’s 25 campsites.  Our campsite was surrounded by large rock formations which provided a feeling of isolation despite having neighbors pretty close to us (the covered picnic area, provided for some respite from the blazing hot summer sun, blocked our view of neighboring campers as well).  At night, there was little to no light nearby, providing us with a breathtaking view of the night sky and the Milky Way.  We were so enamored by the sky that we toyed with not using our rainfly, affording us a prime time view of the night sky from our tent.  We unfortunately realized a little too late that this was a pretty bad decision.  The wind in the early evening was strong, and the park is constantly eroding, one small morsel of sand at a time.  After finishing our dinner, we realized that our tent was no match for the sand; it was filled with fine particulates and our sleeping bags were also coated!  That night, we multitasked in our tent – Adam read our book out loud while I cleaned every square inch with a wet sponge.

Scrambling through Slot Canyons

On the day that we left the park, we drove about an hour east to hike the approximately 9-mile Bell Canyon and Little Wild Horse Canyon loop.  Bell Canyon was the wider of the two canyons with some really fun scrambling.  It was quite exciting (and a little bit scary at times) figuring out how we would get from point A to point B, up and over a large set of rocks, but we took our time and it was quite satisfying.  After making our way through Bell Canyon, there is an open expanse, which admittedly was super hot and a tad boring.  But that ended up making Little Wild Horse Canyon that much more spectacular.  This was our first time hiking a slot canyon and it was pretty amazing.  Toward the end of the hike we passed through some narrow passages, eroded smooth by water running through the canyon.  I’m not sure my words will do it justice, so perhaps some pictures will suffice instead.  At the end of the day, we are quite enamored with Utah.