The American West is blessed with some of the world’s eye-catching natural attractions. Yosemite. Grand Canyon. Redwoods and Grand Tetons. Goblin Valley State Park.
Goblin what?
Deep in the state of Utah, far from the well-traveled tourist routes, you’ll find a sandstone wonder that once was the floor of a vast ocean.
Winds, rains and snows and frost-thaw cycles over the centuries have reshaped what ocean bottom remained. The result of Mother Nature’s sculpture work is a landscape populated with strangely shaped boulders and sandstone appendages that many early settlers thought resembled goblins.
You can wander in this barren, desert-like expanse. You can even rent a campsite for the night here. No matter where you’re from, it’s unlikely anything like this exists at home.
Formations similar to this are found in Utah’s spectacular Bryce Canyon National Park, some 100 miles as the crow flies to the southwest. Bryce Canyon appears on many western travel itineraries, and with good reason. That park was attracting about 2.6 million annual visitors prior to the pandemic.
By contrast, Goblin Valley State Park saw a little more than a tenth of that crowd. You should see both places, because they are quite different and unique. But when you return home with pictures from Goblin Valley, there are likely to be a few double-takes. Some might think you took a vacation on Mars.
How Did This Happen?
Scientists say that during the Middle Jurassic Age, much of today’s Utah, Wyoming, Colorado and northern sections of Arizona and New Mexico were covered with Entrada Sandstone. This porous, iron-rich red rock erodes with cycles of freezing and thawing, and sometimes forms rock arches like what is found in Utah’s Arches National Park. But at Goblin Valley, the sandstone formed a forest of strangely shaped boulders.
One of the best explanations I’ve found is at canyonrides.com: Rain, snow melt, and the wind all work on the land, taking away rock, silt, sand, and other debris slowly. The resulting formation is a tall spire with all the excess soft material washed away. Since hoodoos began as large chunks of land, there is often a section of harder rock at the top, what used to be the upper layer of the land, and softer sediments make up the chimney.”
The fine grain found on these rock formations might seem fragile, but in reality they are firm for the short term. A group of Boy Scouts decided a few years ago that one seemingly precarious structure here needed to be knocked down for reasons of visitor safety. The effort eventually earned the scout leaders felony charges that were later reduced when they entered pleas to lesser charges.
The large rock structures here and at Bryce Canyon are known as hoodoos. Utah is home to the world’s largest concentration of these structures (most either here or in Bryce Canyon), but hoodoos also are found in Mexico and Turkey, among other world destinations.
How Do I Get There?
If you’re looking for a socially distanced getaway, Goblin Valley certainly fills the bill. The park is about 35 miles southwest of a lonely exit on I-70 in east-central Utah, via State Route 24. Look for the signs and a westbound turn off of 24 on Temple Mountain Road. Then proceed southward on Goblin Valley Road until you reach the park entrance.When driving in this area, begin looking for a gas station when your tank is still half-full. Service stations can be many miles apart, and cell service isn’t always available if you do run out of gas.
You’ll pay $20 per vehicle to enter any day of the year. The park never closes, and vehicle passes are good for two consecutive days. Holders of the Utah Senior ID (for ages 62+) are $10.
Once inside, note that there are three separate areas (or valleys) in the park. The first is visited most often, followed in popularity by the second and third. There are five marked hiking trails, ranging in difficulty ratings from easy to strenuous. The Curtis Bench Trail is 1.5 miles each way, and many visitors add a detour into the hoodoos to make it a four-mile hike. This trail is fairly easy and affords some great views.
A Few Tips for Visitors
- Combine your visit with time at either Arches or Bryce Canyon national parks. Both are distant from here, but each offers hotel selections in Bryce Canyon City or Moab.
- Because hotel options are so scarce, many visitors opt to camp at Goblin Valley ($35/night for a spot), or spend $100/night to rent a Yurt (hut) in the park. Make reservations well in advance of your visit.
- Nights here are quiet and the celestial show is fantastic, given that light pollution from urban areas is at a minimum.
- If you’re not planning to camp, plan on spending at least four hours at Goblin Valley.
- Bring plenty of water and snacks
- Drone permits are available for $5 at the park office. If you’re skilled with a drone, this is the place to bring it!