Goblin Valley State Park

Sandi and I left at 8 AM on Sunday morning for Utah. We had planned to leave Saturday, but the weather in the mountains was not good. The roads on Sunday were good, and we drove with relatively few stops. Glenwood Canyon was impressive, as was the Utah desert, with its book cliffs. Our longest stop was in Grand Junction, where we bought fuel and groceries at the Walmart Neighborhood Market.

After Green River Utah, we turned off I-70, and drove south, with the San Rafael Reef on our right. We arrived in Goblin Valley State Park about 5:30, and set up camp. The small campground is kind of whimsical, with rock formations everywhere, and many kids treating it as a giant playground. Our campsite has a toadstool rock formation, a covered picnic table, and a large concrete pad for the RV. The campground was full. We learned that there were two weeks of spring break in Utah, and this is one of them.

On Monday we drove to the entrance station; Sandi bought gifts and postcards for her grandkids. The young ranger suggested that we hike the Curtis Bench trail, which included an overlook of the Valley of the Goblins. The rock formations were amazing, and even hiking in the desert was interesting.

We had the trail to ourselves until we turned around to go back. We had a nice conversation with some Quebequois retirees from Montreal. They were on a grand RV tour of the US, starting in Florida.

Late in the afternoon, we walked in among the Goblins. Goblin Valley is a area with many toadstool type formations, created by weathering of sandstone. The goblins can be whimsical. There were many adults and kids playing in and around the Goblins. We kept walking further into the field of Goblins well beyond where the other visitors were. Richard was interested in following the drainage; Sandi was looking at the plant life. We had been watching a rainstorm to the north, hoping that we were safe. As we walked back to the parking lot, we were peppered with cold rain, wind, and a little sleet. The wind woke us up during the night, shaking the camper. Sandi noted that in the book she was reading, Edward Abbey talked about strong spring winds in this area.

On Tuesday, we headed for Little Wild Horse Canyon, a popular slot canyon. Because of rain the previous night, there was a very large pool of water where the canyon started to narrow. The trail went high along one side of the canyon. Richard casually scrambled up, hands in his pockets. Sandi was terrified, but pushed through it, and we reached the valley bottom, and the entrance to the slot. The pattern of the water carved rocks was amazing. We went in about one mile. In many places, the slot was so narrow that two people could not pass. This became an issue when we turned around at a large stone, and started to go against the flow of traffic. Sandi was impressed by the small children who were fearlessly climbing the rocks.

We returned to the camper for lunch, and then decided to explore the other side of the San Rafael Reef. We stopped to see some petroglyphs, and the historic Temple Mountain uranium mining area. We then turned off the main dirt road, onto the Chute Canyon Road. From the back side, you can see the many layers of rock which make up the reef. The area is full of off road vehicle trails, but we did not see many vehicles

We headed back to the camper for dinner. After dinner, we took a stroll out to where we could take advantage of the evening light to take pictures of the impressive San Rafael Reef.