Half a Day in Goblin Valley State Park

 Goblin Valley State Park

Address: 18630 Goblin Valley Rd, Green River, UT 84525

State Park Website

This was our 4th stop of our Mighty 5 Roadtrip. 

We stopped here after we did a half day at Dead Horse Point State Park. It was a 1hr 45 min drive from Dead Horse, but it was on our way to our next 2 stops, 

Little Wild Horse & Bell Canyon & Capitol Reef National Park.

Hours of Operation: 6 am to 10 pm daily

Fee: $20; and no, the interagency pass (if you bought it) covers National Parks, but not State Parks.

Since we did Dead Horse first, we didn't get here until mid-day, so the line to get in is LONG. Once they reach capacity, its 1 car in = 1 car out.

Once you get past the entrance, keep to the L when the road forks, and park in the main parking lot.

Parking lot was CROWDED, but there really weren't a lot of ppl. So small parking, but lots of land to spread out.

Thank you to Earth Trekkers for helping us plan our trip. Their blogs are amazing and have so much helpful info. Highly rec!

After we parked, we took a glimpse down into the valley, via Observation Point.

 Hoodoos fill the area! Hoodoos, referred to locally as goblins, are "formations of mushroom-shaped rock pinnacles, some as tall as several yards." Kids were running around playing hide and seek-tag among the massive figures. It honestly did look like we were on a different planet. You can climb on them, making it lit the perfect playground for kids, but to be careful not to damage any of them.

We read there are 5 hiking trails in Goblin Valley State Park. The plan was to just explore the valleys, bc of what I read on Earth Trekkers, but Matt found a hike with an underground cave, so we HAD to do it! So very glad we did, as this was a big highlight of our trip.

The Goblin's Lair

Distance: 1.5 miles one way

Basically, instead of going down into the valleys, you stay on top and wrap around to the L, that leads you BEHIND the cliffs that create a back wall to the valleys. 

This is the Carmel Canyon loop that then splits off after 1/2 mile to cont on to the Goblin's Lair. We enjoyed our hike, as the scenery was so different from what we had seen so far on our trip.

 We had fun with some pics, until we arrived at the talllll rock scramble. 

The cave is not actually a "lair" but is a slot canyon that the entrance has been sealed by a rockfall years ago. We had to scramble up the steep slope over boulders, to get to the top entrance, and then repeat, scrambling down into the cave. 

The holes in the "ceiling" allowed light beams into the cave. 

We saw a guided tour of 4-5 people rappelling down into the cavern, which was something I would have loved to do, if I knew it was a thing. 

You can pay $4 at the visitors center for a permit to rappel, but if you aren't experienced, you can book a guided canyoneering tour at Get in the Wild Adventures.

On our hike in, we passed some kids that had just rappelled, and were hiking back. They told us that there is a small passageway inside the cave, that you can go into and explore even further. It leads you completely THROUGH the rock scramble, to get back out of the cave, instead of going OVER it. 

I was hype about this; I could get out of climbing the rock scramble up and down for a 2nd time? I'm game. But then they told us, the small passageway gets smaller and smaller. To the point where you have to take your backpack off, put it in front of you, and PUSH it through, as you army crawl behind it, in the TOTAL PITCH BLACK DARKNESS. No thank you. We left our headlamps in the car. But even with them, idk if I could do it. 

When we got back to the parking lot, we headed over to explore the Valleys.

The Three Valleys

When you descend the steps from Observation Point, you are in Valley 1. 

We trekked out to Valley 2.

and tried for so a longggg to get to Valley 3, bc we heard the hoodoos out here were the best. If I could do it again, I would skip trying to get to Valley 3. It was just a long time of the same landmarks, and no shade. We kept checking the map but weren't really making progress. With no other people in sight, and starting to get late, we headed back before we officially made it to Valley 3.

Next up: Little Wild Horse & Bell Canyon