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Goblin Valley State Park in Utah is a fun place to stop while visiting the Mighty 5. Goblin Valley will sure blow you off with thousands of cute rock formations - Goblins (mushroom shaped rocks) and hoodoos. 

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How to Reach?

Goblin Valley State park is around 100 miles from Moab, Utah and 80 miles (1.5 hrs) from Capitol Reef National Park making it an easy spot to cover when you visit Arches/ Canyon Lands/ Capitol Reef National park.

Read the previous travelogues here:

Zion National Park - Part1

Zion National Park - Part2

Bryce Canyon National Park

Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument

Capitol Reef National park

Geography:

The distinct shape of these rocks are due to an erosion resistant layer on the top of soft sandstones. These formations encourage your imagination as there are many shapes to see. These are formed  due to water and rain whisking away the rock grain by grain creating the hoodoos that we see now. This process took more than millions of years and this landscape still continues to change.

We spent half day in the Goblin valley state park. We started from Torrey in the morning after breakfast, reached the Goblin valley around 11 am. We visited the park in Early June, so it's pretty hot. 

Things to know before you visit:

Entrance fee is $20 / vehicle. There are restrooms at the entrance booth. There are no restrooms near the parking area. From the entrance booth, when we drive further, the road forks. If we take left, we cross the rock formation 'Three Sisters' and reach the parking lot.

The parking lot has an observation point with picnic tables. It's good to have a snack watching the Goblins if it's too hot to hike. Stairs lead to the Goblin valley from Parking lot.

Weather:

This place is remote and weather is unpredictable. We visited in early June but still it is very hot. There is no shaded area around other than the observation point. 

So, drink plenty of water and carry sunscreen, hat and some snacks.

I use Neutrogena and my kids use Coppertone sunscreen. 

Check these Sun hats for Men and Women. 

This trail mix bag is our go to snack for every hike. 

Love Chobani yogurt always. Filling and cool for summer.

Where to find Goblins?

There are 3 valleys , but most of the park is unmarked and it is difficult to navigate. The first few Goblins that you see when you get down the stairs is Valley 1. This is a fun place even for little kids. The goblins are small , cute and dense. They can even climb on some.

We walked further away from parking lot  until we reached a wall and had to go around it right side to reach Valley 2. Here we can see a lot of hoodoos and Goblins which are larger in height. There is a marking to denote it's Valley 2, but it is barely visible. 

There is Valley 3 when we go further, but we couldn't understand better path. Valley 3 has a trail called Goblin's Lair, which is a narrow slot canyon. We couldn't go that further due to heat. 

We retraced our steps navigating towards the parking lot and returned to Observation point. We had a snack and started back to Las Vegas to complete our Southern Utah trip.

If you have kids, try to cover this destination and spend 2 to 3 hrs. Kids will thank you for that. My kids enjoyed taking photos with these goblins and also climbing on them.

Until next time,