When we were heading into Utah, my friend Tina let us know that her family would probably be passing through for a hike as they headed out to Oregon. They would be in the Capitol Reef National Park for one morning for one hike. Would we want to meet them? After we wasted some days near Arches when we were not feeling well, we went back and forth a little. Canyonlands was just down the road from Arches and Moab and we hadn’t visited it yet. Do we take advantage of the proximity or drive across the state to meet up with friends for a hike? We quickly decided to make the most of friendship instead of proximity. We could come back and do Canyonlands another time.
So we headed west. Can I just say that there are way more mountains in Utah than I thought? We are getting quite used to taking the drive very slow as we head up, especially on a warm/ hot day, which seems to still be all of them in Utah right now. We have learned that between our reduced speed, the added stress of pulling Scarlet, and stopping at random grocery stores, dumping and picking up water in the trailer, etc. along the way, we can no longer count on Google’s estimated trip time. Google said that it would be about two and a half hours from Moab to where we wanted to wind up on the west side of Capitol Reef, but we figured that it would take at least twice as long with the way we travel so we decided to stop at Goblin Valley on the way over.
We found a campsite nearby that promised panoramic views of the area and by the time we rolled in, four other parties had already found spots on the hilltop. Two were giant RVs and we had to ask one of the owners if they could move their accompanying jeep that was parked in front just so we could turn around to go to a new spot. Instead, he talked us into taking the spot across the lot that was ideal for sunset viewing. We wiggled our way in and did indeed enjoy the sunset.
The next morning we headed into Goblin Valley. We got a taste of hoodoos in Fantasy Canyon and got a whole meal when we visited Goblin Valley. This was on a whole different scale. Fantasy Canyon had been packed into a tiny area while this was acres of large hoodoos (or goblins) and crazy architectural landscapes.
We first took a hike around part of the perimeter of the hoodoo area, looking down into the valley and then going down into a maze of narrow valleys where other hoodoos were starting to emerge. We kind of followed a trail that Gaia showed us on our phones, but later saw that the official park map didn’t have it listed. I guess that’s why we had a hard time making our way through some of it!
We made it back to the parking lot and refilled our water bottles before heading into the valley. The hoodoos were pretty dispersed on the near edge, but as we made our way in, they got closer and closer and then became giant structures for us to climb on and explore. We would make our way through one area, just to come upon something even more interesting. We climbed and scrambled all over, but eventually had to make our way back to the car for food and water.
After lunch in the shade, we headed back out to another part of the perimeter to hike to Goblin’s lair, a giant cave on the outside of the valley.
By the time we got back to the car, we were hot and tired and decided it was time to go pick up the trailer and head on to Capitol Reef for our hike the next morning.
Did you recognize Goblin Valley from the movie Galaxy Quest??