If I Were Going...: Goblin Valley State Park

Goblin Valley state Park, Utah

As we drove north from Capitol Reef, we saw a sign that said “State Park 1 Mile.” What State Park could that be? So, we turned off the highway and discovered we were on a short road to Goblin Valley State Park. We decided to check it out.

A very nice road in

Now, of course we had heard of Goblin Valley State Park (henceforth to be referred to as GV). Everyone has.

In October 2013, a delicately balanced million-years-old hoodoo was intentionally knocked over by a Boy Scout leader while two other men watched, one of whom recorded a video that was later uploaded to the Internet.

Idiot; Photo pulled from perpetrators' video

The men claimed that the “hoodoo appeared ready to fall” and they knocked over to “prevent Park visitors from being hurt.”

Yeah.

Scott demonstrates good behavior

Maybe contact a Ranger next time you are [air quote] concerned about safety [air quote].

As a result, the Utah National Parks Boy Scout Council dismissed them from their leadership roles. Then, the national Boy Scouts of America then removed them from the scouting organization altogether.

In 2014, two of the men – the one who toppled the hoodoo and the cameraman – were arraigned on felony charges of criminal mischief and intentionally damaging, defacing and destroying property. They pleaded guilty to lesser charges of criminal mischief and attempted criminal mischief and received a sentence of one year probation plus fines and case-related fees.

I wonder if they high-fived the verdict

I would have rather seen them go to jail.

We should protect, not damage, our natural resources

About the Park

The Park’s name comes from its thousands of relatively short hoodoos that look like a convention of grotesque goblins.

Interesting shapes

GV is second only to Bryce Canyon National Park 190 miles to the southwest, for the number of hoodoos in its boundaries.

Thousands and thousands

These carved mushroom-shaped rock pinnacles result when an erosion-resistant layer of rock sits on top of relatively softer Entrada sandstone.

The caps protect them

The sandstone here is about 170 million years old (making GV truly a Jurassic Park) and is made up of debris eroded from former highlands and redeposited on a tidal flat along with alternating layers of siltstone and shale.

Layers

Patterns in the rocks show evidence of being near an ancient seashore where the ebb and flow of tides created channels and coastal sand dunes.

Clues in the sand

Joint or fractures within the Entrada sandstone beds created weak areas that weathered around the sides as the harder caprock on top protected it from being worn to the ground.

Erosion creates a wonderland

This uneven weathering created the spherical-shaped goblins.

When Boy Scout leaders aren’t knocking them over, they do erode and eventually fall on their own. The erosion rate is approximately 2-4 feet every 100 years.

While most of the formations look like squat little men or aliens …

A mushroom and a face? Elvis? Dancing aliens?

… one, called (unoriginally) the “Three sisters,” stands alone on a scrubby flat plain …

Are the sisters walking their penguin?

There are incredible views every direction you look …

What a nice find!

The Park has small amounts of plant life, but is generally flora-free with wide valleys of sandstone flats and hoodoos.

Panoramic view

Around the valley are five tall steep-faced buttes.

Majestically rising above the valley

GV has a nice campground with a couple of very elegant-looking rental yurts. I would imagine this would be a fantastic place for night sky photography.

Photos CW: Scott Stevens; campgroundreviews.com; reserveamerica.com

Looking up and down from Valley 1

There are three primary valleys plus some hiking and mountain biking trails. You can look at the goblins from the road, from overlooks or you can walk down some stairs and wander as much as you like. Just don’t knock anything over.

Totally quiet

Animals include Jackrabbits, Scorpions, Kangaroo Rats, Pronghorn, Kit Foxes, Midget Faded Rattlesnake, and Coyotes. Most are nocturnal, hiding away in the daytime from the very intense sun (there is no shade unless you sidle up to a butte).

So, we saw none!

Evidence of Native American cultures, including the Fremont, Paiute and Ute, is common throughout the area, called the San Rafael Swell. The Park has some pictograph and petroglyph panels, but we didn’t see them. GV was first “found” by cowboys searching for their lost cattle and later “rediscovered” by the owner of a ferry that crossed the nearby Green River when he was searching for an alternate route between the towns of Green River and Caineville. Forget that Natives Americans knew about it for ages!

The white folks called it “Mushroom Valley’ and promoted it as a tourist destination.

Mushrooms

You know how that went (reference above Boy Scout leaders). So, in 1954, the state of Utah acquired GV to protect it from vandalism. Utah established the Goblin Valley State Reserve, which became a State Park in 1964. In 2019, GV was expanded by adding 6,261 acres of Federal land.