Tuesday, September 29 2026
I mentioned in yesterday’s post how sparse the population and tourist infrastructure is on the Colorado Plateau. Between Green River and Mexican Hat, where I will stay tomorrow night, there is only one lodge that is reasonably situated to break the 200 mile journey and I decided to stay there tonight so I had plenty of time to visit Goblin Valley State Park this morning and, hopefully, have time for other activities on the route tomorrow.
This was the only tourist stop I made and I spent almost 3 hours wandering around Goblin Valley.
The goblins are actually strangely shaped hoodoos and many of them are topped with a smooth, rounded rock that often looks like a head. The rock below the head is incredibly soft and feels more like very viscous mud than solid rock – although it is difficult to scrape off with your hand. The area experiences heavy thunderstorms in the late summer and fall and the water erodes the soft body, toppling the head stones as can be seen in the lower right of the photo above. Indeed, in the hour I was driving to the park my phone displayed 3 emergency alerts about possible flash floods in the Goblin Valley. Although there was no storm near me the area does have a few slot canyons which can fill quickly with water flowing from storms far away and the ground was already wet after storms last night.
There are no designated paths, probably because they would be washed away in a few weeks or months, so visitors wander freely. Once you were walking among the goblins it was like walking in a maze as some hills were too steep or slippery to climb/descend or you may be confronted with a deep water channel that was almost impossible to cross. I had to turn around and find a different route many times.
The rest of the journey was uneventful as I headed to the lodge but, tomorrow, I may not be as lucky. The whole region is under a flood watch as the remnants of hurricane Polo, which made landfall in Baja California late yesterday, pass over us.
Absolutely fascinating… and great to be able to wander and not stick to trails. .not surprising there is hardly anyone there… it really is in the middle of nowhere . Glad the rain held off.
Something interesting in the middle of nowhere is a good place for me to be. The rain has been threatening for several days but had not altered my plans before today. My luck finally ran out!
It occurs to me that I must have bought a National Parks Annual Pass to use for 3 weeks and this determined my 2008 itinerary. On my equivalent day in 2008, after brunch in Hanksville, I finished the day in Escalante. Hopefully I will divert from the “me me me” nature of my comments. However I think I missed Goblin Valley so presumably the astonishingly empty roads you show elsewhere were what I drove.
Goblin Valley is inconvenient and I had driven passed it before. This time I am looking for new places to visit so I made time for it. The roads are quite empty. The joy of travelling during term time.