Goblin Valley is an amazing state park in the uninhabited San Rafael Desert south of Interstate 70, between Green River and Hanksville, Utah. Its colorful eroded cliffs enclose a vast basin of improbable shapes, thousands of weird rock formations unlike any other rock formations you’ve seen. This incredible landscape is a great place for the imagination. To some visitors, the terrain resembles that of Mars or the Moon, others see goblins, giant mushrooms, turtles, and any number of other forms amidst the arches, spires and balanced rocks. What’s more, this strange scene is constantly changing depending on the time of day, the time of year and the weather. The valley is a long, narrow trough in the southeastern corner of the ancient rock formation known as the San Rafael Reef or Swell. Massive subterranean upheavals pushed up the reef’s jagged ridge, forming a great, canyon-cleft, rock spine, which runs north from the park to I-70. Goblin Valley’s Bowl, however, is an ancient sea bottom whose deep layers of solidified silt, mud and sand were deposited anywhere from 140 to 200 million years ago. These red-brown, gray-green and dark brown bands of sedimentary rock are softer in some places than others and erode unevenly. The nearly constant wind gnaws away at the rock and blows sand into everything. After cloudbursts, runoff the color of chocolate milk streams between the goblins, all of which have weathered out of the soft red sandstone and siltstone of the Entrada Formation.

Somehow the valley managed to remain virtually “undiscovered” and thus unexploited until it could be rescued and preserved. It was not brought to public attention until 1949, when it was explored and photographed by a party led by Arthur Chaffin, a prominent figure in the Southwest who was a promoter of Utah’s scenic wonders. What he has called “mushroom valley” was proposed as a national park, but was instead acquired by the state as a reserve in 1954. The park now encompasses 3,254 acres, five square miles almost exactly a mile above sea level. Its campground is a convenient access point to the entire San Rafael Swell area.

The San Rafael Swell, with its sun-baked badlands, sheer cliffs, imposing buttes, and dozens of canyons containing waterfalls, Indian ruins and tiny oases made by canyon springs is itself very popular with hikers, campers and backpackers. Its remoteness imparts a real sense of discovery and escape. The many backcountry roads left over from the uranium boom are also popular with ATV enthusiasts. The Swell is sometimes referred to as “Utah’s sixth national park” and has indeed been proposed for designation as a national park or conservation area. Opponents, however, want to keep the area open to cattle grazing, oil and gas leases, and ATV riding. The State park has a campground with showers and a covered picnic area over-looking Goblin Valley itself. No matter what amount of time you intend to spend at Goblin Valley, you should find it to be a truly unique and extraordinary place, perhaps unlike any other place on Earth.