Goblin Valley State Park – Utah: What to see, do and more!
Utah is known for its 5 amazing National Parks, but nestled among Utah’s “Mighty 5” is Goblin Valley State Park. But is Goblin Valley State Park in Utah worth visiting? Especially when there are 5 amazing National Parks in this general area? Let’s explore Goblin Valley State Park and in this post, I’ll give you everything you need to know before your visit to Goblin Valley State Park in Utah while on a road trip.
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What’s so great about Goblin Valley State Park?
Goblin Valley State Park features an incredibly cool and unique landscape that you won’t see anywhere else (and yes, that includes all of the Utah national parks!). This area was created 170 million years ago and was once an inland sea. The landscape you see today was created by the sand deposited, and then eroded over the years by windstorms. Those windstorms blew through this valley in many different directions, creating and sculpting these ‘goblins’ you see today in the valley.
Goblin Valley State Park – Where is it?
Goblin Valley State Park is in a remote location – there are no large or mid-size towns around. However, if you’re doing a “Mighty 5” Utah National Park road trip, depending on which way you’re traveling, you may be passing by Goblin Valley State Park en route to Canyonlands or Moab. The map below shows the distance from Moab, which is what we did.
We were traveling from Moab (after visiting Arches National Park and Canyonlands National Park) to Capitol Reef National Park. Goblin Valley State Park is right along the way!
Goblin Valley State Park – Quick Overview
Admission: $20 per vehicle (I thought this was quite expensive for a state park)
Hours: 6am – 10pm daily
Time needed: 45 minutes to an hour
Small gift shop at the entrance station
Visiting Goblin Valley State Park
After paying your entrance fee, you’ll simply drive to the main parking lot. Before you get there though, you might want to stop and check out the Three Sisters formation – this is one of the most famous rock formations in the park.
The drive in Goblin Valley State Park is very short – it’ll take you roughly 3 minutes to get from the entrance station to the main overlook.
The main overlook has plenty of parking, restrooms and a large picnic pavilion with tons of tables.
From the overlook, you can see the entire “Goblin Valley” from above. The actual “goblin valley” is pretty small. I thought it would be so much bigger but it’s only about 2 miles long and one mile across.
You can either admire the goblins from above, or you can follow a trail down to the goblins from the picnic pavilion – which I definitely recommend doing!
Once you’re down amongst the goblins, you’re free to roam around as you wish; there are no marked trails, and you can wander around as much as you want. Dogs are welcome down here, too.
Just be warned that it can be really hot in the spring, summer and early fall!
You can explore for a few minutes or a few hours – there are a total of three valleys you can find with goblins here – you can escape the crowds by hiking further. However, I didn’t find the crowds to be that bad.
For photography, this would be much better at sunrise or sunset than mid-day when I was here. But you can’t be at every spot for ideal photography times on a road trip so you take what you can get.
Hiking in Goblin Valley State Park
While there are some hikes you can do here, most visitors just walk down to the valley and mosey around with the goblins. That’s what I did. I didn’t feel the need to do any serious hiking here (it was May and during our visit, temps were already near 90 degrees that morning!) – and the star of the show are the goblins. But there are a few marked trails – some that lead into slot canyons. You can find more information on them here.
Where to stay when visiting Goblin Valley State Park
As I mentioned earlier, this state park is pretty remote, so there aren’t a lot of options right nearby for hotels and motels.
Goblin Valley State Park is an International Dark Sky Park – camping here or renting one of the yurts in the campground would be very cool!
We were en route from Moab to Canyonlands, staying in Torrey, Utah, so we didn’t stay anywhere nearby. (We stayed at the Broken Spur Inn and Steakhouse which was great!).
Goblin Valley State Park – Final Thoughts
This was a really neat place to see that you won’t find anywhere else in Utah (or maybe even the United States) and makes a good stop on a Utah “Mighty 5” National Park road trip. This isn’t a place you’ll need to devote a lot of time to – if you just want to stroll around the goblins, you’ll only need about an hour. To be honest, there isn’t a lot to do here unless you’re really seeking solitude amongst the goblins and wanting to do extensive hiking. So to me, the $20 entrance fee is a bit steep and would make me hesitant to visit again, unless I happen to be here during ideal photography conditions – then I might visit again.
What do you think? Have you visited Goblin Valley State Park? If so, let me know what you think in the comments below – I’d love to hear your thoughts!
