We left Torrey and continued along Hwy 24. The first part of the road went through
Capitol Reef, so we enjoyed the amazing red rock formations for awhile. Then the road followed the Fremont River,
lots of vegetation and quite pretty.
Once past Hanksville we were out in a very dry, barren stretch, not much to look at. We turned off the highway, still in rather
ugly environment, past Temple Mountain, and arrived at Goblin Valley State
Park.
The advantage of state parks is that they are dog-friendly:
Ranger can hike with us. The
disadvantage, at least of this one, is no phone service, no internet.
Our site is a pull-through in a small campground of about 25
sites, tucked into a hollow with huge red cliffs along the west side and a LONG
view across the desert to the east. It
has a covered table, so we have some shade---Hurray! This being a Saturday, the campground is
full, with quite a few families with small children who seem to love climbing
up the brown, dried-mud hills and sliding down.
We took a short hike to the actual valley to see the
goblins. The trail was in a gully between the dried-mud walls, not much of a view, but Ranger seemed to enjoy himself,
climbing up onto the side walls and sliding down again. The end of the trail was at the overlook of
Goblin Valley, where we saw the weird, rounded, mushroom-like towers for which
the park is named.
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