Goblin Valley State Park – Along the edge of the San Rafael Desert, Goblin Valley State Park is a relatively unknown park when compared to the Mighty 5 of Utah that eclipse it. Only about a mile wide and two miles long, Goblin Valley consists of thousands upon thousands of red-brown formations of mushroom-shaped rock pinnacles, referred to as “goblins,” and along with Bryce Canyon National Park, it has one of the highest concentrations of hoodoos in the world.

Approximately 140 to 170 million years ago during the Jurassic Period, the Goblin Valley area was on the edge of a shallow inland sea. Over millions of years, distinct layers of tidal deposits of sand, silt, and clay sediments hardened to become sandstone, siltstone and shale layers of the Entrada Sandstone formation. More millions of years later, Goblin Valley is now the result of those layers eroding away the softer layers and leaving behind the hoodoos of hardened rock.

Goblin Valley was initially discovered by cowboys searching for lost cattle, but didn’t achieve notoriety again until Arthur Chaffin, owner of Hite Ferry, rediscovered it as he searched for an alternate route between Caineville and Green River. Astonished by the mysterious rock formations, Chaffin dubbed the area ‘Mushroom Valley’ and returned nearly two decades later for an in-depth exploration of the isolated valley. The park was officially designated in 1964.

Goblin Valley vs. Arches National Park:

The Entrada Sandstone in Goblin Valley is seen many areas across the southern Utah, including the much more iconic Arches National Park. While the Goblin Valley area was a tidal flat, the area of Arches was dry and covered in sand dunes, which resulted in harder sandstone. Under the effects of wind and water erosion, the alternating layers of hard sandstone and soft siltstone created “goblins” in Goblin Valley and the hard sandstone left from ancient dunes created the fins and arches in Arches National Park.