A Tale of Goblins and the Erosion of Fins

Thursday, January 7, 2010:

Alan and I had just left Capitol Reef and it was still the early afternoon. We drove on through the folds of the Reef and then northwards.

Eventually we turned off onto a road heading west and encountered some pronghorn...

And then we arrived at Goblin Valley State Park. We were the only ones there! It was a desolate, alien, landscape...

This was my first time to Goblin Valley and it was fascinating to run around amidst the strange shapes of mud...

Alan found a nice place for a nap...

I think it would be a cool place for Steal the Flag...

Kissing goblins!

And I got to ride a goblinalope...

On the far side of the valley is a fortress of goblins in the making...

And so we ventured inside to have a look...

And hung around a bit...

It was some pretty cool exploring...

Where goblins are made...

After spending a few hours on what felt like another planet...

...it was time to leave. We said our farewells to ET...

And drove away, passing the giant chess pieces standing as sentinels, forever guarding the valley of the goblins...

Not far away was a very slotty slot canyon called Little Wildhorse Canyon. We went hiked up for a bit to get a feel for the slottiness....

As we came out of the canyon the sun was setting in brilliant colors...

We got back in the car and drove in the dark to Green River, where the temperature was well below zero. We ate a typical small town restaurant there and then got back in the car and continued on towards Moab.

We pulled into a freezing cold Moab and checked into the Motel 6. The outdoor hot tub was open and it felt nice after a day of hiking around in Capitol Reef and Goblin Valley.


The next day we woke up before sunrise, checked out of the motel, and then went to Denny's for a big breakfast (again, trying to maximize our daylight hours without stopping for lunch). It was nice to have some hearty pancakes.

The temperature was punishingly cold that morning, but as the sun came up we could see that we would have clear blue skies the whole day.

Arches is a park that seems like it could have been designed by the folks at Disney. All the attractions are grouped together as if into "lands" and it's all within a short drive or a short hike away from the next attraction. The entrance to the park is grand as one drives up from the Colorado River Valley and into stunning scenery...

"Streaks on the china,
never mattered before,
who cares..."

-Thanks a lot, Tami...

We drove first to the Devil's Garden. We hiked to Landscape Arch, one of the longest natural spans of rock in the world...

We continued on along the Primitive Loop Trail.

Navajo Arch...

Frosted Fins...

Double-O Arch...

Private Arch...

Black Arch...

Icy Desert...

Despite the cold, it got rather warm as we hiked and the sun shone down...

After completing the Primitive Loop Trail we got back in the car and drove to the "Windows" section of the park.

Windows Vista...

Windows 7...

North and South Windows...

Turret Arch...

Get ready...

Arches!

The view across to the Elephant Garden and Double Arch...

Double-Arch, one of the most popular in the park, was free of visitors!

It was nice to relax under Double Arch for a bit and enjoy the view...

We left the Windows and headed to OS X... just kidding. We then saw Balanced Rock...

Alan kept it balanced for a while, then realized that he couldn't take his finger away without letting the whole thing fall down. So he's still there keeping the rock up...

I left Alan at Balanced Rock to balance the rock and drove to the Delicate Arch trailhead. There were ancient Ute petroglyphs. Go Utes!

Ok... just kidding, Alan didn't stay behind. I'll bet I really had you there though!

We hiked up to Delicate Arch as the afternoon waxed late...

There were only a few photographers perched on the rim waiting for the late-afternoon light.

I was just happy to be there...

So was Alan...

We took a bunch of pictures of the arch and then hiked back as the sun set...

We got back to the car and drove back to Salt Lake that night, stopping only in Moab for some dinner at Wendy's.

Unfortunately there was no hot tub when I got back to West Valley.

It was a great trip though!

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