Family Fun at Goblin Valley State Park

A few weeks ago we had a mini family reunion in a beautiful place called Goblin Valley! I have only been to Goblin Valley one other time with my family when I was in high school. I remembered how cool it was when we took a bunch of Japanese foreign exchange students with us and ran around climbing up and over hoodoos. I was so excited 17 years later (that sounds like forever ago) to take my own kids!!We had a blast and even though we only camped for one day and had to drive four hours to get there, it was well worth it!  Our family decided to camp at the Green River State Park campground which is about 40 minutes away from Goblin Valley. It was the perfect place and had a lot of grass and spaces to put up big tents.  It was also close to the river and a golf course.  The river was pretty high and cold so nobody was very interested in getting in the river. But in the summer I think it would be a blast to go river rafting down the Green River. We stayed in the Green Valley State Park campground one night and if you know me you know I’m not very big on camping only one night. You still have to take the same amount of stuff but nonetheless we had a blast.My cute cousin that brought her kids without her husband came up to me and told me that it was building memories for her family even though it was such a big sacrifice. It’s never easy to just go camping for one night or plan short vacations. But if that’s all you can do it’s worth it. We were with our cousins for only 24 hours and had a wonderful time.

Little Wild Horse Canyon 

Before we actually went into the park we went to Little Wild Horse Slot Canyon.  This slot canyon is located right before you get to Goblin Valley. The signed turn-off to Little Wild Horse Canyon is located 11 miles from Highway 24 and 2 miles before the Goblin Valley State Park fee station on the west side of the road. It goes though some awesome, yet not too tight slots. Even large people could still make it through. The full hike is about an 8 mile loop.  We only did about 3 miles and turned around, but we did it with children of all ages.  Read more about the hike HERE.

And be prepared to take some pretty awesome pictures!  It started raining a little and the clouds were getting dark so we got out of there before something bad might happen.  You can never be too safe when it comes to weather.  We were glad it all cleared up when we got to Goblin Valley.

Family Fun at Goblin Valley State Park

Goblin Valley is part of the San Rafael Swell and provides sights that cannot be found anywhere else! Its famous for its thousands of hoodoo rocks, referred to locally as “goblins”, which are formations of mushroom-shaped rock pinnacles, some as high as several meters. There is hiking for everyone.  It ranges from easy to strenuous- technical canyoneering.

We could have explored around there all day but we didn’t want to get home at midnight, which we ended up getting home at midnight because our drive was long and we had to stop for dinner. But the kids had a blast. We saw some people playing laser tag with these (Affiliate) and now my kids want them!

My husband and some of my boys found some caves, although I can’t tell you where they are because I never actually went in them or found them I just saw where they were. But you can explore all over and find so many amazing beautiful things.

 If you live in Utah and haven’t ever gone to Goblin Valley it is a must-do State Park. If you are visiting it is also one of my top favorite places in Utah.

There is a campground there at Goblin Valley but it was really sandy, I really like camping in the Green River State Park because it was nice and green and the kids weren’t getting dirty yet.

This was what the clouds look like before we left to the north (top), and this is what they looked like to the south (bottom). The whole place was gorgeous!  I can’t wait to go back and spend more time there!