Hidden · Green River, Utah, United States
Goblin Valley State Park
Thousands of rounded sandstone hoodoos standing in a basin of the San Rafael Desert, found by cowboys and later used as an alien planet on film.
Thousands of hoodoos shaped by weak joints and slow weather.
Goblin Valley State Park is in Emery County, Utah, on the southeastern edge of the San Rafael Swell, in the San Rafael Desert. It is known for thousands of hoodoos that locals call goblins. Along with nearby Bryce Canyon National Park, it holds some of the largest groups of hoodoos in the world. Utah State Route 24 passes about four miles east of the park, and the town of Hanksville lies 12 miles to the south.
The rock is Entrada sandstone, laid down about 170 million years ago, in the Jurassic, on a tidal flat beside an ancient sea. Cracks in the sandstone made the first weak zones. Edges and corners have more surface for their volume, so they wore away faster and left the rounded goblin shapes. A harder layer on top slows the erosion below it.
Found by cowboys, protected as a state park, once vandalized.
Cowboys looking for cattle found the valley first. In the late 1920s Arthur Chaffin, who ran the Hite Ferry, came upon it with two companions while looking for another route between Green River and Caineville. From a point about a mile west they saw five buttes and a valley of strange rock shapes ringed by eroded cliffs. When he came back in 1949, he called it the Valley of the Mushrooms and spent several days exploring and photographing it.
Publicity drew visitors despite the remoteness, and in 1954 it was proposed that the valley be protected. Utah later acquired the land and set up Goblin Valley State Reserve, and the area became a state park on August 24, 1964. In 2019 the park grew by 6,261 acres of federal land. In October 2013 a delicately balanced hoodoo was deliberately knocked over, which led to criminal charges. It had stood for millions of years.
The goblins up close.
Practical notes.
Before you go.
What are the goblins in Goblin Valley?
They are hoodoos, rock pillars with a harder cap over softer sandstone. Weathering of Entrada sandstone wore corners and edges faster than the faces and rounded the shapes.
How old are the rocks?
The Entrada sandstone was deposited in the Jurassic period, about 170 million years ago, on a tidal flat beside an ancient sea.
Was Goblin Valley used in movies?
Yes. It appears as an alien planet in Galaxy Quest (1999), and its rock shapes inspired the film's rock monsters. Parts of John Carter and City Slickers II were also filmed near or inside the park.
When did it become a state park?
On August 24, 1964, after Utah acquired the land and set up Goblin Valley State Reserve. The park was expanded by 6,261 acres of federal land in 2019.
Around Utah
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