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Day 44 - Goblin Valley

Goblin Valley has a cool name. 

My choice this morning, was 1-drive forty miles on a dirt road to hike the Upper Muley Twist Canyon at Capitol Reef or 2-drive north to Goblin Valley State Park, a maybe list site. My guidebook said Upper Muley Twist was forgettable but did mention another great hike to a double arch and narrows-- but they were too far south-- so Goblin Valley it is!  Who can resist a place with that name. 

The drive was lovely through this butte and canyon desert. I seemed to pass only RVs-- testament to the middle of nowhere nature of southeast Utah. 


I immediately went to the valley of Goblins and was a bit underwhelmed at first. Originally called Mushroom Valley, this tidal basin of old has thousands of spires with head-like shaped. I walked down to the small valley and climbed up to alcove to write some blog posts in the shade of the morning. The view looking back across the park was sensational. 


After an hour, the valley filled with people, mostly families, so I hiked to another more remote section and started climbing up and over the Goblins.  Now that was fun. Using the ten second timer on my camera, I arrainged and captured my favorite selfie of the trip-- me in motion as I ran toward the camera center after climbing quickly up the rock face in the bottom of the photo. 


After an hour more of climbing, I decided to push on. A brochure in the ranger station mentioned a famous slot canyon called Little White Horse close-by but with a very threatening sky above-- I thought it foolish to head to a slot canyon. So I drove on to Arches. Sky darkening-- bad for narrow slot hiking. 




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