The Big Parks Trip: Goblins!

A couple of weeks into our 9000-mile road trip, Captain Winnebago was steering the Winnie through Southern Utah.

Utah is –– as Holden Caulfield might have said  –– lousy with park land. ​

​The state has the "Big 5" National Parks: Arches, Bryce, Capital Reef, Grand Canyon, and Zion, plus more: Canyonlands, the Pony Express, Mormon Pioneer, and California National Trails, and a nice handful of National Monuments.

As if that weren't enough, it also has Goblin Valley State Park. 

Goblin Valley is full of hoodoos –– those weirdly worn pillars of sandstone that resemble human figures.  And I mean the valley is FULL of them.

It was first called "Mushroom Valley" when Anglos first found it.  Although in full disclosure, even more than goblins, I think one could argue a valley of phallus-like items.

Names matter.

I get it.

​Who in the world would agree to chaperone a busload of teenagers to Dingus Valley State Park for an overnight tenting adventure?

But how about Ponker Valley? Pizzle Park? Tallywacker Trail?  

​I can restrain myself only by strong effort. Goblins! Goblins!

In any case, the valley opened as a state park in the 1964. It's one of the few parks where electric scooters are not prohibited on the roads, and where a visitor can meander at will up and over the sandstone structures. 

We put in our miles while visiting.   ​

We set off at dawn and returned to the Winnie reminded of how very dry and how very empty Utah can be.