Fall Break- Goblins, Ghosts, and Skeletons

For years, we've made trips to Arches National Park.  Every time we head down there, we've commented how some time we'd like to go to Goblin Valley State Park.  Jeremy and I love the movie, Galaxy Quest.  Parts of that movie were filmed in Goblin Valley.  That was part of the appeal for going to visit- to see the rock formations that were in that movie.
This year, since Jeremy has a Utah State Parks pass, we decided we were going to make the trip to Goblin Valley.  We planned for months to go during Fall Break... and we did.
Like our trip to Zion National Park during Spring Break, we got the kids up really early in the morning.  We expected a 4-5 hour drive, but it only took us 3 1/2 hours, so we were there nice and early (but not too early because we also didn't get out as early as we originally planned).  We spent some time at the Visitor's Center then went hiking among the formations.

It was so cool.  It was rocks.  Lots and lots of rocks.  Joshua said, "It rocked."  And the kids had a good time.

We found lots of little paths through and on rocks.  We went through what looked like a maze of rocks.  Some of the area we walked along reminded me of sand dunes, but you wouldn't want to run or jump down them since they were solid.

The night before, we showed the kids the scene in Galaxy Quest filmed in Goblin Valley, so while we were there, they got up to an area where they could cheer, "Gorignak!  Gorignak!" like in the movie.  Those kids are so cute.

After hiking, we had a nice lunch at the viewpoint overlooking the rock formations.

It was such a neat place, we really want to go back and visit again.
We joked how this was like a Halloween-themed trip since we were going to a place called "Goblin Valley" and we were listening to Fablehaven on CD, parts of the book with goblins.  We even saw a rock formation that looked like a witch's face, complete with pointed nose and chin.

Since we did get such an early start (which included good parking), we got an early start back home as well.  We went a roundabout way when we left the park to try to get some birding in.  We will not be going that way again.  Sigh.  We didn't get a lot of birds and it added way too much time to the return trip.
On the bright side, we were able to continue with our Halloween-themed trip.  Since we were on a different road, we were able to stop at a place called "Ghost Rock."  The rock was okay, but the view across the road was gorgeous.

As we were driving, we also saw some interesting vehicles.  We passed a truck carrying trailers filled with pumpkins.

We also passed a van with bikes on the back.  Sitting on one of the bikes was a skeleton.  Ha Ha Ha.  It was awesome.

It was a really good trip and I'm glad we had this family time together.