Travel Secrets by V

Have you ever wanted to see Mars? If so, then you absolutely have to go to Goblin Valley! It’s as close as you will ever get to experiencing Mars and it’s a whole lot easier to get to, it’s in Utah. The area is almost entirely covered in red, there is barely any vegetation, it gets extremely hot and there are gorgeous hoodoos everywhere. What’s even better is that you can wander freely between them because there are no trails here either. This area is huge and it doesn’t get a whole lot of visitors yet, which is nice cause when you visit, you’ll really feel like you are on another planet.

If you like hoodoos, this is the place to see them. There are hundreds of them, all beautifully carved out of red sandstone. There is only 1 place on earth where you can see more hoodoos than you will see here and that’s in Bryce Canyon National Park. You may see more in Bryce but they don’t compare to these ones. The variety here is incredible, they come in all sorts of shapes and sizes. Some look like mushrooms or animals, one looks like an Easter island head, another looks like a warrior guarding the emerald green castle, there’s three sisters and others look like they could be characters in a movie. Your imagination will go wild as you wander throughout this valley.

How were the Hoodoos created?

Millions of years ago this area was a shallow sea. Nearby shorelines and rivers washed all sorts of deposits into the area and when the water dried up, the sediments left behind created the Entrada sandstone. Since sandstone is composed of different materials, some parts erode faster than others and over time wind has created goblin like formations that cover this valley. Everywhere you look, you will notice eyes peeking out at you from the rock formations.

How was the site discovered?

This is a very young site, it was first discovered by a few cowboys who were searching for a few lost cows in the area. It was rediscovered in the late 1920’s when Hite ferry owner Arthur Chaffin and two of his companions were searching for an alternate route between Green River and Caineville, they accidentally stumbled upon this along the way. It was something they would never forget and that’s why Chaffin returned to this magical place in 1949. He spent days exploring and taking pictures of the place which started attracting people, which was pretty crazy since it was a still a very remote location at the time.

Galaxy Quest paved the roads to the site

In 1954 it was proposed that area should be protected from vandalism. The state of Utah jumped in and acquired the area a few years later. On August 12, 1964 they turned it into a state park. Roads to the park were all unpaved until the the area was used in 1999 to film Galaxy Quest featuring Tim Allen and Sigourney Weaver. Thanks to the money earned from the production, the park was able to pave the access road.

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