Spring 2025 Utah, 4.16.25 - 5.14.25, Part 15, Goblin Valley State Park, Valley of the Goblins 2, Wild Horse Window, final evening in the goblins

Our final day in Goblin Valley started out calm and clear. We headed into the park for some new exploration. As previously mentioned, Goblin Valley is really four valleys. Most people, including myself, never venture beyond Valley of the Goblins 1 which is the closest area to the parking lot and observation area. I was very interested in seeing more so Bridgit and I dropped down the stairs to the valley floor and started hiking south. As we made it beyond a large white dome we began to head east towards the walls. What we found was that if you round the corner beyond White Dome, there is another valley that extends east from the main valley. This second valley is hidden from the main valley by White Dome. This was Valley of the Goblins 2 and it was a really cool area to explore. It was so full of goblins that it was tricky to simply travel through them. We would start up what seemed to be a path through only to get dead-ended by some taller goblins. We wound our way back and forth towards the back end of the valley. According to Gaia, we were basically on the front or west side of the ridge from the Goblin’s Lair. The further back we got, the taller and grander the goblins became. Valley of the Goblins 2 was a big area and we didn’t explore nearly all of it.

Along the way back we stayed closer to the wall where the wilder rock formations all were. We found another canyon that turned out to be the same canyon Bridgit and I had hiked up the last time we were there. We followed this canyon way up until it appeared to dead-end. After a break we hiked back out and made our way back to the Jeep. As soon as we got back to the Jeep I realized I had left my Canon camera on a rock back in the canyon where we had taken a break. I’d never done that one before! Luckily, I knew right where I’d left it and also knew the route we had taken to find it so it didn’t take me too long to hike back and retrieve it. I have to admit that as I hiked back to get the camera my mind was racing. What if someone had found it and stolen it? The photos from the entire trip would be gone forever. I would have been crushed beyond consolation if that had happened. But I was fairly confident that in the short period of time since I’d left it there that it was unlikely anyone else had been in there, much less stolen my camera. Needless to say, I gave a little prayer of thanks when I saw it sitting right where I’d left it!

**Erection Rock in Valley of the Goblins 1**

Meanwhile the winds started up again during our initial hike back to the Jeep and it blew hard all day. It was still warm and without the wind it would have felt hot. Temperatures were in the low eighties but with the winds it felt quite comfortable. I couldn’t just sit there the rest of the day so I went for another hike. This one was a really easy short hike and a really easy short drive to the trailhead. Just around the corner from our campsite on the road to Goblin Valley was another dispersed camp area. At the far end of this camp area was the trailhead for Wild Horse Window. I could see a hole off in the distance and assumed that would be my destination.

The Wild Horse Window Trail is just under two miles round trip so it was more of a stroll than a hike. The trail dropped steeply down a hill from the trailhead to a wash. From there I followed cairns up onto a big hill of slickrock. At the top of the hill the wind was blowing like crazy. Dropping down the other side into another wash I was more sheltered and it was much calmer. Following the wash up I arrived at Wild Horse Window. I was the only one there. It was definitely more impressive than I expected. It consisted of two very inset alcoves, one with a large skylight window in the roof of the alcove. I climbed up into the upper back of that alcove (not very easy). From there I was looking out a big window with a big hole in the roof above me. I hung out for about a half hour and then made my way back to camp.

**Looking out from the back of the main alcove**

**Looking out from the back of the main alcove with the skylight above**

**Following the wash back down to the slickrock hill**

So now we were at the final evening of our trip before heading for home. I wanted it to go out with a bang. This whole trip was centered around having a full moon in Goblin Valley. When planning the trip, I wasn’t necessarily thinking about shooting the moon so much as using the moonlight to shoot the goblins. Well, since we had an amazing experience shooting the goblins a couple of nights earlier, I thought I’d see if I could get a cool moon shot. I drove up to the parking lot at seven, making a quick stop to hike out and grab a photo of the Three Sisters.

I hiked down into the north area again. Instead of staying there though, I hiked way back to the back wall where a small valley extended back further by the wall. My thinking was that to get a great moon shot I had to zoom in as far as I could with the camera. For me, that was a 300mm lens. I had to find an interesting foreground such as a cool goblin that was far enough away that when I zoomed in fully, I could still see the whole goblin.

I still had a couple of hours to play around while waiting for the moon to rise so I wandered around this back valley. I found several small caves and realized that this was the same part of Goblin Valley that Mike, Mike and I explored on my first visit back in 1990. I climbed into a couple of the caves where I got some cool shots looking out and using the cave entrance as a frame.

**Valley of the Goblins 1 in the evening light**

Once I got way back in the corner of the valley I started making some calculations. I found some great looking hoodoos high above me on the ridge framed by the sky. By moving around to several different spots, I was finally able to line up a pair of goblins with nothing but sky between them. If my calculations were correct, the full moon would rise up right in between those two goblins. If I was zoomed in all the way to 300mm, I would capture both goblins with a gigantic full moon right in between them. I even changed my auto-focus to manual so I could manually focus on the moon and not the goblins. This was supposed to take place at exactly 9PM.

So I set up my tripod, camera and lens and I waited. While waiting the sun kept getting lower and the evening light was just sensational. I took several photos of what was right around me while I waited for the magic moment the moon would start peeking over the top of the ridge.

**Wonderful evening light in Goblin Valley**

I was checking my watch every minute leading up to 9PM. But 9PM rolled around and the moon didn’t rise. I waited around until 9:30PM, looking all around me but still no moon. I was puzzled. I was also puzzled as to why it was getting so dark even though Bridgit and I had tons of moonlight just two nights earlier. By 9:30PM I threw in the towel and packed up my gear. I was really glad I had brought my headlamp because it was really dark back in the back of that valley! It would have been incredibly difficult to hike out without one. I knew it was pretty much a straight line west to get back to the parking lot but without my headlamp I couldn’t even see the ground. As I moved further away from the recesses of the valley and more out into the open flat I got my answer. The moon had risen but a thick layer of clouds kept the moonlight from lighting up the valley. I hadn’t been able to tell that it was cloudy while waiting because I was too close to the wall.

So once again, my full moon photo plans were a failure. I had a full moon setting over Mt Whitney from the Alabama Hills and that was a bust. I had a full moon rising right next to the Toadstool at The Toadstools Trail near Page, Arizona and that was a bust. And now my Goblin Valley full moon was a bust. Considering all the amazing things I did get to see and photograph on this trip, it didn’t dampen my spirit at all. I’ll just try again some other full moon.

What was really a cool ending though, was hiking back out through a forest of strange and twisted goblins to get to the car. I couldn’t see them but as I walked if I moved my head from side to side, goblins would appear in the light briefly and then fade away as I walked past. It wasn’t scary but it was eerily awesome walking through the goblins at night with only the headlamp to light them up!

Well that pretty much wraps up another unbelievable trip to Utah. The Navibahn performed flawlessly. The new house battery proved it can easily handle five full days of boondocking with no need to recharge. With the new motherboard, the refrigerator worked like a charm both on electric and gas. It’s so much more relaxing to be on a trip when everything is working!

I sincerely hope you have enjoyed coming along on this trip with us through these reports and photos. I do this as a labor of love. What’s in it for me is when I find out that perhaps I inspired someone to get out there and see some of these amazing places. Should you ever decide to explore some of these great spots and would like more detailed information, please feel free to email me and I’d be happy to share whatever I know.

I would love to get any feedback from you on the content. If there is anything I can be doing to make these more interesting or easier to read, please let me know.

And once again, if getting bombarded with all these emails is just not your cup of tea, please email me and ask to be removed from the distribution list. I would totally understand.

Happy travels and thanks for listening,

Jon

Spring 2025 Utah, 4.16.25 - 5.14.25, Part 15, Goblin Valley State Park, Valley of the Goblins 2, Wild Horse Window, final evening in the goblins

Spring 2025 Utah, 4.16.25 - 5.14.25, Part 14, Goblin Valley State Park, Crack Canyon

Fall 2024 Back to the Southwest, 10.19.24 - 11.13.24, Part 1 of 15, Cedar Breaks National Monument, UT