My Journey Into Utah's National Parks - Part 3
The next leg of my Utah journey started with an uncommon reason for wanting to visit a place. Vandalism. Goblin Valley State Park is a place I only knew about because of the 2013 scandal involving a boy scout troop whose leaders decided to topple some of the hoodoos - or goblins - as they, in their "expert opinion", deemed the goblins to be unsafe. The news story piqued my interest as the place did seem to be quite unique and worth a visit. As it happened, it fit nicely into my route even though it is in the middle of nowhere, somewhere west of Canyonlands National Park.
After departing Moab early on the 4th day of my trip I arrived at Goblin Valley in the late morning. I checked into camp and headed out immediately to see these goblins for myself. The place was amazing. Walking down the stairs into the valley seemed like I was descending into a different planet. And I wasn't the first to have that impression - the 1999 sci-fi movie "Galaxy Quest" was filmed here. While I agree that Goblin Valley makes a great movie set I think it would be an even better place to play a giant game of hide and seek. Acres and acres of these strange goblins scattered about the landscape. It would be so easy to get lost in here. I greatly enjoyed wandering around among the goblins - next time I'll bring a few friends and spend the day hiding out.
After a warm (finally!) night in Goblin Valley I set off for my next stop - Capitol Reef National Park and Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument. I had slightly misjudged the distance I would be traveling on this day and didn't leave myself much time to stop and explore either location. Given the recent developments with the downsizing of Escalante I do wish I would have allowed myself more time in this area. Both Capitol Reef and Escalante were beautiful and I tried to take in as many of the roadside vistas as I could but I know I was only scratching the surface as to the beauty that is to be seen here. I do hope to return to both someday soon and explore a bit of the backcountry. Namely Cathedral Valley in Capitol Reef and Hole in Rock in Escalante.
I did manage to stop and see the pictographs in Capitol Reef, wander through the orchards in Fruita and started the hike to Calf Creek Falls but had to turn back due to weather and lack of time. As I passed though the higher elevations of the Dixie National Forest I was a bit disappointed that I hadn't been there a week or two earlier when the fall foliage was at its peak. When I drove through the trees were nearly all bare, leaving me to only imagine what it would have looked like with miles and miles of road surrounded with golden Aspen leaves. I passed a few dirt roads that begged to be explored but they would have to wait for another time. I had to be in a hurry to get to my next camp - Kodachrome Basin State Park.
This was a last minute addition to my trip but I'm so glad I decided to take the time to stop here. I had intended to use Kodachrome as my base camp for my next stop in Bryce Canyon National Park but when I arrived in Kodachrome I decided that it needed to be explored a bit as well. The park is small and tucked out of the way not far from Bryce - you can actually see Bryce from a few vantage points in Kodachrome - and it has the cleanest campground I've ever seen in my life. After a rainy morning I hiked around for most of the afternoon and covered most of the trails in the park. The "Indian Cave" and its mysterious "handprints", the views from Panorama Point trail, Shakespeare Arch, and the Grand Parade trail. It was all uniquely beautiful. This little park was certainly an unexpected highlight of my trip.