Fall is the perfect time to take a trip to Eastern Utah for outdoor adventures; plan your trip for mid to late October if you want to see great fall colors. With so much to see and do, three days will allow enough time to explore more of the area and check off more of your bucket list.
Goblin Valley State Park
Goblin Valley is one of the smaller parks in Eastern Utah, and can easily be explored in one full day. One day fee into the park is $15.00 per vehicle. Make the most of your dollar and plan to arrive before lunch. If you plan to camp, it is recommended to make a reservation online a month or more in advance, as there are only 22 sites available. The campground has variety of camp sites some tent only, standard sites for RVs or campers, a group site, and two yurts. There are also hot showers available, drinking water, flush toilets, and dump stations; it is unclear from the website if there is electricity at any of the camp sites. Dispersed desert camping is also available nearby the park in the San Rafael Swell area, however you won’t find many amenities at these sites.
Pack your mountain bikes because Goblin Valley State Park has seven miles of trail designated specifically for mountain biking. The Wild Horse trail system is composed of several short loops, each intersect with another at some point, making it easy to by-pass a loop for a short ride or ride some sections multiple times for a longer ride. When my husband and I rode, we were the only ones on the trails, although it was also windy and a bit chilly. In order to allow enough time to hike, we skipped the Buffalo Head section, which made for a total trip distance of 5.75 miles. Our favorite sections were the Wild Horse Butte and the Dark Side of the Moon because these sections provided amazing views of the San Rafael Swell. The trails are easy, with very little technical skill level required, although there are a few sections of climbing and the trails are sandy in spots. Many sections of trail are a grey color, this is because the trail runs through the Morrison Formation, which is essentially volcanic ash. Avoid the Wild Horse mountain bike trails if there has been any moisture, the Morrison will adhere to you and your bike like wet concrete.
After the ride, we drove over to the Valley of the Goblins, which has an overlook area to see all the goblin rock formations. There is also a short set of stairs leading down into the goblins; visitors are welcome to roam about the goblins and explore. The goblins, also known as hoodoos, were formed through the gradual erosion of Entrada sandstone. Avoid climbing on the goblins, many of them are unstable, and repetitive human contact could destroy something that took nature millions of years to form.
There are a handful of hiking trails in the park, all of them are short with distances no more than three miles round trip. We chose to hike to the Goblin’s Lair, which is moderate-strenuous in difficulty, with the hardest part being the climb up to the cave. Starting my Garmin from the Valley of Goblins, we hiked past all the hoodoos and over to the Carmel Canyon Loop, adding a little extra distance to the Goblin Lair hike. The hike travels on the back side of the Valley of Goblins along the Molly’s Castle Overlook trail, offering views of an iconic rock formation, Molly’s Castle. The trail gets very sandy in spots, offering a bit of burn for the calves. The trail is moderate until you reach the Goblin’s Lair sign, at this point there is a strenuous assent up over boulders to reach the opening of a large cave. From here, there is about a 30 foot scramble down into the cave. The cave is a large cavern, probably 80 feet high, with some natural skylights. Overall the round trip distance was 3.8 miles with the extra walk through the goblins at the start.
Stay in Hanksville, UT
Hanksville is only 30 minutes south west of Goblin Valley and it offers an equal distance to Capital Reef National Park. We chose to take our pop-up trailer along and camp for two nights, staying at Duke’s Slick Rock Campground and RV Park. The campground has all the amenities you will need with hot showers, flush toilets, full hook up sites, laundry, free wifi, and a local restaurant. On this particular camping trip, we were tankful to have electricity so we could use our heated mattresses; one morning we woke up and it was 26 degrees out. If you are not up for camping in the cold, the RV Park also has cabins available for rent and there are a few motels in Hanksville. The little town also has two gas stations, a little grocery store, and the famous Stan’s Burger Shak, which is a popular stop for many travelers headed to Lake Powell.
Capital Reef National Park
There is a lot to see and many trails to hike in Capital Reef, it is recommended to schedule two days for your visit. Unlike many other parks, the headquarters is located in the upper central part of the park, along Utah highway 24. This is largely due to the unique geology and the historical town of Fruita that was settled long before Capital Reef was designated as a National Park. When visiting for one day, plan to spend all of your time in the Fruita District: home to the visitor center, historical orchard and town site, and many day hikes.
Capital Reef has lots of hikes in varying lengths and difficulty levels, do some research ahead of time and determine whether you want to attack several shorter hikes or spend the bulk of the day on a longer hike. If you are a strong, fit hiker, you can easily manage a two hikes in the three mile range and a handful of stops at points of interest. Make sure to schedule at least an hour for the historic town of Fruita.
Driving into the park along highway 24, you may see some of the trails you planned to do, before arriving to the visitor center. Feel free to stop and do a hike first, there are self-pay stations in each parking area. We started our day at the visitor center, picking up park maps, paying the park fee, and using the restroom. If you don’t have a National Parks pass, the fee is $20.00 for one week. If you plan to visit multiple National Parks in the same year, save your receipt, your park fee can be applied towards an annual pass.
Beginning in Fruita, we parked at the historical orchard and spent some time walking through the orchard and other historical sites including the blacksmith shop and the one room schoolhouse. The colors of the fruit trees were absolutely fabulous, all sorts of reds and oranges. There is also a large picnic area with lots of beautiful trees and plenty of tables. On our first pass through, we saw seven deer lounging in the grass, they had no worry or concern about the people walking past taking their photos. Then we drove up the road to the Gifford House, an old homestead, famous for handmade fresh fruit pies. The entire historical Fruita district is listed on the National Register for Historic Places. Visit the Gifford House earlier in the day for the largest selection of pies. When you plan your visit, note that the Gifford House is only open seasonally from March 14 (Pie Day) through Halloween.
From the parking area of the Gifford House, we did our first hike of the day up Cohab Canyon; a moderate to strenuous trail, 3.4 miles round trip. The trail begins climbing right away, and steadily climbs for just over a half mile. The views during the climb are very rewarding, and during our trip, the colors along the valley floor were stunning. Once you drop into the canyon the trail is mostly flat until you reach the trail fork that leads up to two different overlooks, each separated by a short hike. On one side there is a view of Navajo Knobs and the Fruita District. The other view looks down into the canyons below. Next stop lunch. We went back to the picnic area to eat lunch, which included a freshly made pumpkin pie from the Gifford House.
We drove up the road, past the visitor center, for a few short stops. First we hit up Chimney Rock, a towering, natural cathedral, which can be seen from the highway. The full loop is 3.6 miles round trip, however we hiked in only a quarter mile, just enough to get a good view of Chimney Rock. Then over to Panorama point, a short distance from the road. Panorama point is a short half mile hike out to two different viewpoints of the Cathedral District and the Henry Mountains. From here, we drove further up a jeep road, to the Goosenecks. This road is passable with a car, but it is rough and is much more manageable in a high clearance vehicle. Goosenecks overlook is another half mile hike to a view of the Sulfur Creek, a spur off the Colorado River. The trail leads to fenced platform and looks straight down to the creek, showing the Goosenecks in the canyon walls, formations made from the erosion of the water flowing through the canyon over time. Warning, if you have a fear of heights, this might not be the trail for you. Winds can be gusty at this overlook, hold onto your hats, or leave them in the car.
Another short venture are the petroglyphs, located not too far from the visitor center. There are several small panels that are visible from a wooden board walk that stretches about a quarter mile one way. The rock art is faint, and from the ranger’s interpretation, these panels date back to the Fremont Indians. Rock Art from the Fremont period are believed to be some of the oldest petroglyphs in the Western US. While they were interesting to see, living in Western Colorado, I have seen several other Native drawings that are much more prominent and exciting to see.
Finally, for the last hike of the day, we headed over to the Hickman Natural Bridge; saving for last because it was on our way out of the park, just 2 miles east of the visitor center. This is a short 2 mile round trip, moderate hike, with about 400 feet of elevation gain. At the top of the incline the trail comes to a fork, one leads to Navajo Knobs and the other to Hickman Bridge. The trail to Hickman Bridge eventually drops into a small canyon, and then a short hike along a rock slab until you get your first view of the arch. The trail does a small loop under the arch and back around to the main trail. Hickman Natural Bridge is 133 feet from one side to another. On the hike back to the car, the sunlight was perfect, illuminating the fall colors of the cottonwoods and oak brush.
We really enjoyed visiting Capital Reef, and after seeing the campground at the Gifford House, we would love to plan another trip and camp in the National Park. After seeing the displays and photos in the visitor center, we decided the next trip will include a drive into the southern part of the park to see the Water Pocket Fold, a geological phenomenon. Since the drive is longer and requires travel on dirt roads, visiting the Water Pocket Fold requires most of a day, especially when planning to hike and explore.
Hiking in San Rafael Swell
On our last day of vacation, we decided to do some exploring in the San Rafael Swell on the way home, picking a hike in a slot canyon. Traveling from Hanksville, we chose to hike Crack Canyon because of the trail proximity to Hwy 24, knowing we wouldn’t have to drive off the main highway too far.
From Highway 24, we took the road headed west towards Goblin Valley and Temple Mountain. Continuing west into the reef, we followed a well maintained jeep road, Behind the Reef Road. The road eventually turns south, which we followed for somewhere around four miles until we reached the trail head, labeled Crack Canyon Trail. Prior to taking the jeep road, we decided to drop our camp trailer in a day use staging area, making the drive on the dirt road a bit easier.
Crack Canyon, is a slot canyon with multiple sets of narrows and it is meant to be an out and back hike; leading up to 6 miles one way. On this particular outing, we hiked just over 5 miles round trip so we could get back to Grand Junction at a decent time, after being away for a few days.
Beginning from the trail head, follow the wash just under one mile to the mouth of the canyon, passing a pair of cottonwoods that bend towards one another, forming an archway into the canyon. Adorned with beautiful golden leaves, the archway made me think of the book, Chronicles of Narnia. Once inside the canyon, the first set of narrows has lower walls, and walking through it appears as though there is a partial ceiling. The canyon opens up after a bit and the walls get taller, then the walls grow even further apart. Just as we hit the 2 mile mark, we hit the next set of narrows. Another hundred feet or so, there is a large boulder blocking the trail, climb up over the boulder and there is a sturdy stick on the other side that offers assistance for the 10 foot drop. Then the walls close in more, creating a gap about arms width or a little tighter. Once again the canyon opens up. Around 2.5 miles there is another set of narrows, marked with a dead tree forming a bridge overhead. Just a little further in there is more scrambling, and a steep drop over another large boulder. There was a rope harnessed around the rocks, which we believed looked secure, however in the interest of time, we decided this was a good place to turn around.
Crack Canyon was a wonderful hike, we plan to come back to the Swell and conquer all of Crack Canyon sometime in the future. Overall, I would still rate this hike as easy to moderate, even with all the scrambling. Although, there are moments that a little upper body strength is needed. Given that we had also visited a national park, we did not have our dogs on this adventure, however I am not sure I would bring them on our next trip back, just because some of the areas would require lifting them up and over the boulders, and I would worry about hurting their little shoulders. As a dog lover, I would advise leaving older and larger dogs at home, some of the scrambling could be too taxing on their joints.
The San Rafael has much to explore, Crack Canyon being only our second visit. If you enjoy hiking in slot canyons, I would highly recommend picking up a Utah Gazetteer and doing a little research. Another great hike is Little Wild Horse and Bell Canyon, two slot canyons that connect together forming a loop, offering a beautiful full day hike.
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