This camping trip will always be remembered as a family favorite. The location, the fun hiking, comfortable weather and the *unexpected visitor!

Goblin Valley Boondock Camping

October 12 – 15, 2019

Goblin Valley State Park, UT

Overall Rating: Amazing

Site #: boondocking 38°34’21.5″N 110°44’12.7″W

RV Pad: Mostly flat on dirt, take up as much space as you please!

Weather: 70’s

Bikes or Scooters? No

Campfire? Yes

Favorite Things Here: Climb, climb and climb some more!

Campground Notes: This boondocking campsite will forever be in our top 10, we almost don’t want to share its location. What a neat spot to find from someone else posting it on campendium.com, and that it was open to use.

Pros: The space was open. What a unique rock outcropping bay to enclose the campfire hangout area. Makes great shelter for a tent. You could even pull a vehicle in there if needed. The road to get here was very easy to take, some potholes, but just drive slowly and carefully and it is very manageable.

Cons: none

Miscellaneous Notes: We drove down on a Saturday evening so we could wake up and start adventuring. We used campendium.com to find a boondocking spot just off the road somewhere to pull into and sleep for the night. Then we woke up and headed to find our campsite.

Activities We Did: We took a half day and did the Little Wild Horse Canyon slot hike. We only went part way in then turned around when the kids were done. They were excited to be there and spent so much energy climbing everywhere that their energy wouldn’t last the whole hike.

The next full day was spent in Goblin Valley State Park. What an incredible view from the top, all the hoodoos everywhere. This was an amazing family friendly area with endless amounts of climbing to do. The rocks were very easy to navigate on and around for all ages. It is very easy to get separated from your group, as it is a bit maze like, so parents please keep your eyes out for your children. In fact, while we were there a little 5-year-old boy had wandered away from his family and everyone there was searching for an hour before he was found way out in an area not many ventures to. We took a break for lunch in the RV then went out for more climbing fun. We played some Sardines games and took fun slow-motion videos jumping between the rocks!

*The story of our unexpected visitor. We left our campsite for the day to explore Goblin Valley. Because it is a boondocking site, we left behind all our levelling blocks and camp chairs, clearly marking there was inhabitants there. When we came back to the area in the late afternoon we drove up to find a man with long dreadlocks, with no shirt on, sitting in one of our child size camo chairs, carving a melon with a large pocket knife! Wow, we were quite perplexed as we took in the randomness of it all, especially with the location being off the beaten path. So Spencer cautiously went out to greet him and chat about what he was doing there and how all the stuff strategically placed on the ground was ours. Come to find out he is a month into his Western US & National Parks journey, coming from his home in British Columbia, Canada. He happened upon our stuff and was SO confused as to what it all meant. The levelling blocks look like huge Legos, placed in an odd pattern. The child size camping chairs, and what he thought was a mini tent in the adult size camping chairs. Trying to make any sense of it, he was thinking….hobbits? Ya know, since he’s there in Goblin Valley??!!! Boy did we all get a good laugh about that train of thought. After watching them for a bit and deeming everything safe, I went out and joined the conversation, with the kids trickling out behind me. In the end, this man was very kind and we felt like he was OK. He had pulled his van into the rock bay for shelter, that’s why we didn’t see it as we pulled up. After talking to him for a while we invited him to eat dinner with us, hang out for the evening and just pull his van out and park there for the night. He shared some wild stories with us about some of his adventures and the kids were thoroughly entertained by this man called Mountain Lion who made an impression on them. It was a very memorable night to end our weekend, and we were so glad to have invited the stranger turned friend into our families life for an evening.

What we Ate:

BK: Fruit & Yogurt Parfaits

Lunch: PB&J Sandwiches

Dinner: Dutch Oven Beef Enchiladas

BK: Pancakes

Lunch: Stackables, meat/cheese/crackers & fruit

Dinner: BBQ Chicken, stuffing, salad

Dessert: Smores