Goblin Valley

We went on our first family camping trip of the year this weekend. Goblin valley is only 2.5 hours south of us, but it looks like an entirely different planet. We packed up the car to maximum capacity on Thursday night, Clayton worked for a few hours on Friday morning, and then we drove down in the afternoon.

The drive went well, both girls fell asleep and napped almost the whole way, but once we got there we had to spend almost two hours searching for a camping site. Goblin Valley has an official camp ground, but the spot get booked quickly for the whole open season. There’s primitive camping close by that is first come first serve, so that was our plan. The problem was that it was so so so windy, and everyone was trying to camp behind a wall of rock to block some of the wind. We eventually found a spot that was protected enough that our tent wouldn’t blow away, so we pitched it and went for a hike close to our site called Wild Horse trail.



The first 10 minutes of the trail is out in the open, and the wind was whipping sand into our faces the whole time. Cora and Ruby hated it. We covered them with jackets and carried them, but they still got sand in their eyes and cried until we go into the slot canyon. Once we were protected by the canyon it was much more enjoyable. 

We hiked for about 10 minutes and then Cora said she had to go potty. I tried to teach her how to pee in the wild, but it’s tricky and she didn’t love it. So we went back to the trail head where there was a disgusting bathroom, Cora went potty and Ruby insisted that she didn’t need to go, and then we hiked back out on the trail. After about 20 minutes of hiking Ruby peed in her pants, and we decided to cut our loses and just go back to the camp site to make dinner. We were out there for a little over an hour, and the parts that were inside the slot canyons were pretty and cool, so I didn’t feel like it was a big waste of time. 

We went back to the tent and made nachos, Mac and cheese, and various other random things. Clayton said the nachos were the best camping meal he’s ever had. All I didn’t was brown some ground beef, pinto beans, and taco seasoning the night before, stored it in the cooler, then reheated it on the camping stove and served it with chips, cheese, and pineapple salsa. 



The evening was so windy that Cora and Ruby didn’t want to explore like I had planned, but luckily I had brought our iPad with a movie downloaded on it. So we cleaned up, all got in the tent, and watched the Princess and the Frog. By the end it was 10 pm and we were wiped out. I thought that the girls would fall asleep because I could tell that they were dead tired (they usually go to bed at 8) but they just chatted and giggled until I told them that everyone was going to sleep and they couldn’t talk anymore.

It got pretty cold at night. Luckily we had borrowed two zero degree mummy bags from Dani, and the girls seemed toasty warm in them. We all slept ok, though they did wake up a few times and were very disoriented. Also, it turns out Cora is a major sleep talker and Ruby grinds her teeth. Things I wouldn’t have known if I didn’t next to them. 



In the morning we woke up bright and early, around 6:30. It was so cold outside and I didn’t think to bring the girls snow gear with us, so they were pretty upset. They cried about anything and everything for a solid two hours. They were mad that their clothes were cold, that there was a fire in the fire pit, that they had to walk on the dirt, etc etc. They kept begging us to go home. It was not a nice morning. Thank goodness the wind had died down over night, or we might have just stayed in our sleeping bags all day.

After we finally got everything packed up, everyone dressed and fed, and stuffed the car too full again, we drove to Goblin Valley, the main attraction. There are pillars of rock everywhere called “goblins” and you can run around and climb on them. The girls were in heaven. We spent hours just exploring and everyone loved it.

After everyone was exhausted, we made lunch in the car and then drove home. Cora and Ruby fell asleep almost instantly and slept the whole way back. 

Overall, despite the wind and the cranky toddlers, it was a good trip. We got to go on some beautiful hikes, the food was good, our camping supplies were adequate, and the goblins were very fun. I’d like to do it again when the girls are older and better campers.