Goblin Valley State Park

My visit got off to a rocky start after the park staff of 20-somethings who had no interest in helping the visitors informed me that they had neither ice nor firewood available at the visitor center even after I had called from Highway 24 to ask if such items were available on site. I was told that they were so I skipped driving to Hanksville to stock up before heading into the park only to find out that they were sold out upon my arrival. They were also unhelpful when I came back to the visitor center to complain that someone was in my reserved site even though it was after check out time. The bathrooms and showers left something to be desired - I think they got most of the fixtures from a 1950's high school locker room before it was condemned. Not much privacy in the campsites and everyone is packed into a small area. While no one was being obnoxiously loud sound travels very easily and echos off of the rock face that makes the western boundary of the camp so even casual conversations can be heard by all.
The hiking opportunities in the park are amazing and a must see but I think I'll take my chances on boondocking just north of the park if I visit again.

We were considering boondocking in nearby Temple Mt. Wash area, but decided a shower might be nice, so we grabbed one of two sites remaining at Goblin Valley when we arrived at 1:00 in late March. The site we had was really a parking spot (two parking spaces) and we could walk about 50-75 feet to our picnic shelter and fire ring. It was an odd set up. Other sites were better (an actual back-in site with your shelter and fire ring adjacent to the vehicle). We straddled our two parking spaces to ensure that our bedroom window wasn't next to someone else's, and made two trips each to our shelter with grill, camp chairs, wood, and food. It worked out okay, but initially, we were underwhelmed. Our picnic area was quite nice, close to interesting hoodoos, and had a little canyon that led up and over a ridge to another area of the park.

There was no electricity or water at our site. Water spigots were scattered around, and we were able to fill our tank and do a black water dump at another area of the park. The bathrooms and showers were fine...nothing special, but better than expected. The showers run on a timer, push a button for five minutes, push it again for five more, but there was not charge for them.

I doubt I would stay here again (i'd be inclined to boondock), but kids in particular seemed to love the tactile experience of the unique formations. We saw many kids climbing rocks, crawling through canyons, and freaking their parents out with their immunity to any fear of heights. The stars were spectacular, and before the stars really brightened, we saw kids enjoying panning the rocks with flashlights because the area is truly funky and magical.

Goblin Valley State Park offers a small, very popular campground. If you want to stay here you will want to book early.
There is extremely limited cell service in this entire area. We did find Verizon cell service while mountain biking in the park when we were on the highest points. But, that was even spotty and I only knew we had service when text messages which I had been unable to receive arrived in bursts.
I highly recommend this park. The camping is fine, but it is the park itself which makes it great. The hiking within the Valley of the Goblins is free-roaming which was new to me. You can go wherever you like. It made it fun to explore the rocks and landscape.
The park also has new mountain bike trails which allow you to see an entirely different landscape within the park. The trails are all rated easy, are well marked, and offer amazing views.

I am a full-time traveling solo rv-er. I was desperate for a place to stay at this point, and I couldn't find any good boondocking locations nearby. This is a place to come if you want to get away from it all, a vacation. This is way out in the middle of nowhere, not so good for an overnight LOL. Stunningly beautiful, quiet, lovely campsites with privacy, so I highly recommend it for a vacation or a traveling family.

Upon driving into the park, it doesn’t look super exciting. Pretty views, and a few “goblins,” and a lot of desert area. There real fun lies at the “Valley of the Goblins,” which is a short drive up the road from the campground!

Some facts about the campground:
--It is a dry campground, meaning there is no electricity or water at the individual sites. There are water spouts spread throughout the campground, and there is one bathroom in the middle with free showers. Generator hours are 8am-8pm.
--They have a dump station with potable water. The campground is basically in the shape of the letter “D.” The tents and RV spots are on the rounded part, the dump station is on the straightaway. It is not labeled, so pay close attention so you don’t miss it.
--They have two yurts that look REALLY cool! One of them is way back in mountain, if I could pick I’d jump on that one.
--I highly recommend reservations. The campground was full when we were there (a Wednesday night in June of 2017), and we saw lots of others drive through hoping for a spot, but then having to leave. Overall it is a pretty small campground.
--The campground gets noisy at night. The quiet hours are not enforced (no camp hosts), and people ran their generators well past the 8pm cutoff time. If you’re looking for quiet evenings, this may not be the spot for you. We tried to photograph the stars at night (there are a million), but ended up with nothing, as people had their flashlights and lamps going on full blast all night. I suggest avoiding site #2. As other people have posted here, it's really the gateway to the bathroom - people walk right next to your rig or tent to get to the bathroom rather than taking the paths or road. Got annoying after awhile.. and noisy.
--Very kid-friendly place. Take the kids (or adults!) down to the “Valley of the Goblins,” a short drive or bike ride up the road, and plan on spending the day down there playing. It’s very very cool. Many people also had their dogs down there.
--Speaking of bikes, there are lots of mountain biking paths around too. Head out of the campground, and make the first right onto a dirt road up a huge hill. At the top you will find solar panels and some really awesome looking mountain biking trails. There was another one if you head down past the rangers house and past the yurts. The road ends, and a trail begins.
--This park has a group camping area. We couldn’t get a peek at it, as it was being used when we visited, but it’s pretty far from the bathrooms. It looked fun - but a bit of a hike to the facilities if that matters to you!
No cell phone service (Verizon).

Overall, this was the perfect stopping point for us from Capitol Reef National Park (NP) to Arches NP. We spent one night, which was enough time to take in the goblins and relax and enjoy the view, otherwise there’s not much else there. If I had older kids, I think 2 nights would be perfect here - a day to arrive and set up, then a full day to play in the Valley of the Goblins, mountain bike, or hike around. We would stop back here for sure if ever passing through again!

Check out our video review of this campsite here. Please like and/or subscribe to follow along on the rest of our adventures!
https://youtu.be/JmPCtlzYbkg

There's no cell service here, but it's a must visit location. Occasionally a text would get through on the Verizon phone when boosted. We stayed in the middle of November 2016.

Set aside time to visit this amazing location. The rock formations are amazing and a photographers dream. There is geocaching and disc golf. We even were allowed to off load the ATV and slowly ride out the back gate to the San Rafael Swell. There a slot canyon and be prepared to get wet.

We wanted to stay longer, but could only be off grid for a couple days.

There was only one problem. There are about 5 sites large enough for our rig and ALL of them had small vans, cars, or pick up trucks in them. There were plenty of small sites open though. The host was nice enough to let us park in the group site though. PLEASE take a campsite appropriate for your size of rig. All the sites in this campground are nice.

Arriving: https://youtu.be/N8Qt7794COo
Morning: https://youtu.be/5pu96bHJzhQ
Afternoon: https://youtu.be/-X7-5ekMZ0o
Leaving: https://youtu.be/2gazsenZEew

We reserved two nights here, about a month ahead of time. We'd driven by a year ago, through pure coincidence on Halloween, to find the park completely out of control and overrun with families. We turned around and got our $13 refunded because there was no place to park. At all.

However, we were intrigued by the setting and thought it would be fun to camp here, any other day of the year EXCEPT Halloween. So we did! Initially we were put off because we could hear ever single word uttered by some annoying and clueless neighbors. That's because of the unique acoustic qualities of the wall of sandstone around which the sites are oriented. The wall amplifies all sounds. A lot! Another reviewer mentioned that the sites he liked were not along the wall, so the sound problem could be the reason. I'd opt for one on away from the wall next time, too.

After our neighbors left, our ears recovered and we really enjoyed the park. The campground itself is okay, but when you factor $25 a night with hot showers, it's a pretty good deal since it includes the $13 a day pass into the state park. The campground is a good place to refill water jugs and use the dump station.

The mountain bike trails look amazing and we'll return on our next trip to Utah to give them a spin. Goblin Valley also sports a most peculiar frisbee golf course with tees located all over the park. Go figure.

Negatives: Every day someone thought it would be a good idea to wash off the sticky red clay mud in the bathroom sinks, resulted in clogged drains. The showers had moldy walls and needed a little more daily maintenance.

We got okay cell reception by driving up to the Goblin Valley overlook parking area and being patient. (2 bars Verizon 3G).

Note: There are plenty of other free boondocking locations right around the corner toward Temple Mountain or along Wild Horse Road if you don't need a shower, toilet, shade or access to the park.

Goblin Valley is a hard campground to reserve despite it's remote location and high price.
If you forget to make reservations 4 months in advance you will find all your dates fully booked. We got a lucky break when another camper canceled. The Reserve America website has a cancelation notification function as long as you pick specific dates. There are also walk-in sites but a quick call to the ranger station assured me I probably wouldn't score one of these spots for the weekend if I'm not there by 10am thursday.

The campground is completely exposed to the elements, high winds can be a problem for tent campers in the spring. Our tent was completely flattened. We ended up removing the picnic table from the 2 wall shelter each site is equipped with and tying our tent down inside. We spent 2 nights hearing the tent flap but at least we didn't have to worry about it ripping apart as we slept. RV campers seemed completely undisturbed by the crazy wind but they were having issues with their camp fires along with everyone else.
The actual park is 30 minutes from Green River in a town called "Hanksville". Bring plenty of water and make sure you fuel up before you leave Green River. We spent 2 days exploring the San Rafael Swell and the nooks and crannies of the park itself. There were plenty of families around us so this is not the place to go if you want full privacy but it's fantastic for anyone who likes a bit of socializing along with their adventure.
Access is on fully paved roads. The campground itself was quiet but site 2 is right next to the bathroom so we heard chatting as people walked though our site to get to the bathrooms and showers. You are also at the mercy of RV campers with generators but we noticed most folks were very polite about shutting them off after 8pm.

I'm a huge fan of Utah State Parks. And a tent camper.
This is my favorite because you can walk around the goblin formations and since it's down in a fenced valley from the viewing area it looks like something you shouldn't be able to do.
2 summers ago a Boy's Scout Troop Leader got in a ton of trouble for pushing one of the formations down and putting a video of it up on youtube. Don't do that. The park is already under a "environmental impact study" so don't be surprised if visits are somehow limited in the future.
Anyway. The yurts. Look AMAZING!! There are 2 of them and both are a great option for staying in when the park is freezing cold at night which is pretty much 8 months out of the year.
Inside there is a heating stove, a swamp cooler, electricity supplied by a solar panel (which can run out so be conscientious about your power usage), a bunk bed and a 2 person futon.
We made the big mistake of turning the heating stove on- it got to hell fire level around midnight and no one could figure out how to bring the temps down. Finally we just turned it off and behold- the yurt also stays pretty warm.
Yurts also have a grill and 2 camp chairs outside- this is a great area for star gazing. Our yurt was set deep into a canyon but the illusion of privacy is spoiled by campers from the tent camp taking a short-cut to the toilet through the canyon. They are perfectly within their rights but considering the yurt costs 80 dollars (not $65) I wish the site was a little more private.. or that there was a better lock on that door.
Over all I recommend this park, the staff is polite and instructive. There is firewood available at the park entrance.
One thing- make sure you bring your reservation confirmation. They need to issue you a special code to gain entry into the yurt and if you don't have this info printed out you won't be able to get it from your phone at the park- there is zero cell service there except at the very top of the tallest hill IF you have the right service.

My wife and I stopped here on our way to Moab from some of the National Parks. We came across it on the map by shear chance when we needed a place to stay for the night. My co-pilot/wife looked around on the map and saw this tiny green area, googled it and there we went. Lucky for us and not so lucky for the tent-campers around, we drove in during a pretty massive rain storm that lasted thru the night. As a result, we saw one of the nicest sunrises either of us had ever seen.

The campground sits up against a beautiful red-rock back-drop. The campsites are fairly well spaced out, but there are no trees or anything other than your covered picnic tables to separate you and the neighboring sites. Again, you're not crammed up against each other so it's really not that big an issue. I preferred the spots furthest from the red-rock "wall" (where we are in these photos).

Overall I highly recommend this place. Very scenic, easy to get to and clean/level/well spaced out spots.