Goblin Valley State Park

This is a small campground set against the gray and red cliffs. It is very exposed to the wind, which can be fierce, especially for anyone in a tent. You will want a place in the rocks. For trailers,you may want to pick a site that is oriented south to north, since the winds come out of the south most of the time.

The road and pads have recently been repaved, so the pads are fairly level and in good shape. The spacing for most sites is roomy, but very opoen. Each site comes with a covered picnic table. There are water faucets near by so you can refill your water supply. The bathrooms do have showers. There is is a dump station.

There is no shade, but by 5PM if you are closest to the cliffs, you will start to have some shade in May.

There is NO wifi nor cell service. Hanksville (30 minutes) or Green River (60 minutes) have cell. The campground is run on a battery system that uses solar panels, since there are no electrical lines.

Make sure to visit the world of the goblins. It's fun to wander about finding interesting creatures in the shapes. I found a hen,a duck, two dogs nose to nose, and a turtle.

I travelled here with a 35’ 5th wheel, long bed pickup and parked in site #9, a dry PT site for $33/night including all the fees. Nice campground located in a crescent of rock formations with vistas out over to distant buttes. Totally open to the sky which is good for solar. The picnic table was screened on two sides to help with sun and wind. The firepit was close by. No wifi or any signal of any kind. Had to drive to Hanksville (35-40 min) to get enough of a signal to pick up email and make phone calls. Grabbed dinner while I was in town. The CG is easy to get around and the back-in sites would be easy to get into. If in a tent, #12 is a very private site behind some rock formations. Each site had a large area around it. Bathhouse was older, but clean. Showers were hot, but there was no bench to sit things on. Dump station was easy to get in and out of. Potable water was located there and there were threaded spigots around the CG. One was close enough to me that I could run a hose to fill my tank then disconnect. Nice hiking in the park and a fun frisbee golf course. Seems expensive for a dry campground. Definitely come well stocked with food since it is a fairly long drive to a grocery store. There is lots of boondocking available near the park as well. I enjoyed staying the park but would probably boondock in the area if I were to come back. Hike nearby Bell Canyon and Little Wild Horse slot canyons if you have the chance.

Camped in this remote and beautiful state park in mid-May. There are great hiking opportunities within the park (the Goblin's Lair was a favorite). The campground is nice, with individual showers and flush toilets. No hookups but potable water and a dump station in the campground. Be careful with your awning as strong winds can come up quickly. Nearby Little Wild Horse Canyon is a great slot canyon hike. Got Verizon service in the far corner of the Valley of the Goblins parking lot.

The park is incredible. In late May it was in the low 80s during the day and cooled off at night. We were hoping to see more stars but the moon rose just after sunset but it was still incredible. There was a large group camping in the group site and they were very quiet at night.

My complaint is their dump station and fill water. I pulled in and noticed their potable water is a few feet from the dump station drain. While we were there we saw people hook up flush hoses to their black water flush ports on their RVs. It's disgusting. So when I went to fill up I used one of the many other spigots in the camping area to fill. A ranger came over and sarcastically asked if I was in site 21 to which I said no but there was no one there so I didn't think it was an issue. She replied saying "So whatcha doing?" very sarcastically. I said filling my fresh water and she told there is a fill station and motioned towards it. She was the one with a hand gun so I assumed my options were limited. If you are forced to use this use a cleaning spray or disinfecting wipes and then run the water to rinse it. Someone is going to get sick using this.

Additionally, we went down the street to hike Little Wild Horse Canyon which is great. This was Saturday morning and when we returned the line to get in was very long which is to be expected. They were restricting access and letting people in as people left. Unfortunately we were kindly told that even though we weren't going to where everyone else was and we had a confirmed camping reservation we had to wait to get in. Finally the ranger managed to get them to block on coming traffic and allow the campers back in without waiting hours to get back to our campsite.

Drive through video tour: https://youtu.be/X8c0JyTBJCE

Here is the deal. If you need a campground with some amenities then this might be the place for you. It has a dump station, places to fill up water and bathrooms/showers. Keep in mind that during the winter the water is probably shut off.

You get the above for $35 a night. This includes free neighbors close by to talk to.

Now, if you don't really need all of the above and don't want to pay $35 a night, you need to check out all of the BLM land out here. There are SOOO many FREE places to camp away from everyone. Certain times of the year can get busy but you still can't beat free.

Okay, back to the campground review. When I visited the area was well kept and clean. The water was off for the winter so the flush toilets and showers weren't available. Vault toilets were open.

The sites aren't crammed together but you will still have neighbors. Each site has a table, fire pit, shade shelter and tent pad area. There are a couple of yurts that you can rent and also some tent only spots that you are required to walk to.

Overall, it is a decent campground but I would prefer to stay for free on BLM land. I am also set up with a toy hauler that I can be self sufficient for a week. So, if you need or want the amenities of a campground then you can't really go wrong here. You also don't have much of a choice out here in the middle of nowhere. 🤣

If you can put up with zero reception, this is an excellent place to camp. The kids can climb all around it and they have a great time!

You really don't get any reception at all, and no WiFi, so come prepared to go offline, but otherwise this was great.

It is dry camping without power, so bring your own water and a generator, but there are bathrooms and showers that are quite nice.

Plus, Goblin Valley is right down the road.

The closest thing I can compare this to is the Valley of Fire in Nevada where you are really camping in the rocks. You are here too but it is much more developed. Despite the remoteness, you've got water, a dump, and restrooms & shower. Check-in these days couldn't be simpler...state your name and site number, get a tag and you're done. There is a nice little visitor center with helpful staff. Trails galore including 7 miles of Wild Horse Mountain MTB (not for the faint of heart). Each campsite has a ramada, is paved and for the most part, level. There is absolutely no cell service from the campground (I tried all configurations) but with a booster & my ATT hotspot, I got a faint 3G signal up by the MTB trailhead. The Goblins are incredibly cool too! Visiting during the hotter months would be really challenging I'm sure. There is a lot of dispersed camping in the area plus ATV trails and the Little Wild Horse Canyon & Bell Canyon trailhead just outside the park on 1013, all part of the San Rafael Swell. Seriously dark skies made it great for watching the Orionid meteor shower. Amazing area!!!

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.