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While on the way back from a guided tour of Cathedral Valley in Capitol Reef National Park, we stopped at Goblin Valley State Park. In Utah, the State Parks are every bit as spectacular as the National Parks, with fewer crowds.

Goblin Valley State Park features thousands of mushroom-shaped hoodoo rocks, referred to as “goblins.” Goblin Valley has as many of these hoodoos as Bryce National Park, but most of the ones we saw in Bryce were pointier.

Our guide didn’t know we were huge Sci-Fi fans and so didn’t anticipate the sheer delight we experienced at finding ourselves in the middle of the alien planet that Tim Allen and Sigourney Weaver and crew landed on in the movie Galaxy Quest.

While we didn’t see any beryllium spheres, we did enjoy the paved roads into the park. The fees the state received for allowing the movie to be filmed there paid for the access road.

We spent at least an hour walking among the bizarre formations. Hubby found one that looked like an Easter Island head, there was another with a cool window. We saw very few people the whole time we were there.

Location: Goblin Valley Rd, Green River, UT 84525

Designation: State Park

Date designated or established: 8/24/1964

Date of my visit: 4/13/2017