Spring 2022 Utah Adventure, 4.23.22 - 5.12.22, Part 11 of 12
We only had one more day in Goblin Valley and knowing that we would get more wind that afternoon I wanted to get as much in as possible before we had to take shelter. I got up before the sun and hiked back out to the rock formation known as The Three Sisters. It was so peaceful being the only one around as the sky lightened up. As I was waiting for the sun to break the horizon I positioned myself between The Three Sisters and where I knew the sun would rise. Looking east towards the rising sun, Temple Mountain rose above a beautiful canyon below me. By moving only a few feet I was able to line up the rising sun behind one side of Temple Mountain for a classic western sunrise photo.
Pre-dawn looking to the east
The sun rising behind Temple Mountain
Turning to the west, that incredible morning light bathed The Three Sisters in a soft orange glow.
The Three Sisters
Wind sculpted sand
Early morning light on the hoodoos along the campground road
After returning to camp and a bit of breakfast we hopped in the Jeep for our last day excursion. Just beyond the Visitor Center we turned left on the road out to the Little Wild Horse Canyon Trailhead. The pavement ended at the trailhead where there was a large parking lot with restrooms. When we first came to Little Wild Horse Canyon in the spring of 1990, this approach was just a rough Jeep road. There was no parking lot, no trailhead sign and no restrooms. It was just a place in the San Rafael Reef on BLM land that few people even knew about. We had driven my beloved 4Runner up a dry wash and set up our camp right at the entrance to Bell Canyon. Clearly, this is no longer possible.
Back to our story though. Thankfully, the pavement ended at the trailhead and we followed a jeep road as it wound its way down a dry wash, sometimes in the wash and sometimes next to it. At one spot it seemed as though there was a junction. One road went very steeply up a rough hill and the other looked like it continued down the wash. We took that one only to realize fairly quickly that our decision was the wrong one. Backtracking to the junction we turned and began climbing the steep hill. This was the roughest stretch of jeeping I had done so far in my new Jeep. Aside from the steepness, there was a pretty good drop next to the road. The road itself had sections of rock steps to climb over. None of it was remotely close to some of the terrain I had already driven back in the day with my 4Runner so I was very confident that the Jeep could handle this and it did.
Topping out on the hill we were rewarded with a beautiful view of the Muddy Creek/Middle Wild Horse Mesa Wilderness, with Factory Butte towering in the distance and the amazing spine of the San Rafael Reef protruding in a line from north to south.
Another great wilderness to explore!
Factory Butte and the Muddy Creek/Middle Wild Horse Mesa Wilderness
After several more miles of purely delightful jeeping we came to a fantastic area of Bentonite. I knew this was coming. I had seen a drone video before our trip of this cool area and gotten the coordinates from the guy who had posted it. It was such amazing terrain!
Bentonite and Factory Butte
Bentonite
Bentonite and the San Rafael Reef
Bridgit and Bentonite
Beyond this incredible section we continued along the road through very scenic areas with great views of the San Rafael Reef. The Reef is a very long but somewhat narrow uplift of jumbled rock and it is chock full of slot canyons. You could spend a year just exploring up and down the Reef and be endlessly entertained.
After a total drive of about twenty-two miles we came to the banks of Muddy Creek. What we expected to be a fairly deep and treacherous crossing turned out to be only a few inches deep. We could have easily crossed this. No matter, I will come back another day to do the full loop and get my sunrise opportunity at Skyline Overlook. We turned around at the Muddy Creek Ford and drove back to Goblin Valley the way we had come. Along the way we drove out to an old abandoned homestead for a look see. Between Little Wild Horse Canyon and the campground we saw numerous dispersed campers up against the high walls of Big Wild Horse Mesa.
San Rafael Reef
San Rafael Reef
Abandoned homestead near Muddy Creek
Plenty of good airflow!
Back at camp, Dana and Bob took their side by side for a cruise. They went east of the campground out to a feature called Molly’s Castle and also drove to the area we had seen the dispersed camps where they found a cool chimney inside the walls of the mesa. Meanwhile, Bridgit and I hiked back down into the goblins in the main valley for one last look at this bizarre landscape. It would take a couple of full days of hiking to really see the entire valley floor. On this second time exploring the goblins we hiked a bit on a northerly direction which had some different features than where we had gone before.
Goblins everywhere!
Goblins!
The only thing better than being married to Bridgit is being married to two Bridgits!
By the early afternoon we headed back to our site and like the previous day, the winds picked up and wreaked havoc on anything and everything. We saw several tent campers succumb to the blowing sands and every one of them packed up and left by dinner time. We stayed sheltered in the Navibahn but the winds didn’t die down until well after we went to bed.
In the morning it was calm again and the sunrise was beautiful on Wild Horse Mesa right from our campsite. We had a new adventure to experience so after breakfast once again we packed up and said goodbye to Goblin Valley.
The sunrise view from our campsite of Wild Horse Mesa