Times Independent | 1970-03-19 | Page 11 | Beautiful Goblin Valley is Easily Reached Now on Paved Highways

i . A I ,poct;u'iilar Goblin Valley is easily Mohed via paved highway a short istance from Hanksville, Utah. The arm weather of early spring will find scores of visitors hiking through th; deep avenues found between the grotesque rock formations of Goblin Valley. Senufiful Goblin Valley is Easily leached Now on Paved Highways I 3y BARBARA EKKER nkr.cwn until a few years (except to a few war.der-: war.der-: cowboys and prospectors) 4in Valley is now less than "hours drive north from sksviile over a paved 'i If you like to leave the 'Vded highway to search the rare and unusual, you i be delighted with this e little valley filled with jreds of grotesque figures ,-ed by the artful fingers ain and wiid from rust-red rust-red sandstone, idden away among ths s and buf.es of eastern a's wild and colorful r.i Grey country", this cgical museum was first icgraphed in 1949, and christened Goblin Val-by Val-by the unanimous deci-of deci-of those who first stumb-upon stumb-upon it. Just recently it made part of the Utah e Park System, few minutes drive south-: south-: cf Temple Mountain rtion on Utah Highway brings you close to the h rim of the valley. Yen 't need a second glance tnow why this startling has been labled Valley -ie Goblins, Hoodoo Heav- Golly Gully and other lly exclamatory names, .e level, pavment-like is crowded with a most zing collection of start ling statuary this side of an-ic.her an-ic.her planet. When ynu descend into the valley tj wander among mishapen figures fi-gures you leave the everyday every-day world behind. It's obvious ob-vious that Nature, sometime in her dim, dark past, must have waved a magic wand and instantly transformed the grotesque creatures of this little world into stone, and here they have remained remain-ed motionless ever since. Story-Book Characters As you roam this fantastic fantas-tic sandstcne museum it takes very little imagination to see story-book characters by the dozen: one-eyed witches, three-eyed goblins, mythical monsters, legendary beasts, gruescme gargoyles and scores of creatures that might "have pop?:d right out of Alice in Wonderland. Some of these figures are eerie and sinister - looking while others are downright ludxrius. Some of them appear ap-pear to be waiting impatiently impatient-ly for you to pass on out of sight. At times you suspect that if you sneak up on them, or turn your head suddenly, you will catch more than one of the squat figures shuffling shuff-ling stealthily out of sight around a corner. Some of the more bizarre figures stand on pedestals like statues in a weird art-gall- I - p . fp 1 j) l - ft, for W w V'. V 0-AtL '; J L cry, while other furtive characters char-acters on conical hats huddle hud-dle in groups as though conferring con-ferring nervously about what to do with the sightseers who have invaded their private domain. do-main. Carved from the walls along the border of the valley val-ley are small bays or coves shaped like miniature ampi-'heatres ampi-'heatres where an audience of stony creatures stand mo-t.onless mo-t.onless as though listening to a silent symphony. Two miles south of tto valley is another, even larger larg-er basin filled with spires, minare's and more goblin-like figures. It may be reached by foot following a dry wash that takes off from the southern south-ern end cf Goblin Valley. From a high point above this section flows a tiny stream known as Stinking Spring Creek. . Zane Grey Counfry Goblin Valley is surrounded by a spectacular area that is fascinating scenically geologically geo-logically and historically. The maps of this part cf eastern Utah are dotted with such strange sounding names as Hidden Splendor, Dead -World, Pinto Hills, Cathedral Valley and Hell's Backbone. This land of purple shadow s with its hidden canyons, isolated iso-lated valleys and color-banded buttes, was the locale and inspiration of seme of Zane Grey's western novels. In fact, the wild stallion "Wildfire" "Wild-fire" was captured in this area by Charlie Gibbons from Hanksville. To Zane Grey th:s w-as "the yellow-and-pur-ple corrugated world of distance". dis-tance". To the Mormon pioneers this nigged region was a "pile of rocks that couldn't sprout a kernal or feed a heast!" To modern explorers explor-ers ,it offers solace as a "wonderful place for fugitives from frustration." Geologically this entire region, re-gion, with its rainbow-tinted cliffs, mesas, and canyons, is most fascinating. It has been variously described as a geologists nightmare, a (prospectors dream and a rock hounds paradise. To the Indians In-dians it was the "Land of the Sleeping Rainbow',, a nama that describes the startling colors d;splayed by the Shiu-arump, Shiu-arump, Chinle, Winga'e, Kay-enta, Kay-enta, and Navajo formations that are exposed in many places throughout this area. Saidsfone Formations The Shinerump conglomerate conglomer-ate that lies below the vari-ccfored vari-ccfored Chinle, is the source of much of the uranium found in this part of the state. At the foot of Temple Mountain, just a few miles northeast of Gcblin Valley a uranium mine penetrates the same formation. The Chinle formation contains con-tains the bones and footprints foot-prints of dinosaurs and other creatures of the prehistoric past that once roamed this part of Utah. Evidence has been found that indicates at least eight different species of these enormous "terrible lizards" once wandered through the humid swampland that covered the Goblin Valley Val-ley are:i more than 100 million mil-lion years ago. Some of them stood 2.) feet high and weighed weigh-ed thirty to forty tons and were 10i) feet in length. Ch'nle period cams to an end when the dlimate changed. chang-ed. The streams and marshlands marsh-lands dried up, the vegetation vegeta-tion withered and died, the dinosaurs disappeared and over this ancient desert spread the shifting sands and shallow seas that formed what we call the Wingate, Kayenta and Navajo Sandstone. Sand-stone. These sandstone strata are responsible for many of the lofty cl,;,ffs and buttes of this region. The Navajo formation is made up of cross bedded (windblown) sand ce-men'ed ce-men'ed by lime and interspersed inter-spersed with layers of clay and dolomite laid down by freshwater lakes that once covered the area and then receded. re-ceded. The earth in the vicinity of Goblin Valley slowly lowered until it was covered by the sea coming in from the north. Above the Navajo formation, for-mation, the Carmd limestone and limey shales were deposited de-posited by the sea. Again the surface of the land was slowly slow-ly elevated, the sea receded and the mst-red Entrada sandstone was laid down. Examinations Ex-aminations cf the "goblins" "gob-lins" in Goblin Valley reveals that they are composed of remnants cf this Entrada sandstone that once covered cover-ed the valley and adjacent areas. Since the sandstone is harder and mere resistant to erosion than the softer Camel Cam-el limestone below, it has protected the soft base material ma-terial while the surrounding unprotected material has been worn away by wind and water. wat-er. Although rains are rare in this region, it has been estimated es-timated that a twenty miri-u'.e miri-u'.e downpour on this barren landscape will wash away more material than an entire en-tire rainy season in greener areas. A close look at the "mud-falls" on the sides of nearby Wild Horse Mesa is dramatic proof of that estimate. esti-mate. Ancient Art Gallery West of Goblin Valley a series of broken ledges angle upward to merge with a shattered, shat-tered, rocky slope that forms the eastern edge of the San Rafael Swell. As one of the most spectacular geological features of the area, the Swell is a titantic rock dome that encompases some of the most (fantastxaily eroded scenery on the globe. It is an area that's the epitome of harsh and lorfly desolation. An immense wasteland scarred scar-red by dusty washes, precipitous precipi-tous canyons, spires and monoliths. mon-oliths. Squaw skirted buttes, their (ruffled borders banded with gray and brown and maroon, rise abruptly out of isolated basins. Naked 'hills hunch itheir backbones against the sky in silhouttes like ancient prehistoric monsters. This is a land cf sun and silence, si-lence, fascinating and still little known. Here you can find the S'nbad Desert, a rc-g:on rc-g:on dotted w:ith jutting monoliths mono-liths in every conceivable shape and color, or the Devil's De-vil's Stewpot, thousands of hollowed-out mounds that resemble re-semble a giant's soup bowl 'Here Ls Lon Chaney Peak, the "Mountain with a thousand thous-and faces," as well as Hoo-dw Hoo-dw Arch, a natural arch .-Imped l.ke the lixp of a lar-,iat. lar-,iat. Here, too, are found Hidden Hid-den Splendor, a region of brightly - colored tumbled rocks of stone, and Buckhorn Canyon, with its prehistoric art gallery displaying huge undecrphered pictographs. Although this part of Utah was bypassed by early routes of the westwaid-bound em:-, grants, the region surrounding surround-ing Goblin Valley has its own (peculiar niche in history. These templed mountains and lonely canyons have ser'n the winking enmpf'res of roving Indians bands, explorers, wagon wa-gon trains, outlaws and prospectors. pros-pectors. Chi canyon walls and in caves have been found pictographs, pic-tographs, petroglyphs and art facts that date back to the Basketmakers. E sea I ante Expidition In 1776, an expedition head-f.d head-f.d by Father Escalante crossed the Green River east of here and wandered among the buttes and canyons north of Goblin Valley, while searching fcr a route from Santa Fe to Monterey. The Old Spanish Trail, opened in 1831 between Santa Fe and California, passes not far north of Goblin Valley. Portions Por-tions of its corkscrew route can still be seen. Through this land passed Fremont in 1354 and left his name on a river that provides irrigation for all Hanksville farms. Major Ma-jor John Wesley Powell passed pass-ed th s way in 1875 and he de.scy':bed' the artea as "a strange, weird, grand region. The landscape everywhere, away frcm the river, is of rock, cliffs of rocks, crags cf rocks, 'ables of rocks ten thousand strangely carved carv-ed forms." Until recent years this part of Utah has been a de-ItOured de-ItOured land because much of it was unexplored, unmapped un-mapped and difficult to reach. The uranium hunters with their jeeps and ge;ger counters coun-ters were the first whi'e men to see many of its hidden hid-den valleys and secret canyons. can-yons. The geger counter clan is coming back again after their rush in the '53's and blazing new trails into-this into-this area. The tales cf hitherto unknown un-known petrified forests, cliff dwellings, stone arches and other natural wonders excited ex-cited the curosity and interest inter-est of others. The roads that were bull-dozed into this area during the earlier uranium ur-anium boom have opened up many sections in the eastern and southeastern part of Utah. Some of tlie.se roads have been improved to allow al-low travel by ordinary passenger pas-senger cars and others will soon be graded. (Before venturing ven-turing into any of these remote re-mote areas it is advisable to check with the natives in Hanksville or Green River.) In this land of vast and deceiving distances, of lost and lonely canyons, man is dwarfed into insignificance. To stand alcne beneath its wide and empty sky makes you feel small and humble. Then you mentally recall reading in the Bible where in Genesis it states: "And Cod saw everything that he made, and behold, it was very good."