Day 100: Capitol Reef National Park to Goblin Valley State Park, UT

Today we celebrate day 100 of our Great North American Road Trip (the sequel). Sixty-three days until we return home.

The boys bounced out of bed this morning bright and early, ready for our celebratory buffet breakfast. There is nothing they love more than a buffet, lol. Ian and I enjoyed fresh coffee at breakfast for the first time in quite a while, while the boys feasted on scrambled eggs, sausages, potatoes and pancakes. When they were sufficiently satiated, we packed up and headed onward.

Our destination today was Goblin Valley State Park. It was a little over an hour drive from Capitol Reef through a new landscape that looked like an excavation company went bonkers and left heaps of gravel piles everywhere. We turned off the highway toward Goblin Valley and it looked like we were truly in the middle of nowhere. Thank goodness for Google Maps.

Where are we going?!

We checked into our campground in site lucky number 13 and visited the Three Sisters for our first look at the hoodoos. It was fantastic but extremely hot. We are under an extreme heat warning and temperatures were in the low 40s (degrees Celsius). 

We checked out the Visitors Centre and the boys completed their Junior Ranger booklets for this park and the special scavenger hunt in celebration of World Ranger Day, which just happens to be today.

We took it easy in the afternoon waiting for the early evening (and the most bearable temperature of 37 degrees Celsius) to continue exploring. After supper we combined two easy trails to check out Devil’s Lair and Carmel Canyon. Carmel Canyon trail was a welcome surprise as the second half of the loop took us through a narrow slot canyon that required spider walking up the walls and squeezing through narrow passages. Unsurprisingly, this was an enormous hit with the boys. We also saw many bats emerge from their caves to fly directly (and closely!) overhead. 

Liam and Ali loved scrambling down the boulders to check out the inside of Devil’s Lair and see the skylights from underneath.

As we emerged from the canyon, timing was in our favour as we caught the tail end of the sunset, featuring rainbow-coloured skies and brilliantly back lit rock formations. What a fantastic way to spend the last two hours of our day.

We have an early start tomorrow to beat the heat for our hike down into Goblin Valley. The alarm is set for 5am!