Goblin Valley

Goblin Valley State Park sits in the San Rafael Desert of Emery County, Utah, on the southeastern edge of the San Rafael Swell about 12 miles north of Hanksville. Its landscape is carved from Entrada sandstone laid down roughly 170 million years ago during the Jurassic, when debris eroded from nearby highlands was redeposited across a tidal flat in alternating layers of sandstone, siltstone and shale. Joint and fracture patterns within those sandstone beds created zones of weakness that weathered faster than the surrounding rock, so edges and corners wore away more quickly and left behind the park's famous mushroom-shaped hoodoos, locally called goblins. Along with Bryce Canyon National Park, Goblin Valley holds one of the largest concentrations of hoodoos anywhere in the world, and the park also contains Wild Horse Butte, a 5,760-foot summit of exposed Jurassic rock. This entity documents Goblin Valley specifically as a geological formation.