Overview

Hype:

The Goblin's Lair canyoneering route is the only canyoneering route inside Goblin Valley State Park. The Goblin's Lair is a large cave-like room on the south end of the valley. The lair is accessible via a hiking trail that loops around the perimeter of the valley, but the canyoneering route takes you through the Valley of the Goblins, down a short canyon, and then into the lair from above.

Canyon Rating: 3A

Time: 2 hours

Length: 1.9 mile loop

Longest Rappel: 90 ft

Gear: Standard rappelling gear, webbing

Fees: A $2 per person permit is required in addition to the park admission fee.

Recommended Ages:

	0-3
	4-11
	12-19
	20-49
	50-69
	70+

Recommended Months to Visit:

Jan

Feb

Mar

Apr

May

Jun

Jul

Aug

Sep

Oct

Nov

Dec

Permits: Permits are available at the Goblin Valley Visitor Center

Links: stateparks.utah.gov

Getting There

Navigate to 38.565272, -110.702542.

The trailhead is at the north end of the parking lot of the Goblin Valley overlook.

Route

Approach

From the trailhead head southwest, aiming for the gap between the 2nd and 3rd white cliffs (counthing from the north). Once you get past a ridge of goblins, you'll see a white-capped mound. Go around the mound then make your way southeast then east to the base of the white cliffs. There is some easy scrambling. If you're route is harder than 3rd class scrambling, try a different route. Once you get to the white cliffs, follow the emerging social trail north as it contours around the cliffs. Continue northeast until you reach the head of the canyon.

Canyon

Goblin's Lair canyon is quite short. Near the top of the canyon is a tunnel as well as a couple of narrow sections. After a couple of minutes, you'll reach the rappel down into the lair. The only rappel is about 80 feet tall. The anchor is a large goblin chockstone with webbing tied around it and a quick link. Rappel down into the Goblin's Lair.

Once in the lair, you can explore Goblin's Squeeze, a 150-foot long tunnel that goes under the large debris pile at the mouth of the canyon and deposits you outside the lair.

Exit

From Goblin's Lair, take the Goblin's Lair trail 1.5 miles back to the trailhead.

Maps

Closest City or Region: Goblin Valley State Park, Utah

Coordinates: 38.561569, -110.696025

Interactive Guide Map

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October 20, 2018 Trip Report

By Jeremy Dye

Trip Members

Jeremy Dye, Tara Dye, Anthony Dye, Ondylyn Wagner, Eric Burrows, Marci Parker,

Logistics

Started approach: 4:00

Top of canyon: 4:30

Bottom of canyon: 5:00

Finished Goblin's Cave: 5:40

Back at trailhead: 6:15

Story

After doing Farnsworth Canyon, we dropped the kids and a couple of the adults at camp and headed into the park to do Goblin's Lair. We got our permits at the visitor center. Eric had done the route before, but the rest of us hadn't. We hiked through the Valley of the Goblins and made our way over to the east rim. We had to do a little bit of climbing and scrambling before we found the beginnings of a trail running along the contour of the white layer. We soon arived at the rim of the Goblin's Lair canyoneering route. I dropped down and went through a cool tunnel, but that route seemed more difficult than we wanted to take. Anthony and Eric had split off looking for a better way down and had actually gotten to the canyon floor already by this point. Soon, Marci found a short scramble down to the canyon floor, and Tara and I followed.

The canyon itself was very short, maybe only 50 or 100 feet long. Tara and Anthony rigged the rope, and we all rappelled down into the Goblin's Lair. At the bottom, it was kind of hard to make the pull at first because our pull strand slid down on top of the rappel strand in a rope groove, but a whip of the rope quickly fixed that.

While we were packing up the ropes, Ondy found a small cave that went inside the boulder pile at the mouth of Goblin's Lair. We explored that cave for over half an hour and finally wiggled our way through to the other side. I don't think a lot of people are aware of how long and fun this cave is, so I added a page for it on this website as a seperate destination, Goblin's Squeeze. 

After we were done with the canyoneering route and cave exploration we took the hiking trail around and back to the trailhead.

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Pictures