Overview

Hype:

Goblin's Squeeze is a 150-foot-long tunnel in Goblin Valley. The cave is located in Goblin's Lair; the entrance is actually inside the Lair, and the exit is at the base of the debris pile outside the lair. Goblin's Squeeze is very tight in several places, and the rock is very unstable, so please exercise extreme caution when exploring Goblin's Squeeze. People who weigh more than about 150 pounds probably won't be able to make it all the way through. Almost the entire length requires army crawling or belly scooting.

Cave Type: Horizontal

Time: 20-30 minutes

Length: 150 feet

Depth: 0 ft

Gear: Headlamp

Fees: Entrance 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: Open

Getting There

Navigate to 38.561451, -110.695576.

Goblin's Squeeze is accessed via the Goblin's Lair hiking trail or via the Goblin's Lair canyoneering route.

Route

Entrance

The entrance to Goblin's Squeeze is located inside Goblin's Lair. When you're standing inside the lair looking out towards the exit, the entrance to Goblin's Squeeze will be on your right, near the bottom of the debris pile. If you follow the path water would take in a flood, this will lead you directly through the cave.

Cave Passage

Goblin's Squeeze is about 150 feet long. It requires many, many sections of belly crawling and is extremely tight in many locations. For all but one squeeze, you can stay at ground level though.

Exit

The exit is located at the base of the debris pile on the outside toe of the slope, right next to the approach trail.

Maps

Closest City or Region: Goblin Valley State Park, Utah

Coordinates: 38.561451, -110.695576

Interactive Guide Map

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October 20, 2018 Trip Report

By Jeremy Dye

Trip Members

Jeremy Dye, Tara Dye, Anthony Dye, Miller Dye, Ondylyn Wagner, Marci Parker,

Story

Ondy discovered the cave while she was waiting for the rest of us to finish rappelling down into Goblin's Lair. She went in for quite a ways, to the first point where it gets really narrow and you have to belly crawl through the mud, and then she came back out to get others to join her. I was the next to join in, then Miller followed by Marci, Tara, and Anthony. Ondy led the exploration, which was very slow going because of all the tight squeezes.

The nice thing about Goblin's Squeeze, though, is that between every squeeze section, there is a room big enough to turn around in. About half-way through the cave, Ondy had me go first. As we slowly made our way through, we kept shouting back to the others behind us, in excitement, that it kept going! We were amazed that the cave didn't just dead-end or get so small we couldn't proceed. At one point, it got too small to continue at ground level, so we had to take the upper path over a rock before returning back down to the ground passage. Near the end, there was a drop that was about 3' tall. I didn't want to go head first down the passage until there was someone behind me that could pull me back out by my feet if I got stuck. Turns out it was no big deal because that spot opened up considerably. Anthony and Miller turned around after completing about 2/3 of the tunnel. They only had one cell phone light between them, so that made for an adventure all by itself.

Near the end of Goblin's Squeeze, I had to move several medium-sized rocks and scrape away some dirt and small rocks in order to fit through a tight passage. This makes me believe that either another group had explored the entire tunnel before, but there had been some rock falls after that group, or that we were the first group to completely explore the tunnel all the way from the entrance to the exit. Shortly after the drop, I could see daylight through some small passages that led to the surface. We probably could have climbed up to the surface at this point, but we chose to stay down at ground level. After a few more squeezes, we popped out the exit. It felt so cool to have explored this small cave and make it all the way through, especially knowing that we might have been the first people to complete the whole tunnel.

Once we finished the Squeeze, we hiked up over the top of the debris pile and back into the Lair to collect our gear, then we took the Goblin's Lair trail back to the parking lot.

Pictures