The second day of the trip was supposed to be all about Goblin Valley State Park. Unfortunately, we found out when we got to the park that we were not equipped to do much hiking and the fact that my mom wasn’t feeling well meant we had to cut our trip short. This would also mean that it’s an excuse for me to revisit the park in another time.

We ended up hiking the Valley of the Goblins, which was one of the most unique hike I’ve ever done. It was like walking around a museum full of odd-looking rocks. This trail has no signs pointing the direction. The only sign of direction we had was the pavilion next to the parking lot. It was like walking in a maze.

The rocks were all formed by wind. Millions of years ago, back to the time when dinosaurs roamed the earth, this area was part of an inland sea. I tried to imagine it (and I have a pretty good imagination) but I couldn’t imagine this desert was ever under water.

As I walked, instead of imagining what each rock looked like, I wondered what the rocks would say if each of the rocks were alive around me.

Haha, I imagined them being grumpy little men. After all, from all the novels I’ve read and the movies I’ve seen, goblins are pretty grumpy creatures.

We were planning to hike another trail afterwards but found out we were not equipped to hike. For one thing, we forgot our hiking sticks and I forgot my hiking boots.

Note to self: always put a pair of hiking boots in the car on road trips.

My mom was not feeling well and needed a pharmacy. Unfortunately, we were in the middle of nowhere. The nearest pharmacy was in Moab, which is 100 miles away. So there I was, driving 100 miles back to civilization, which was a great reprieve from the near remoteness we’ve been living in since we left home.