Goblin Valley State Park

Smurf Goblins

Animated clay creatures populating an isolated valley near Green River, Utah pop up organically from the smooth valley floor like red goblins. Sienna-hued and bulbous, these odd figures look earthy and familiar; strangely comforting: a recurring dream inhabiting an alternate reality coexisting with ours, beguiling us to behold their surreal condition.

Some goblins stand alone, others cluster in cliquish gatherings as if conducting meetings; yet others seem to be anxiously waiting for you as if they've been expecting you for years in a state of suspended animation.

Goblin Assembly

Groups emerging from the soil, yet integral to it, seem to be holding congress, a goblin assembly discussing internal affairs.
There may be a tribal meeting.  Or large family reunions.  Each gathering representing sub-species of goblin: ethnic groups, or genetically engineered castes.

Duck-Like Goblins

Some are duck-like.  Some are Smurf-like.
Some are hooded monks chanting their morning prayers, eternally.

Hooded Monks

The entire place is a village of unworldly beings frozen in time.  Rather like an extremely slow scene with people buzzing in and out at lightning speeds: bees on a bug's life cycle and goblins dancing to their own imperceptible rhythm.

Dancing Goblins

Some goblins are distinctly upright, striking individualistic poses captured on a slow moving walk, perhaps smiling.

Solitary Goblin

The solitary goblin is the remarkable one representing his faction by sheer force of character, or unique characteristic.

Popeye Goblin

There's Popeye looking ever the weathered sailor with sunken mouth and bony cheeks.

Toothless Hag Goblin

There's the toothless old hag in extreme stage of decay, with gaunt face grinning at the sky, forever.

Big Bird Goblin

There's Big Bird Goblin walking alone.

Goblin Gone Blind

There's the bony indescribable one: a goblin gone blind.

On one level goblins could be proto-humans in various stages of development;  on another, they might be post-humans in different phases of arrested development.  Perhaps they are reincarnations of partial personalities: alter egos eternally working out issues.

Kissing Goblins

 Unresolved loves forever kissing.

Rug-Rat Baby Goblins

Or unborn souls made manifest by clay; giant heads stuck in the mud like rug-rat babies personalities.

In any case, there's a supernatural quality to this place.  Goblins, ghouls, or apparitions are lingering into modern times.  The spirit of Halloween is alive and naturally well at Goblin park reminding us, possibly, of our spectral ancestry.

Spectral Goblins

Arches National Park

Three Gossips

Natural wonders envelop Moab, Utah.  The area is one red sandbox filled with giant toys.  Huge stone sculptures set against enormous red cliffs make up the landscape.  This is high desert; hot in the summer and frigid in winter.  Although rivers do stream, collecting thunderstorms, channeling their precious fluid to oases like Moab, the local splendor is rocks.  Geological forces made these rocks, heaving them up through tectonic plates shifting and setting them into place, while extreme weather: wind, rain, and snow,  polished and sculpted them into their latest form.

Arches National Park is most amazing of all.  The scale is monumental and it's first magnificent monument is the Three Gossips seemingly discussing the latest political intrigue and passing judgement on their hapless subjects.  They might be robed choir members but for their chiseled aspect and austere demeanor.

Balancing Rock

Balancing Rock is an enormous egg-shaped rock atop a red pillar; a Jurassic vision ensemble resembling T-Rex on the prowl.  The prehistoric predator sizes up and seizes its prey, if only it could...

Double Arches

Arches National Park, not surprisingly, has a few arches.  Naturally formed and varying in size, these red portals dot the landscape.  Sometimes they're grouped into compounds, other times isolated and discreet.

Arch

One major grouping is the Double Arches compound.  It is expansive, requiring quite a bit of walking to get a taste of the place, or vigorous hiking for hours to fully take in its scope.  Here a formation, there a sculpture, everywhere a climbing adventure.  All red.  

Spring Arch

One attraction juts out of the ground springing up and over head like an arcing liquid extrusion petrified in mid air.  Another, is a conglomerate of shapes scattered and piled into an arch-like castle.  Much like sandcastles, these sandstone piles evoke a playful hand sparking the imagination.

Picnic Area

Life makes a go of it wherever it can. Hardy trees take root in the unlikeliest of places, requiring the rare thundershower and runoff to survive.  These micro oases resembling landscaped parks prove that "life imitates art"... and make perfect picnic areas too.

Surrealist Rocks

At times, vegetation and sandstone take on a surrealist look as if rocks and trees had been Terra-formed by Salvador Dali for a Southwest Disney theme park.

Rock Faces

Rock faces really start looking like faces and pillars start resembling animated creatures.  Animism is alive and well in the desert heat.

Arches Crows

Crows thrive and eagles soar, jack rabbits hide from the full sun and lizards bore into cool sand under cover of rocks.  It's a minimal, conservative existence of economic simplicity.  A Darwinian laboratory for the survival of the fittest.

Greatest of all gems in this vast collection of jewels is Delicate Arch.  It stands alone and aloof from the rest, quite far from any other attraction.   In fact it's practically inaccessible.   Hiking uphill for two miles over slick behemoth boulders in the desert heat at high altitude seemingly conspires against anyone ever reaching this isolated landmark.

Pathway to Delicate Arch

The anticipation built while getting to the arch is like potential energy released at first sight.  A fantastic feature on one continuous rock surface stands there, impossibly, pointing skyward, and downward, marking an undisclosed passageway.  A portal to another dimension? A divine whimsy?  A giant's project?  Certainly a testament to nature's varied splendor.  A skeptic might believe, however briefly, that a cosmic Architect, or the hand of God gently carved out an arch so exquisite its only purpose could be to signify majesty; for no other purpose than to inspire, to leave you standing there, agape.

Leaving behind scientific buzz-kill words like erosion, tectonic upheavals and the like, it is so much easier to let go and wonder...

Delicate Arch