How we Wandered through the Goblin Valley, UT

The Crew

The Goblin Valley

Side effects from the heat

Our first destination in the great canyon land in the southwest has become the Goblin Valley State Park.  We were headed down south from Salt Lake City, which in spite of its poor references from people we met on the road surprised us.  It apparently is a city with great cultural habits judging by the artsy decorations in it’s historical downtown and by many invitations for other cultural events.  Joseph Smith’s followers are more than apparent and definitely form a part of the city’s culture and its unnoticeable religious context.

Heat of The Goblin Valley

When we got on Highway 24 towards Hanksville; a small town around 5 miles away from the Goblin Valley, we finally saw the great red canyons and their ruins along the highway and views that we know from all kinds of movies.  It is something strange to see in the middle of a desert and sand dunes and cacti, snakes and poisonous frogs.

We camped probably in the most amazing campground we’ve ever stayed; right underneath one of those red canyon residues that stretches somewhere far up in the sky and crumbles down to the ground from about three quarters of its height.  We didn’t even pitch a tent and headed to the Goblin Valley right away.  We were pleased by the fact that unlike in the Yellowstone National Park we didn’t see that many people and even one of our older camper neighbours told us he is shocked how many people already know about this place.

The Goblin Valley apparently got discovered in the 1920’s when cowboys were looking for herds of wild cows.  It’s a very strange and old geological formation of coastal and sand dunes about as old as 170 million years.  Stunning place to watch a sunset with a storm somewhere in the distance while you freely roam in the valley.  We got lucky for this occasion and were blessed with a rich colourful spectrum that polluted the dusk.

Many thoughts come to your mind seeing something like that and one of the strongest is dreading the day when even this place gets crowded by people and when they will build those wooden corridors reminding you of being run down them like a herd of the wild cattle that is just being sold to its new owner. 

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Paddling Adventures - Deer Group Islands, BC

Ross Its.

Map of the Deer Group Islands

Have you ever thought of being lost in the wilderness surrounded by seals, whales and other awesome sea creatures just on a kayak loaded with essentials to survive for a week or so and enjoy it?  Klara took me to this place.  We explored the Deer Group Islands on Vancouver Island, which not even many Canadians know about. 

 Paddling across the Trevor Channel

Getting there is a challenge though.  Arriving on a ferry to Nanaimo and driving on a neat highway towards Port Alberni seems like cruising the autobahn comparing to what we had to face on the journey from Port Alberni to Bamfield.  Bamfield is an amazing little village, where apart from a local pub, a liquor store and a few docks and fishermen houses you're gonna have a hard time finding anything else.  And good for the people living in there!  So the feared 80km on a dusty gravel logging road turned out to be a good fun. After about first 5km of a cautious driving we ended up really going for it.  We only had 2 hours to make it so drifting through the gravel curves was inevitable but fun.

Thinking you not gonna have much of a good food we started the whole trip by a fresh portion of halibut fish and chips from a local bistro and energised from the fiest we loaded the kayaks and set off for the adventure. Nothing but the amazing weather couldn’t motivate us more to paddle across the Trevor Channel straight to Ross Its.  The beach was amazing and welcoming fishermen let us camp on the island with them, which paid off the next day when we were given a fresh salmon fillet not more than an hour fresh. 

 

Haines Island 

The next day we packed and were headed to Diana Island the Indian Reservation. You can clearly see that once the islands were inhabited by a civilisation.  But mostly all you can find around the islands is ruins of the aboriginals' villages and their new build resorts. In the IR it is not favoured to stay overnight so after a little exploration of the island we started cooking the salmon. It only made me realise how good the food can get for the rest of the trip. If only we had a fishing rod and known how to catch one on our own.

The next destinations and places we camped at were absolutely spectacular. Haines Island hosting us with a beautiful beach and further exploration of the southwest spits of the islands, and then heading up northeast for the Roberts Passage and Marble Cove.

In spite of little dramatic accidents with landing on a rocky beach and paddling through a cave we made it safe and sound back to Bamfield. We experienced the most picturesque sunsets, saw a couple of dolphins and seals just curiously diving around our kayaks and paddled through a calm sea that all of a sudden turned into an adventure of having to cope with big waves.  Definitely a place I’d like to come back one day and equipped with more advanced gear explore for a bit longer than that.  After all one of the fishermen that we met had a basecamp set up and was probably staying there for weeks.  No wonder, good for him.

How I wandered in 2000m above the sea level

I always wanted to explore the places where turquoise lakes flood the view, and where you climb so close to the sun that crumbling rocks replace the snow blankets of the top of the mountains.  Now I can tick this off of my bucket list again.

I packed my 'stang and picked up already enthusiasm-boosted Sarka at hers only to find out that tonight we are not sleeping in a tent.  Well what the heck.  It's too heavy after all and climbing up the Black Tusk with an extra hand bag would be a pain, which I admit I didn't know back then.

So we get to the trailhead and set off for the hike.  It's always hurting to get above the trailhead, it usually is dull overwhelming climb through the forest where you can't see much.  Well apart from some wild animals that fortunately enough are friendly for today.

But once you get 'above the tree' level the views are rewarding and really motivating to make another 20k just by wandering around the meadows and climbing up the most spectacular viewpoints you have ever seen.

Sometimes the climbs are rough but with a little patience and determination it is feasible.  Seeing the Black Tusk final climb almost makes me chicken out and go back. But that would be a mistake I'd regret far too much.

Being up there I'm about to shed a tear for what I see.  Exactly what I wanted out of this hike.  Turquoise lakes like little beautiful puddles somewhat a kilometre underneath us, snow blankets beneath the huge pile of crumbling volcanic rocks, and icebergs sliding down the 3k mountains in the seeming vicinity of us and at last sleeping underneath very scenic night sky without a single shelter-like gear. Only sleeping bag.

Having slept surprisingly well enough, the next day we set off for another expedition to have a closer look on that turquoise bad boy just under Panorama Ridge hike and him itself the Garibaldi Lake.

We walk around 40k in these 2 days but even though we are pretty knackered we just don't even seem to pay attention to it until we reach that tiresome trailhead extension which takes forever to descent.  And after all that, you don't even wanna go down that road to reality again...

Check out some more PICS!!

And thanks to Sarka!!!

Setting the Wander Cloud

Many times I wondered what would it be like just to wander...

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I have seen places, corners of the world that have left me astound. I have met people that inspired me to set off for journeys longer I ever imagined and that have made me set destinations I never even dared to dream of.  But I realised that with a little patience and just a dash of courage the world serves spectacular views end experiences that are worth sharing.

I set up this blog, My Wander Cloud, to bring out these highlights of my journeys and memorable encounters.

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