Monday, September 22, 2014

During the night, it started raining again, this time with a vengeance. The ranger told me it rained almost an inch overnight.  Of course, Sam, who gets nervous hearing a few drops on the roof, was a complete basket case most of the night.  I sat up and held him for about an hour in the middle of the night.  I could just make out flashlights in the tent across the street.  The next morning I saw that that tent was in a puddle of water 6 inches deep.  Once again, I was thankful our tent camping days are behind us!

The morning started off with beautiful lows clouds and fog hanging over the distant peaks as the night's rainfall evaporated in the day's heat.

Not in any hurry, we headed out for a drive around 10:00.  Little Wild Horse Canyon Drive, just outside of the park, was highly regarded in reviews.  I thought it would be an unpaved road,  but was pleasantly surprised to find it was very nice pavement.  When we arrived at the canyon trailhead, the tiny parking area was packed.  I was a little concerned the canyon would be full of water after last nights rain anyway, so we decided to come back earlier on another day when we were in the mood for a good hike.  

All along the Little Wild Horse Canyon road, there were opportunities for artsy shots of the quickly drying mud and the standing puddles.  I'm not sure the color in the landscape around us was really captured in our pictures, but it was stunning!

It was so quiet that you could hear the whoosh of the birds' wings as they flew overhead.

Back in the park, we headed up to Observation Point.  One of the Goblin Valley State Park's most iconic landmarks was named the "Three Sisters".  We were not sure why, what should have been the fourth member of the group, was slighted.

In the background, you can see the feature that towers over the campground.  From this angle, it looks like a huge block.

From the observation point, there were many placards introducing visitors to the geology of the region and its unique landscape.

If this looks at all familiar, you might be remembering a scene from Galaxy Quest that was filmed here.

Visitors were encouraged to walk among the goblins in the valley.  We were able to climb around, through and even up on any of the formations. It all looked like mud, but I assure you, the rocks were solid.  It was a little unnerving to get right under some of the rocks that appeared ready to fall at any moment.

Come on!  Do you see the grumpy Gus on the right?

As sunset approached, we drove the Little Wild Horse Canyon road again to see the changing light

This is the backside of the monolith that towers over the campground...

...and this is the side.  It is just a sliver of a triangle.

We quickly returned to the Observation Point to capture a few goblins in the setting sun.

I got my telescope out and set up just in front of the coach.  It was not ideal since the restrooms had a few lights on the doors, but with the dark sky and a moonless night, it was still better than almost any place I had ever observed.  I was feeling pretty good that I remembered how to set up and operate the telescope after nine months without using it.

The Milky Way was awesome, stretching from horizon to horizon.  Two young ladies from Germany stopped by for a while.  They had just seen a night sky presentation in Arches National Park but needed a little help remembering the constellations.  They appreciated a tour of some of the night's deep sky objects including M31, M57, M13 and several others.  Unfortunately, the nearby mountains were blocking our view to the west so we could not see Saturn or any of the fine deep-sky gems in Scorpius or Sagittarius, but it was still a great observing session.