Natural Art IV
 <a href="http://www.wolfgangstaudt.de" rel="noreferrer nofollow">  Wolfgang Staudt </a> 

<b>Goblin Valley</b> is a State Park in Emery County in central Utah, in the western United States. Its eminent feature is its thousands of hoodoos  and hoodoo rocks, which are formations of mushroom-shaped rock pinnacles, some as high as several meters. The distinct shape of these rocks comes from an erosion-resistant layer of rock atop softer sandstone.

Hiking is permitted in the park, which features three marked trails.

Evidence of Native American cultures, including the Fremont, Paiute, and Ute, is common throughout the San Rafael Swell in the form of pictograph and petroglyph panels. Goblin valley is noted for several rock art panels as well as the rock formations. The secluded Goblin Valley was then found by cowboys  searching for cattle. Then in the late 1920s, Arthur Chaffin, owner/operator of the Hite Ferry, and two companions were searching for an alternate route between Green River and Caineville. They came to a vantage point about one mile (1.6 km) west of Goblin Valley and were awed by what they saw – five buttes  and a valley of strange-shaped rock formations surrounded by a wall of eroded cliffs. In 1949 Chaffin returned to the area he called 'Mushroom Valley'. He spent several days exploring the mysterious valley and photographing its scores of intricately eroded rocks.

Publicity attracted visitors to the valley despite its remoteness. In 1954 it was proposed that Goblin Valley be protected from vandalism. The state of Utah later acquired the property and established Goblin Valley State Reserve. It was officially designated a state park on August 24, 1964.

From <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goblin_Valley_State_Park" rel="noreferrer nofollow"> Wikipedia</a>, the free encyclopedia
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