It all started while watching a re-run of "Galaxy Quest" on cable one idle Saturday morning.  During a scene in the movie where Tim Allen faces off against a giant rock monster on some weird-looking planet, I found myself saying, "Hey, that'd be a cool place to ride."  Once the credits started rolling, I noticed that the scene had been filmed not on some remote planet, but in Goblin Valley, Utah.  Hmmm... maybe that wasn't such a wild thought after all.

Five minutes later, I did a quick search on Google and found out that Goblin Valley is a remote park in the south-east part of Utah.  This was looking better and better.  The fact that it is a state park meant that riding among the goblins was out, but there had to be some great trails nearby to explore. 

The next thing I knew, Carl and I had the bikes loaded and were heading to beautiful southern Utah.  

Loaded up and ready to roll	Monument Valley...			Mexican Hat
Too bad we weren't on the bikes	Amazing road...			Checking on the cargo
Beautiful landscape	Through Glen Canyon...		Near Goblin Valley

Just north of Hanksville, UT -- Goblin Valley national park is in a very remote area, and there's not a lot of signs directing the way.  The good news in all of this is that there aren't a lot of people running around.  In fact, we practically had the place to ourselves. 

The "goblins" were an amazing thing to see, but it turns out they were the least eventful part of the journey.  At this point, we were both so eager to ride that we only spent about ten minutes gawking at the rock formations.  We immediately left the park and went searching for a camp site so we could unload the bikes.     

Among the "Goblins"...

It didn't take long to find a great little camp site that was fairly isolated and surrounded by gorgeous scenery.  

Setting up camp	Views from the site...

Finally, it was time to ride.  Being that neither of us had been to this area before, we weren't sure what kind of trails we would find.  In fact, we didn't even know if there was any good riding.  And considering it took us more than eight hours to drive up from Arizona, that was quite a gamble to take.  Fortunately, the gamble paid off.  Not 30 yards from camp, we hit an outstanding trail that took us through the surrounding foothills.  We spent the next five hours just riding.  

Fantastic trails	Amazing scenery...			Jumping off steps
And climbing back up		Found a hole	Fun on slickrock
Great sand dunes				An old well
A quick highway run	Nice slot canyon		Getting some air	A great shot of the Adventure
The flying XR		Hangin' with the locals	An old abandoned shack
Hard to see, but he's about three feet off the ground	Following suit on the 640	Cooking dinner	A great moon...

We could not have asked for better trails. I was blown away by how good the riding was.  What made it so fantastic was the varying terrain we encountered. In a single loop, we hit everything from challenging single track to high-speed dirt roads, incredible sand dunes, slot canyons and even some slickrock. It was an absolute blast. 

After a good night's rest, we geared up and headed out for another day of excellent riding.   

Foothills trail	Soaking in the scenery...
	Amazing rolling hills
		One of several old abandoned cars	Breathtaking cliff edge
				Check out the mine below
Nice spot for a break		One of the many mines in the area	One long hole	Testing his trials skills
Found some goblins	A nice two-story house	Getting more air...

After putting in about nine hours on the bikes, we called it a day.  The original plan was to camp again that night and make the long trek back to Phoenix the following day.  But we decided to pack up and head at least part of the way back that evening, to make the next day's drive a little shorter.  The highway miles just seemed to float on by, however, and we ended up driving all the way back to Phoenix that night.  So after nine hours in the saddle and another eight in the truck, we finally pulled into the driveway at about 2:30 am.

Heading back home	Nice sunset over the canyons		Nursing in the middle of the road

Needless to say, we can wholeheartedly recommend the Goblin Valley area for anyone who wants to truly get away from it all and explore some amazing trails.