Sun, Oct 19: HOLE IN THE ROCK ROAD, Escalante, UT to blm Lands outside Goblin Valley, UT BLM
We rolled at 8am this morning driving the Hogsback thru Boulder and Torrey....ziggy zaggy weavey winding and up, up, up, down, down, down. We stopped at Capitol Reef to check out the campground and take on water and dump. Lots of people but its a sunday and the weather was perfect! 70Ish.
We passed Factory Butte and decided to move on to Goblin Valley area.
WOW were we shocked when we arrived. We have always found a spot and its sunday. In the area where we would usually boondock, there were MANY rv's with atv's AND a tractor trailer! We found a spot close to the road and unhooked the jeep to scope out possible other sites. Found one and moved our small class c to its spot for the next 4 or 5 days. It was very odd that there were atv/utv folks in the area. They usually are closer to temple...in that parking lot and beyond. We took the jeep out to cruise to see what was going on. WHY was the atv crowd where they were. AS it turns out in 2022 the blm gave use of the lands around Goblin Valley to the Utah parks system (goblin valley). I know we were not here in 2024 and we may have been off i70 in 2023. So now where the atv's by temple mountain there are blm PAID sites. For $15 you can nab a spot and park TWO rvs there in one of their numbered sites...no longer a free for all. Well obviously that pissed off the atv crowd and they were absolutely NOT paying $15 for something that has been free for a long time. So now atv crowd is in the used-to-be quiet part outside of Goblin Valley. There were only two big rvs with toys in the paid part. Also the buttes/castles just outside of the Goblin Valley SP are now NUMBERED sites. There is a pay box and a map of where each site is and its number. It didn't seem they did much for the dirt roads in...needed grading. So for your $15 you get a VERY primitive toilet...like I can see your legs primitive and cheap, cheap...not the usual BLM pit toilet building and you get a number for your site. The positive side of this is that they get some money (positive for them) and hopefully grade the roads at least yearly and for sure less usage. I cannot image what this will now look like on weekends! I imagine the small area that is free of fees will at some point be turned into sites and fees like the rest of it. The Goblin Valley State Park Sign is now right up where you turn left before you go straight to temple mountain. Boo hiss.
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