Carmel Canyon & the Valley of the Goblins

4/1/09

The wind continued to blow throughout the night, showering sand and grit through the bug-mesh on my tent. There was no escaping the grit. When I would leave the next day, I was still eating grit that found it's way into the cracks and crevasses of my gear. I was still cleaning grit out of my ears two days after I returned home. Just because it was the morning, the wind didn't let up. In fact it brought a little snow with it. Olympia & I huddled in the car, warming up a little and letting the band of snow pass before heading to the valley and one of the trails I wanted to scout - Carmel Canyon.

Desert hiking for a Northwesterner is a little disturbing. there are no easy trails to follow - in fact there are at times no trail at all. Just rock cairns spaced along the general route you want to follow. Several times along the Carmel Canyon trail, I had to stop to look back the direction I had just come from to make sure I hadn't somehow missed a pile of rocks. Olympia was happy just to roam from one sage to the next, smelling what had passed before. After we got through the open sandstone section of the trail, the cairns were easier to follow and we soon found ourselves meandering along with an arroyo.

There were distant views of sandstone mesas and the openness of the land made me want to run free or spread my wings and fly. Which could have been very easy as the wind still hadn't relented. Soon Olympia & I turned up in the canyon and followed the narrow channel as it twisted through the steep cliffs, becoming even narrower turning into a slot canyon. The last time I visited the Southwest, I spent much of my time in the slot canyons of Arizona - I fell in love. That love was one of the reasons I wanted to return to the Southwest. I feel as if cradled by my mother when I walk through the dark reaches of the earth.

We came back out into the parking lot, again buffeted by winds - the canyon walls had shielded us from the blowing onslaught. I figured this would be an opportune moment to explore the bizarre sandstone formations which give Goblin Valley its name. There are three sections to the valley, I stayed in the 1st one. Next time though I will spend far more time exploring them to the end. The variations of erosion on the land make for amazing shapes and shadows. I spent only a couple of hours weaving through the formations but could easily spend a whole day. As my stomach started rumbling and lunch still in camp, Olympia & I made our way back shielding our eyes from the sand carried by the gusting wind looking forward to our afternoon adventures.