Goosenecks State Park, Utah

October 17, 2025

The red rock scenery continued another week for our stay at Goosenecks State Park in the southeast corner of Utah. Our travel day was mostly dreary with scattered drizzle and the occasional glimpse of blue sky. By the time we got to our destination, the day had cleared and was quite pleasant.

Leaving sunny Glen Canyon National Recreation Area to drive into the gloom

The gloom

Our first glimpse of Monument Valley

Julie's camera fritzed out at the Utah welcome sign, so she lifted this one from Google street view. It's just as well, because many of the "monuments" were shrouded in clouds when we had passed by.

We passed through the tiny (and not particularly photogenic) town of Mexican Hat. Its main claim to fame is being near this rock formation that resembles a guy wearing a sombrero. The "hat" apparently measures 60 feet across.

Goosenecks State Park occupies part of the "goosenecks" of the meandering San Juan river that had cut a deep canyon over time. Camping here is unique in that you pay your $10/night and then just drive along the canyon edge and find a spot to park. Rick wanted to back up right to the edge so that our deck would overhang the canyon, but Julie wasn't having any of that. We ended up compromising--we parked far enough away that we could walk comfortably around the deck and not be in immediate danger of plunging to our deaths into the San Juan, yet we were close enough to see to the bottom of the canyon from our deck. A win-win!

The star marks the spot (about) where we parked

Julie thought we were plenty close to the edge

You can see all the RVs lined up along the canyon rim. Our spot was quite a bit further away from most people, and it was very quiet.

A wide angle lens helps to capture the full view from our deck

We had pretty amazing sunsets (and sunrises) on most days.

Monument Valley in the distance

Threatening storm clouds at sunrise

There really wasn't much to do at the state park, aside from watching the sun, clouds, and shadows dance upon the landscape in ever changing ways. The days were usually sunny, but we did have a couple of mostly cloudy days, one of which included annoying wind that tested the boundaries of our deck roof. We decided to hide indoors for the greater part of that day while attempting to ignore all the loud creaks and moans of imminent destruction. Fortunately, no destruction materialized!

One afternoon, we walked along the rim. As you may suspect, the scenery was not much different from what could be viewed from our deck.

Another gorgeous sunset (or sunrise--don't remember which it was)

On Thursday, we drove the nearby Valley of the Gods Scenic Drive and then up the Moki Dugway. Julie has always been enamored with the iconic red rock scenery of the Southwest, so she had a hard time refraining from taking pictures at every turn.

Some of the rock formations made it feel like we were exploring the ruins of an ancient city.

Looks like an ancient statue

As we approached the Moki Dugway, it didn't look like anything particularly sketchy, but the signs were a bit ominous.

Soon enough, were were grateful not to be towing the trailer on this road.

There was a small pull-off about 3/4 of the way to the top that led to a cliff-side viewpoint where we could view the road we just came up on.

Another viewpoint almost at the top

If you look closely, you can see the remains of an old car wreck. (It's really hard to see in this picture.)

Here's a closeup of it.

Julie tried to do an internet search to see what the deal was with this car--surely someone else had noticed it and posted something. It turns out there have been many car wrecks over time, and apparently there are other abandoned wrecked cars down the cliffs that we didn't notice, so this one probably isn't anything special. During her search, however, she did come across a highly entertaining circa 1980s story of two young guys and their misadventures in a 1959 Triumph TR-3A motorcar. If you have a few moments and you need a good chuckle to brighten your day, you can read it here: https://patrickcumby.com/finding-the-moki-dugway/ .

Our final destination was the very scenic Muley Point.

Monument Valley in the distance

Here, Rick was determined to find a way down to a lower plateau to get "better" views.

It was a bit of a tight squeeze!

The views actually were better here!

Heading back home

When we had crossed into Utah from Arizona a few days prior, we had seen lots of cars parked at the side of the road near a sign commemorating a famous scene where Forrest Gump ran across the Southwest. We hadn't bothered taking any pictures at the time because the clouds were kind of obscuring things, but later Julie looked it up. Upon viewing a clip of the famous scene, she looked out the back deck and realized that we could see one of the rock formations from the movie.

Compare this distant rock formation with...

...the large formation on the right. (Okay, maybe this isn't so exciting, but Julie thought it was pretty cool! 🙂)

One last parting sunset shot

Next stop--New Mexico!

There is a google group email list which can send you an email when there is a new blog post. Instructions for signing up here: Subscribe OR directly join here: Google Group