The Curtis Bench Trail offers an alternative route into remote parts of the Goblin amphitheater, and unique insight to its eponymous green-grey hued rock layer, the Curtis Formation. The Curtis Formation caps the Entrada Formation, the preeminent red rock of Goblin Valley. Its color comes from small amounts of glauconite, a mineral containing iron that forms in ocean sediments. The presence of glauconite corroborates the notion of an ancient inland sea that covered this area 170 million years ago. Ripples in the rock even suggest parts of this area were once a wave-lapped beach.

Wild Horse Butte shows the four primary rock formations of Goblin Valley: Entrada, Curtis, Summerville and Morrison

Light rock of the Curtis Formation stands in contrast to the Entrada formation just below

Desert scrub and the San Rafael Swell anticline from the Curtis Bench Trail

The Curtis Bench Trail provides a lightly used alternative route into the Goblins

Canyons of quaternary deposits capped by cryptobiotic crusts from the Curtis Bench overlook

Jackrabbit, lizards, and coyote can be found in open desert scrub on the Curtis Bench Trail

The Curtis Formation's light color comes from small amounts of glauconite, a mineral containing iron that forms in ocean sediments

Joint or fracture patterns in the Entrada bed created zones of weakness, with sharp edges and corners seeing greater exposure to erosive forces; asymmetrical erosion produced spherical-shaped goblins through a process called spheroidal weathering

Ledges and potholes are good places to find the faded midget rattlesnake on the Curtis Bench Trail