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Tag: devils canyon

Colorado National Monument Western LoopColorado National Monument Western Loop

Colorado National Monument Western Loop

Colorado National Monument Traverse III
Sunday, March 20, 2016

After our overnight hike along the Black Ridge Loop in the Colorado National Monument last year Diane had mentioned to me that she enjoyed the hike up the Fruita Dugway and wanted to hike it again, so this year I planned a different loop that included the Fruita Dugway, Black Ridge Trail, CCC Trail and then returned down Monument Canyon. It would make a nice 13.5 mile loop on the western side of the Monument. We dropped my Jeep off at the Lower Monument Canyon Trailhead shortly before sunrise and then drove over to the Fruita Dugway Trailhead and started climbing the trail as the sun was coming up for the day. The Fruita Dugway is probably one of my favorite and often overlooked trails in the Colorado National Monument.

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Devil’s Canyon FinaleDevil's Canyon Finale

Devil’s Canyon Finale

Saturday, January 23, 2016

Late this morning Diane and I headed back to the mouth of Devil’s Canyon just outside of Fruita so I could finish hiking a few of the trail segments that I had not been on before. We ended up making a big loop that was about 6.5 miles in length with a stop at a nice overlook into Devil’s Canyon. While most of the trails were still snow-covered, especially higher and on the north side of the cliffs, there were other sections that had melted off entirely. Early in our hike those sections were frozen, but on our way back to the trailhead we encountered a few muddy areas that had started melting in the sun and the above-freezing temperature.

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Devil’s Canyon Trails IIDevil’s Canyon Trails II

Devil’s Canyon Trails II

Sunday, December 20, 2015

Since I haven’t been travelling much lately (and I hope to fix that next weekend with a Christmas weekend trip to Moab), I have been trying to get out to hike more of the local trails we have here in the Grand Valley the past couple of weeks. This morning Diane and I headed back to the Devil’s Canyon trail system in the McInnis Canyons National Conservation Area and hiked another five mile loop. Here are a couple of pictures I snapped along the way.

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Devil’s Canyon FrontcountryDevil's Canyon Frontcountry

Devil’s Canyon Frontcountry

Thanksgiving | Thursday, November 26, 2015

For Thanksgiving Diane and I had originally planned to hike a seven mile loop through Devil’s Canyon in the morning. However, since Diane had forgotten her rain jacket at home and there were rain and snow storms scattered throughout the valley, we decided to just stick to the frontcountry trails near the mouth of Devil’s Canyon in case we needed to make a quick retreat back to my Jeep at the trailhead. We would encounter a few snowstorms throughout the morning, but they didn’t get us very wet. Since the clouds and light were looking pretty nice this morning we headed over to the Cowboy Hat Tower first so I could get a few photos of this geologic feature.

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