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Tag: mcinnis canyons national conservation area

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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Kodels Canyon Trail SystemKodels Canyon Trail System

Kodels Canyon Trail System

Saturday, January 16, 2016

We were originally planning to drive down to Ouray this morning for the annual Ice Festival, but Diane wasn’t feeling very well when we got up so we stayed home. Instead, I headed out this afternoon to get a little local hiking in at the McInnis Canyons National Conservation Area trails near Fruita. I have hiked a few of the “K” trails near the mouth of Kodels Canyon in the past but had not been on all of them, so I decided to try and check out the rest. I started from the Kodels Canyon Trailhead along the highway and ended up hiking all of the remaining “K” trails that I had not been on before. The length of the hike ended up being just under 5.5 miles. The temperature outside was a little bit above freezing and I was glad that most of the trails were still covered with a layer of packed snow or I probably would have had to deal with hiking in the mud. Much of the day was overcast and a little gloomy but the sun did show up for a little while and brought a little blue sky, too. I didn’t take many photos on this hike because of the overcast conditions, but I did take a few snapshots along the way when the sun was out.

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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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