Devil's Canyon
In the McInnis Canyons National Conservation Area
Immediately west of the Colorado National Monument, sandwiched between it and the Utah State Line, is an area of no-man’s-land that was set aside as a “National Conservation Area” only a few years ago. It is at the very northwest tip of the cigar-shaped Uncompahgre Uplift and is worthless for growing anything or even for running sheep. So no one homesteaded there, and the BLM [Bureau of Land Management of the federal government] owns all of it.
It’s a big place, and the Devil’s Canyon trail was the only part of it that I ever explored. There are many, many more trails. Part of it has been designated as Wilderness by the US Congress, and in that portion you can only hike or ride a horse.
It’s a wonderful place where dogs are allowed off-leash as long as no mountain sheep are visible, and the dogs absolutely love the place. I’ve never seen so many happy dogs in my life.
This post combines photos from three hikes to Devil’s Canyon taken over a span of two weeks. Here’s the view of the canyon, off in the distance, from near the trailhead:
A little farther along, and you cross over the wash coming out of the canyon on a picturesque little bridge, and begin going up the wash:
The rock here is almost exclusively Entrada sandstone, and if there’s anything the Entrada is famous for, it’s hoodoos. There is a fine one right next to the trail:
Here’s another hoodoo, across the canyon:
Hoodoos are formed in sandstone when a layer that is tougher than the layers below it partially shields the lower layers from erosion. The cap rock erodes slowly while wind etc. eat away at the lower layers. They are all over the place on the Colorado Plateau because the top member of the Entrada Formation is tougher than the ones below it.
As one proceeds up toward the canyon, the sandstone walls get thicker. Some of them have interesting features carved into them:
It was somewhere near this place, on one of my three trips, that I set up for the first of three photospheres. Since Substack can’t show photospheres, here’s a link to it on another web site:
Photosphere #1, Devil's Canyon trail
As you scroll around, you can see the first hoodoo in the shots above.
To be continued
As to the bridge, I don’t remember why I didn’t shoot it.
The hoodoos seem alive, as if they have individual personalities. But that can't be for some rock formation, can it?