One-way Distance: 0.75 miles
Difficulty: Easy
Elevation: 4523 - 4711 feet
Cellphone: 3-5 bars
Time: 30 mins.
Trailhead: Devil's Canyon
Fee: none
Attractions: Handy connector
The K10 trail is located in the Kodel's Canyon Area of the McInnis Canyons National Conservation Area near Grand Junction and Fruita, Colorado. The trail begins at the Devil's Canyon trailhead where it travels around the hill just to the south and through a small valley that it climbs through to get to the K8 trail where it comes to an end. Many people use the K10 to access the other trails in the area and avoid the heavier used D1 trail. A popular loop hike that travels around the hill is to follow the K10 to the K8 then down to the D1 and back to the trailhead.
The K10 trail begins right behind the restroom at the trailhead. The official start of the trail is actually not for another quarter mile.
From the trailhead the easy to hike trail heads around the east side of the hill.
The trail enters the mouth of the valley between the two hills and at the 0.29 mile point the trail officially begins.
Once in the small valley Devil's Canyon can be seen in the distant.
The valley narrows as the trail progresses and the elevation gradually increases.
We spotted this female collared lizard thats belly looked flat as though it had been run over. That wasn't the case though but we wondered if she had just laid a clutch of eggs somewhere and was looking all the thinner for it.
The trail gets steeper as it climbs out of the south end of the valley.
At the 0.68 mile point the K10 trail is met by the upper end of the K6 trail.
And right at the 3/4 mile point the K10 meets up with the K8 trail and comes to an end.
On the day that we hiked the K10 trail for this post the area around the K10 and K8 trail junction was all awash in orange and yellow sundrops. Sundrops are a member of the evening primrose family. The big difference with sundrops from other members of the evening primrose family is that they bloom during the daytime. One of the nice things about hiking during the spring and early summer months, when people are anxious to get out and hit the trails, is all of the colorful wildflowers that are waiting to greet them. The K10 trail has a good assortment of wildflowers to enjoy. If you would like to see it for yourself then all you have to do is 'Take a hike'.
