Kodel’s Canyon

I decided to take an easy hike on my first weekend back in western Colorado.  Accompanied by my friend Ari, her labrador mix Who and my mom’s cattle dog Hillary, I took to the desert.  We decided to hike Kodel’s Canyon, a desert canyon adjoining Colorado National Monument where neither of us had been hiking before.  It was a beautiful Friday with sun and only one other hiker with a chocolate lab on the trail.  I saw a mysterious bushy trail retreating quickly from us into the rocks.  It looked like a squirrel was running from us but it’s incredibly rare to see a squirrel in the desert.  Besides that, the hike was uneventful but stunningly beautiful.  Apparently Kodel Canyon was named after a hermit miner who lived and mined in the canyon for at least 30 years.  If you want to hike Kodel’s Canyon, I’d advise looking it up here.