Hell's Hole Trail - Capturing Landscapes with the Fuji X100F

I hope you had a wonderful Memorial Day weekend. I did some catchup around the house but my wife and I managed to get out and do a little hike this weekend. We had originally intended to take a drive up to Mt. Evans, since the road opens on the Memorial Day weekend, but we got a late start and by the time we reached Echo Lake there was a line of cars leading up to the pay booth to head up the road. Time to make new plans.

We then turned around and headed back down the mountain and headed toward Silver Plume, a small town I had always wanted to stop in because I've always seen the old victorian houses from Interstate 70. As we were heading down the mountain, I notice a sign for Chicago Lakes campground and since we are always on the look out for new campgrounds, I turned off and headed toward the campground to check it out.  it was a little too crowded for our liking, but we continued down to the end of the road and ended up in the West Chicago Creek area and the Hell's Hole Trailhead.  There was a few spots still open in the lot so we decided to check it out.

We didn't intend to do a long hike that day, but tied a light jacked around our waste and headed out. I just had my Fuji X100F with me that day, which was perfect to head up the trail and capture some of the nature along the trail. I love the X100F since it's small and compact, has a great sensor and the 35mm equivalent focal length is great for allowing you to capture things close up as well as broad landscapes. The built in ND filter also allows you capturing things wide open in bright sunlight. I just seem to be more creative with the X100F, not worrying about what lens I'm going to use and just allowing myself to be creative.

Everything was blooming, from the green leaves on the aspen trees to the wildflowers starting to sprout along the ground. The trail wasn't too crowded, but since we didn't have much time we thought we would just head out a couple of miles and then turn around and come back. The weather was perfect and just gave us a chance to reconnect with nature and enjoy creek flowing nearby and the trees swaying in the light breeze. We get caught up sitting at a desk all week and being surrounded by technology, it's just nice to disconnect and get away.

Here's some images from the trail taken with the Fuji X100F.  Enjoy.

Spring Growth

Spring growth coming up along the forest floor among the dried winter pine cones and pine needles.

Winter Pine Cones

The dried pine cones from winter’s frost.

Shimmering Aspens

Shimmering aspens along the rocky trail.

Through the aspen forest

Trail leading through the forest of aspen trees.

Spot Light

A lone aspen tree highlighted by the ray of sunshine.

Spring leaves

The new green leaves of spring.

Green aspens leaves

Backlit green aspen leaves.

Forest Roots

Tree roots extending out along the trail.

Aspen among the Pines

Aspen Tree among the pines.

Creek Crossing

Timber creek crossing.

Into the Aspens

The trail heads up into the aspen grove.

Dandelions and Lupine

Dandelions and yellow lupine were starting to sprout along the trail.

Tight Rope

One of the timbers was cracked along this creek crossing and forced a little tight rope walking to the other side.

Natures Archs

These aspen trees have arched from the snow and winds of the winter months.

Granite

White granite shows itself on some of these rocks surrounded by the green moss.

Textures

The interesting textures of the moss growing on the rocks along the trail.

Fungal Formations

Fungal formations on the rocks.

Sprouting pine

Some branches of pine trees sprouting out near the bottom of this tree.

Dead Timber

The unique colors and textures of the dead timbers in the forest.

Wired texture

The tangled wiry textures of a dead pine tree.

Yellow Lupine

Yellow Lupine along the forest floor.

Blue reflections

The blue reflection from the sky along a creek crossing.

Yellow Bells

Yellow Bells along the trail.