This week’s hike needed to fit in some time and distance parameters.
It needed to be close to Manitou, as I had much to do today.
And I was looking for one that would not have as much appeal in the summer as it would as a winter hike.
I came up with a perfect winter hike.
Hogback Trail at Red Rocks Canyon is very open and is usually too hot in the summer, but was perfect for a lovely winter hike.
It has a very boring beginning though, so often times people will decide not to hike there when they pull into its parking area.
Doesn’t really look like an inviting trail for a hike.
But soon the landscape changes and it has great views of the entire Red Rock Canyon Park and Pikes Peak.
This trail connects to Lions Trail that then loops back to Hogback Trail.
Lions Trail gives one a very different perspective of the park than one gets when hiking on the trails below.
We usually hike closer to the large red rock formations and other areas seen below.
So it was interesting to have another perspective and a good view of the layout of the park.
Behind the rock formations, on the top most mountains you can clearly see the blackened, burned hillsides caused by the 2012 Waldo Canyon Fire.
A stark kind of beauty is evolving there.
The weather was pretty perfect in temperature, though once again the promised sunshine eluded us.
And at one point the wind came up and felt pretty wicked, but that didn’t last for very long.
On this hike, I learned something about my new camera that will make it harder to be sure I am getting the photos I want.
I had not realized how much more challenging it is to get a good picture when one doesn’t have a view finder, just the screen on the back.
I will have to see if any adjustments I can do will help with this challenge.
Oddly, when I was on the Sunday walk and taking shots of my masks and estate items on my porch “photo studio”, this didn’t seem to be a problem.
But out on this trail, well, it was more challenging.
Yet it does handle long distance shots much more clearly than my other camera. That made me very happy.
May just have to snap more photos at different angles when I can’t clearly see what I am shooting.
Its a learning curve, and I am sure I can learn how to make it work for me on future hikes.
And I did get some really great images on this hike.