The Abandoned Homes of HellHole Canyon are the Devils Den
“You don’t want to go down that road there” she advised us as we rolled down our window of the truck, “the guy down there has a shotgun and you’ll find yourselves in trouble”. “You best stick to the main roads”. When we inquired about the “abandoned and derelict” homes that we had read about in Hidden San Diego, she claimed to have “never heard of any such place” even though we suspected it was less than a mile away and she appeared to be a long-time local.
30 minutes later we were heading up Calle De Encinas Ct when we rolled down our window to ask a couple walking by about this mysterious old commune that we heard was in the area. We asked if there were “Abandoned Homes” in the area one of them quickly spoke up, “Oh No. You haven’t heard? That was a big scam. There are no abandoned homes. Whatever you read on the internet or the San Diego Reader was a lie”.
We ended up leaving Calle De Encinas Ct against our own hunches and drove all the way to HellHole Canyon Preserve thinking that was the best trail to start our exploration. The Rangers there had never heard of any such place at all.
I certainly was getting more intrigued by the minute. Whatever was around here, the locals really didn’t want us exploring the area but these were public trails so we were determined to keep up our search.
What the Hell is HellHole?
You can read the whole story of the Bloody Massacre of HellHole Canyon right here, but as legend has it HellHole got its name in 1870. Maria Sutter, a woman of German descent, who lived on Paradise Mountain, reportedly gave Hell Hole its name when she looked down from her home at the top of the mountain and said of the canyon below, “It’s good for nothing, and in the summer it’s hot as you know where!”
HellHole is not a particular canyon, rather it is a geographic location and its hot. Hot as Hell in the summer as far as I can tell from everything I had read about it.
HellHole is located in Valley Center, east of Escondido. If you’re going to venture out there, you best do it in the winter like we did when it was actually quite pleasant and spring like. The people there like their privacy and they move there to get away from the city as far as I can tell.
HellHole Canyon is actually a pretty nice place to hike and explore but its very hot in the summer.
We Had Read Reports of Abandoned Homes from an Old Hippy Commune
We were originally intrigued by Hellhole because of this article that appeared in one of my favorite blogs called Hidden San Diego and you can read the post here. These guys search all the coolest places for you to explore in San Diego and this one was at the top of the list in terms of being remote and kind of unknown. Its an extremely useful site for local San Diegan’s looking to explore off the beaten path locations. In any case, we were on the hunt to find these abandoned homes.
Finally, We Locate a Promising TrailHead That We Believed Would Lead There
After about an hour of hunting around, we eventually located what we believed to be the trailhead. It looked like the pictures we had seen of the location. The Trail starts off the very dead end of Calle De Encinas Ct We were on the trail and I was making detailed notes and taking pictures every step of the way in case we needed to back trace later.
The trail was a bit confusing at first and you could get lost but there were lots of random markers that lead us to believe we were on the right track.
We also used our iPhones to keep gravitating towards the place where google maps showed the old broken down homes.
After 1.2 Miles Walking We Arrive at a Beautiful Oasis
After about 30 minutes of walking we finally came upon it. We saw broken down shacks and trailers homes sitting in a shady meadow with a creek running right through it. I guess what was most surprising was the tranquil setting and the fact it was calm and quiet. I could see why a hippie commune might have setup in this place. It seemed quiet pleasant.
The tranquil view you come upon as you locate the homes.
An old motor home is stuck in a ditch, it never made it into the commune.
We could have stayed here for hours enjoying the beautiful area
A Devils Den
Upon closure exploration however all didn’t seem quite right with this place. Retracing through the commune things looked a bit more sinister. Did the devil find work for idle hands here in the middle of this HellHole oasis ? Take for example the first abandoned graffiti-scrawled abandoned shack we found – it appeared to be a meth lab of some sort.
This is the first derelict property you will notice as you enter the compound.
Inside we found old chemical compound jugs, a bathtub, gloves, gas mask and yellow protective suits. This was Walter White Season 1 Breaking Bad stuff.
I’ve seen enough Breaking Bad episodes to know that Gas Mask are used in the cooking process.
And this is the bath tub that they used to decompose bodies probably. Notice the yellow overalls, there were about 5 pairs in this shack.
Old Trashed Homes, Trailers, and A Devils Heap of Oddities
Surely this place had been occupied by a fairly large group. There were lots of homes and judging from some of the furnishings left out, I would have to imagine that these homes hadn’t been occupied for at least 10 years. They’ve been sitting out here in the middle of nowhere slowly rotting like an old Ghost Town.
There was an electric pole down here. All the wires have been pulled out.
The place is strewn with trash, and lots of old washers. An inordinate number of old washers in this commune.
Obviously there must have been young babies here.
Remember that radio missing out of your old Ford Escort back in 1989? I think we found it. You can pick it up if you want it back
The Hills Have Eyes
When you come to The Devils Den in Hellhole you get that creepy feeling that you are being watched. I am not sure if we were but it sure felt like we were never really alone. At one point not far from us we heard a pack of wild Coyotes start screaming. It sounded a little too close for comfort. I grabbed a stick for protection which I carried for the rest of the trip.
We got that creepy feeling we were being watched. Every so often we would hear a branch or leaves rustle off in the distance.
The oddities here were sometimes mesmerizing, sometimes alarming
What happened here? Why did everyone leave so suddenly?
Most of the old homes and trailers still had food (mostly cans inside). It is bizarre that people just picked up and walked off. Was this a meth lab that was broken up and people forced to leave? Was there some event that caused people to abandon their homes?
Do people still live here? Were they out for the day and we just happened to be rummaging through their homes?
This place was actually quite dangerous, the broken glass and the floors on most homes could cave in or crack. You have to be careful
This scene reminded me of the movie, Into to The Wild where the guy goes to live off the grid, and later perishes.
There are lots of cans of foods. The rats, raccoons and coyotes have not figured out how to open them up yet.
Why Would Someone Come Here?
I am pretty sure you might be curious why anyone would even want to go here. Well, for starters it’s a cool place to explore while hiking. And also it’s kind of quirky adventure to take for half a day. It’s part of San Diego so I am always looking for cool new places to explore.
Finally I guess it makes a pretty cool backdrop for movies and or photos. It’s not hard to imagine that someone might want to come out here to take pictures like we did. I highly doubt this place will still be accessible in a few years. Someone will put a fence up or block access or maybe they just won’t want people coming down here.
In any case, its open today and there are absolutely no signs anywhere that this is private property or the public is not allowed so it doesn’t seem like you would be breaking any laws.
If you want to see the full gallery of pictures you can see it here – Devils Den HellHole Canyon.
The Incredibly Stupid Froot Loop Project
It seemed like a good idea at the time. Get a box of Froot Loops and spell out the word “Froot Loops” with Froot Loops. You see they just released a study which found that each and every froot loop is the same flavor no matter what the color is. I feel like I was somehow cheated as a child since I always imagined the great fruit I was eating every time I ate these things, practically every morning.
Believe it or not, this took a bit of time to spell it out. And then there it is. Wow. look at that in my living room. I think I am going to leave it there for awhile.
Froot Loops are still great. By the way, up until this article, I always thought it was Fruit Loops. Nope they are called Froot Loops. Scammed again.
Exposure Narratives – Why Slowing Down is The Next Trend in Photography
I like Instagram. I use Instagram sometimes. Instagram is easy ; you take a photo, you put a filter on it, caption it and post it. And maybe that is precisely the problem with it. It’s so easy that it can lure people in sharing too many photos.
Too many photos with the same filters applied to them making all the photos look too familiar. Everything is so fast and so easy that the photos start to look cool but they lack context and don’t tell a story. If you combine that with the fact that a photos merit is based on the number of likes it receives it can all get a bit exhausting and non-fulfilling.
Slow Down, Tell a Story
2013 was the year that I discovered the art of slowing down. I took less pictures. I took time to compose my pictures and I carefully started selecting the pictures that I shared. I used to take tons of pictures with little thought. Now I focused on taking only the best pictures.
Most importantly I started purposely taking pictures with the intent of making the pictures tell a story. I started using my photography blog to tell stories of life around me, wherever I was.
The result of all of this was that I was happier with my work and I think others were too. More people started to look at my pictures, read my stories and have an emotional connection with what I was presenting.
Introducing Exposure
I discovered a new photography service in December 2013 called Exposure, here is their site- Exposure . Exposure’s site had a single purpose that they communicate – Exposure is for photographers who want a more meaningful and effortless way to publish their work — in the context of a narrative, instead of a feed or single photo on a permalink page.
As I paged through the site it instantly resonated with me. They offered an effortless way to create photo narratives or blogs with your pictures. What made it all the more compelling was what your story would look like after you were complete – absolutely, stunningly beautiful.
I was so excited about the service that I published my first story while I was on a business trip in Cincinnati. It took me about 10 minutes to create this – A Walk in the Park.
This was my first narrative. I was able to do this on a hotel wifi in 10 minutes. It blew me away how simple it was.
My Favorite Things about Exposure
I have 5 things I love about this service.
Beautiful Full page photos – This site uses full frame photos that cover the entire space of the browser, regardless of their screen resolution. You can’t really find a blog template that allows you to showcase your photos like that.
The Simplicity – This site is drop dead simple. But every single element of its simplicity was carefully thought through. Everything from the font choices, to line spacing to the simple large navigation. I can tell they painstakingly have designed this to maintain it’s beauty with each new feature.
No Focus on Likes – Like farming gets so annoying and is one of the big problems with sites like 500px. The focus moves away from picture quality to user interaction with each other. People that interact and like other photos get their photos like. That is exhausting and takes away from the experience of the photos. Exposure was careful to make a “like” totally non-intrusive and secondary to the whole process. They have a simple “Enjoy” button that users can click if they liked it. This is completely refreshing.
Drag, Drop and Write – There is no formatting needed at all on this site. You drag and drop photos, you write text. If you have a blog you know how wonderful that sounds. Even wordpress sites which are extraordinarily simple have not mastered what Exposure has done on their site.
The Profile – Exposure builds a a profile for you and all of your narratives are kept in the same place. The narratives are presented as large photos with a text overlay – by far one of the coolest and most intriguing ways to present your stories. You can check out my profile here – FrankieFoto on Exposure
Slowing Down is the next trend in Photography
I had initially entitled this post – Exposure, The Antidote for Instagram. Maybe I read that somewhere or maybe its what I feel. But I think Exposure has developed something that enables the next trend in photography – slowing down.
People are simply getting tired of posting photo after photo without a sense of fulfillment. It’s a general fatigue I think. Exposure offers a unique antidote to that. Getting 100 like votes on 500px is a nice little affirmation but the feeling generally subsides quite quickly.
Telling a story with your pictures and presenting it in a beautiful way is something that can last many years. By telling a story with your pictures you convey an emotion and a feeling – that can last forever. Slowing down, taking less pictures and presenting those pictures as beautifully as possible with a story – now that is sorely needed.
Exposure has found a formula that works that makes this possible to just about everyone. They made it simple enough so you don’t need any programming skills but they made it beautiful enough to make it appear that you are an accomplished designer. So cool.
Beautiful Shots at Sunset
Some beautiful shots of the La Jolla Surf Shack tonight. Gorgeous sunset tonight. Gotta Love it.
White Out WindanSea
Heavy surge of the seas around WindanSea this weekend. It was churning up the water and the surf was amazing. It was a packed beach today.
Fuji’s New Instant $169 Vintage Camera for the Kiddy Kiddies is the Best One Yet
If you don’t have an instant camera, I think you need one. And I’m saying that for one reason- Facebook. Many people spend a lot of time putting their family memories on Facebook and that might not be the best idea.
If you think Facebook will be where we all go in 15 years to look at the pictures we take today, think again. Remember Friendster? Remember Myspace? Just try to go to those sites today to access your profiles. You can’t. They’re gone. And Facebook won’t be there either in 15 years. Judging from the hyperspace-like speed that Facebook is killing itself you may not even be going there in 2 years if I was to guess.
Instant Cameras are Fun
Instant cameras are fun, but lets face it they are not nearly as convenient as your smart phone and they are kind of expensive. I get a lot of questions from my friends and family about which camera to buy. So I am always trying out new cameras to see which ones are cool.
I’ve tried a lot of the old vintage Polaroids and I have tried out Polaroids Zink cameras and Fuji’s Instax cameras. Beyond Poloroids Zink cameras which I think suck, the rest are all pretty great. And I could recommend them all. But here is one little camera that is my new favorite.
Introducing the Fuji Neo Classic
This camera is getting rave reviews. I just bought one myself and at $169 it is one of the more affordable and cooler options. It’s the Fuji Neo Classic Instax Camera. Its a very cool little thing and it gets my vote as best little camera for the Kiddy Kiddies. I will give you a few reasons why I really like this camera.
Fuji created a vintage looking and well-constructed instant camera
So why take a serious look at this camera as something to buy for your family? Well here are 5 reasons for you to chew on.
Reason #1 – Because it looks pretty cool
Kids love cool vintage style cameras. Fuji was really smart to take their old Instax cameras and give them an old face lift. The older cameras were brightly colored and very youthful but in my opinion probably were a bit embarrassing for a boy to carry around.
This new camera is cool and actually looks like an old film camera. If you want to teach your kids about photography, having a cool looking camera is a great way to start. The feel of this camera is nice and sturdy too. It doesn’t feel cheap and plastic-like.
The old Instax camera models were highly targeted at the Hello Kitty Crowd.
The film pops out from the side of this camera. If you find that kind of exciting than congratulations you are a photography weirdo.
Reason #2 – Lots of Controls and Functionality that is cool
This camera has lots of bells and whistles that a budding photographer would love. Take for example the ability to take double exposures. Double exposure photography is the process of taking two shots which are combined into a single exposure.
This instant camera has the feature built right in. You can even get tips and tutorials on how to do it right from Instax – Double Exposure Photography.
In addition to double exposure mode, the camera has a party mode with a longer flash, a macro and landscape mode for close-ups and landscapes, a light and dark mode to take more contrasty images.
The Neo Classic has a host of awesome features you won’t find in other instant cameras.
A cool feature of this camera is the double exposure which can create awesome results.
Reason #3 – Excellent Camera for Parties
This is the camera to have on hand for your wedding receptions, kids parties or family get togethers. The camera is simple and rugged enough for anyone to use. I have used these little Instax cameras at parties and the most fun I have with it is giving people the pictures that we take with it. I have been surprised to see many of the pictures I have given other people hanging on their refrigerators or sitting on the desk. The gift of a photo is made extraordinarily easy with this awesome little camera.
Reason #4 – Cool Film, Cool Borders
Instax film is not as cool as Polaroid or Impossible Film but it is a heck of a lot cheaper. I typically look for deals on the Instax Film which I almost always find online. If you buy the film at a camera store it will probably cost you about $1 an exposure. If you buy it online you can get it for about 50 cents. When you find it, load up on it. It will generally keep for about 12-18 months from when you purchase it. Make sure if you buy it online to check the expiration date. Like buying milk at the store always go to the back and choose the film with the expiration date furthest away.
Instax has cool multi-colored borders to give your instant photos a different look.
Reason #5 – Tripod Mount and Timer Feature
One last, awesome thing about this Instant Camera is the fact that it has a timer feature and a Tripod Mount. That isn’t something that has typically been available on other instant cameras and I actually find it rare on many Polaroids. Being able to screw the camera onto a tripod with timer means you can set it up at a party and take group pictures – Now that is cool.
The Fuji Neo Classic runs $200 but I found that BH Photo and several other places have been running specials on it for about $169. Check it out and thanks for reading.
Do you love Polaroid Photography? Check out some of my other post on the subject. The Polaroid Project, 5 Reasons you Need an Instant Camera, The Best Polaroid Camera Ever.