Flying over The Dells, WI

We took a short breather from our Oshkosh labors by visiting The Dells. It was easy and relaxing flying.

The Black Hills of South Dakota

The Black Hills are home of Mt. Rushmore, Crazy Horse, and Custer State Park.

Crazy Horse Monument in the Black Hills, SD

Mt. Rushmore in the Black Hills, SD

Because Mt. Rushmore is a national monument we had to keep our distance.

Devil's Tower National Monument, WY

Devil's Tower is just outside of the Black Hills. You can't visit one without visiting the other.

Devil's Tower country, WY

Cody Wyoming country

The mountains just west of Cody are the spectacular east wall of Yellowstone National Park. Here we experienced some of our most spectacular flying.

Cody, WY

The mountain terrain around Cody is as varied as it is beautiful.

Cody Canyon, WY

We don't know the official name for this spectacular canyon but it this seemed like a good name to us. The floor of the canyon is 2500-3000 feet below the rim and we are at 10,300 MSL.

10,300 MSL over Cody Canyon, WY

Grangeville, ID

Grangeville is on a plateau and is surrounded by deep, rugged canyons -- mountains in relief.

Beth off my wing

Beth is off my left wing in this flight over the Grangeville canyons.

Salmon River, Grangeville, ID

Two of the deeper canyons form the flow-way for the Salmon and Snake Rivers.

Beth below

Beth is 500' below skimming the valley floor (actually she is still 1000' AGL).

Rugged beauty, Grangeville, ID

Overlooking the mountains south of Grangeville, ID

Southwestern Idaho

Idaho is rich in its diverse terrain making it a flyer's paradise -- at least in the summer :-).

Snake River near Wilder, ID

Beth getting ready to take a family member up

Beth and passenger winging away

... and returning to earth

Beth flying to Mt. Rainier, WA

Beth and our son Jeremy are heading to Mt. Ranier 40 miles away.

Mt. Saint Helens, WA

This and the following pictures of Mt. Saint Helens were taken mid-Sep before the lava dome in the crater began to give signs of another impending eruption.

North face of Mt. Saint Helens, WA

Here you can clearly see the lava dome off my right wing about 3 miles away.

North face Mt. Saint Helens, WA

Another shot of the Saint Helen's crater and lava dome, this time from 2 miles away.

Spirit Lake, WA

This is the lake below the north face of St. Helen's that was displaced in the massive landslide when St. Helen's blew. You can still see the logs washed into the lake in the upper left.

Bryce Canyon National Park, UT

Believe it or not, not everything looks better from the air. In this case Bryce was actually more spectacular from the ground. Even so this is remarkable countryside from the air.

Lake Powell, AZ/UT

This is a triker's paradise. Exotic beauty and tons of shoreline to explore. Much of Lake Powell can really only be appreciated by air.

Lake Powell, AZ/UT

Beth on her way to Rainbow Bridge National Monument via the Lake Powell shoreline.

Rainbow Bridge, AZ

Rainbow Bridge is the largest natural bridge in the world. This bridge is over 250 feet across and over 100 feet high -- big enough that we could have easily flown through it if we were that stupid.

Tower Butte, AZ

Tower Butte is one of the most popular aviation landmarks in the Lake Powell / Page, AZ area. It is 10 miles from the Page airport.

Horseshoe Bend, AZ

It is easy to see how Horseshoe Bend got its name. It is a fold in Glenn Canyon that is over 500 feet deep. As you can see here it doesn't go down gradually.

Horseshoe Bend Panarama

This is a shot of Horseshoe from the south rim.

South of Horseshoe Bend

Here is another fold of Glenn Canyon a few miles further south.

Last Flight

On our way back to Page, AZ on our last flight of our trip west Beth took this picture of Terri as he passed by the Navajo Power plant. He is actually a mile away from the plant but it looks like he is right on top of it.