This is a little out of order in terms of timing, but when I was on my way home to Michigan over Labor Day weekend, I had the coolest flight path back east. My flight from San Jose went to LA, and then cut up across the American west in a northeast direction. We flew over Las Vegas. I saw Lake Mead, I could just barely make out the Hoover Dam. I even saw my field area where I did my masters thesis! I just made out the western portion of the Grand Canyon as we continued on. Then we flew over Zion National Park (I'd recognize those red cliffs anywhere) and over either Cedar Breaks National Monument or Bryce Canyon NP. I think it was the latter but I couldn't tell for sure. We flew over Capital Reef NP and the eastern part of Canyonlands, and I saw Dead Horse Point State Park. I was looking for Arches NP, because I know it was right there, but I didn't see it for sure. I did however find the rock formation that the arches in Arches are made from and got a couple of shots of those. (They form what are called fins, or from up high they hind of look like plates resting in a drying rack. Then eventually the wind wears away the center and an arch is formed.)
After that is got cloudy and I couldn't see much, but isn't that still pretty great? I had a free aerial tour of most of the national parks in Utah, and quite an entertaining flight. My good camera was in the overhead bin, so I took all of these with my iPhone. Enjoy!
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| Morning Clouds over LA |
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| Lake Mead |
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| Zion NP |
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| Bryce Canyon NP or Cedar Breaks NM |
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| Capital Reef NP |
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| Fins belonging to the same formation as rocks in Arches NP |
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| Canyonlands NP |
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| Canyonlands NP |
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| Dead Horse Point State Park |
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| Arches NP is in the background there somewhere! |
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| Maybe part of Colorado NM? |
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| Sunset over Michigan |
