Alltrikes

This year, my flying buddy Paul and I flew the "Grand Circle", a huge loop around the southwest USA that has some of the most spectacular scenery you can imagine.  It was the most gruelling and rewarding multi-day flight I have ever made.

We started at from Belen, NM and headed west, past the Malpais, through Petrified Forest and Painted Desert, to the Meteor Crater, the Little Colorado, the volcanic craters north of Flagstaff, then north to Marble Canyon.   The next day we crossed the Grand Canyon twice, southward in the Zuni Corridor, and returning in the Dragon Corridor.  The next morning it was north over Paria Canyon, past Zion National Park and north to Milford, Utah where high winds pinned us down around noon.  The next day we flew to Ibex Hard Pan, and then east following I-70 through the mountains to Huntington Utah, and down the San Raphael River through the "Little Grand Canyon" and on the Mexican Mountain.   The next morning I discovered first hand how even the slightest layer of frost will degrade the lift on a wing.  BEWARE. 

After a challenging takeoff,  we flew east to the Green River and followed it north, below the rim for 45 minutes before leaving and crossing over the the Colorado River.   We followed the Colorado River north out of Moab, and upstream for a hundreds of miles in reomote Utah to Grand Junction Colorado, where the Colorado in joined by the Gunnision River.   We followed the Gunnison, over the "Black Canyon of the Gunnision", and over the mountains to Saguache, Colorado.  We had to climb to 13,700 ft and cold soak at 20 deg F to cross the mountains before descending to Hooper's Pool near the Great Sand Dunes.  Hooper's Pool, with it's 98 deg main pool and 107 deg F hot soak pool was the perfect spot to camp that night. The next morning, we awoke to 11 deg F temps, and headed south along the Rio Grande over the Taos Gorge and on south through Albuquerque and finally back to our hangar in Belen, NM.

I have hours and hours of video and too many pictures.  I am going to start at the middle of the expedition, at Mexican Mountain, and go forward and backwards in time from there.  I am all done wwith my account of the trip now, probably my best ever.

Here is a map of the trip.    6 days.   35 hrs airtime.  1950 GPS odometer miles.