Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2010/10/12
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]Adam, Just a beautiful view of nature at its best. Charlie Chan Cheltenham, UK topoxforddoc at btinternet.com www.cancer-surgeon.co.uk www.charlie-chan.co.uk On 12 Oct 2010, at 03:08, Adam Bridge wrote: > I don't write things like this here very often but today was so > amazing I felt I had to share. > > We had an amazing flight today. Even the pre-sunrise drive to the > airport (okay, a somewhat stressful drive since we over-slept by 30 > minutes and had to scurry) was glorious with the Sierra sharply > silhouetted against the pale dawn. > > Leaving Sacramento we climbed out over the Sierra, crossing the > eastern escarpment just north of Tioga Pass, all of Yosemite and > Hetchhetchi layed out before us. Then the town of Lee Vining beside > Mono Lake with the Owens Valley stretching southward, then Death > Valley from the east, the long sun angles really revealed the > landforms: the dunes at Furnace Creek were amazing. Even the descent > into Las Vegas was gorgeous although the horrors of development by > mountain-top removal, was distressing. > > But that was all chicken feed compared to the flight from Las Vegas to > Baltimore. > > We departed to the west, circling the Strip (I think it's mandatory by > the Chamber of Commerce) before heading out over Lake Mead. The new > bridge just south of Hoover Dam has its complete shape. I couldn't > tell if it's open for use, though. We flew the length of Lake Mead > (which is down many feet) and then began to skirt the northern extent > of the Grand Canyon. I have never flown over this territory before and > the variety of land-forms and color was amazing to me. We were clearly > able to pick up the highway from Jacobs Lake (which we nearly flew > over) with its long valleys, and then the eastern-most extent of the > Canyon and then the merely amazing cut of the Colorado from Lees Ferry > through Marble Canyon. > > We even enjoyed the escarpment of Grand Staircase Escalante National > Monument with US 89(alt) running at its base. Fabulous! > > But then I knew we would see Monument Valley - and there it was. I > awoke from my exclaiming to Jan - oh look at that - grabbed my iPhone > and shot a few images. It's different from 35,000' but wow - it's > still impressive. > > <http://adam-bridge.smugmug.com/Landscapes/Monument-Valley-Ariel/14151390_NqvKF#1043966285_LytUz-A-LB> > > You should get both images easily through the links. One was shot in > iPhone "HDR" mode, the other is more conventional. The colors seem > quite true. The light was vivid. > > We also flew over Mexican Hat and the Goosenecks, then the Four > Corners, saw Ship Rock off to the south-east, then (just because) we > got Mesa Verde, Cortez Colorado and then the Rockies themselves that > were in full color with aspen forests mixed in with the pines. > Amazing! > > Clouds then covered up the Midwest until we reached the Appalachians. > The eastern range had good color but it was partially obscured by a > low thin cloud layer. > > As we descended into Baltimore we got a fine tour of the city before > landing at BWI from the north about an hour before sunset. > > A truly amazing flight. > > Best to all! > > Adam > > _______________________________________________ > Leica Users Group. > See http://leica-users.org/mailman/listinfo/lug for more information