My long legs prefer aisle seats. However, if the flight might be over an interesting area and the light might be good, I’ll get a window seat. I’ve been fortunate several times to go over amazing sights and even recognize the the areas below. Some have been over national parks I’ve visited. Here are images of those parks from above and below. First, looking at the north rim of the Grand Canyon:
A few years later I was visiting parks along the Arizona-Utah border. I was not planning to go to the Grand Canyon. However, I realized I’d never been to the North Rim of the Canyon, I had finished visiting the area I wanted that day and I could get to the canyon around sunset and the clouds looked promising, so I gave it a shot. I was rewarded with an amazing show.
The flight over the Grand Canyon was heading to Hawaii. We took a trip to the Big Island and the flight back to Oahu showed the peak of Mauna Kea, its observatory, and Mauna Loa steaming in the distance.
That morning we had an amazing hike at Hawaii Volcanos National Park which sits under the clouds in the image above on the shoulder of Mauna Kea. In 1959 Kilauea erupted and filled the crater with lava. You can now hike the Kilauea Iki trail down from the rain forest that sits on the rim and then across that barren, craggy crater which steams as rainwater works its way down to the lava that is still cooling off. Meanwhile Kilauea erupts in the distance.
The return flight to Oahu flew over Pearl Harbor. The perspective that the Japanese attack had is quite stirring. You can see the Arizona Memorial.
A few days before we toured the USS Missouri and the deck where the Japanese surrendered and which now overlooks the USS Arizona Memorial where the war started over four years earlier.
Thanks to John D. Rockefeller who donated much of the land that is now Grand Teton National Park (including his airstrip), the Jackson Hole airport sits in the middle of the park. The flight out provides a great view of the park.
This flight was clear. A couple days before, the view from the ground offered the peak of Grand Teton peaking through the clouds.
That flight out of Jackson Hole to Chicago was mostly over farmland and the Great Plains, but then one thing rose out of the flat land—Devils Tower National Monument.
The view from below is impressive, but the monolith seems to stand out even more impressively when seen from above.
The city of St. George, Utah sits just southwest of Zion National Park. This flight out of St. George went right over the park and a feature called Checkerboard Mesa. If you look carefully, you can see the park road running along the base of the Mesa.
The feature that gives Checkerboard Mesa its name is the striking crosshatched design that cuts the sandstone which is enhanced even more with snow. Hope you enjoyed the flights!
