Helicoptering over the Grand Canyon

Well, the plan worked perfectly. A quick drive from Vegas over to Williams, Arizona, and then North 50 miles to the South Rim portion of Grand Canyon National Park. I climbed on a helicopter at the national park airport:

We soared out over the Kaibab National Forest and out over the rim. By the way, anyone who thinks we don't have a lot of trees--or a lot of space--in this country should take this ride.

The flight is a difficult experience to describe in words, but a video clip does it all. It is during moments like these when one envies the eagles, who do this in silence and solitude, and do it every day.

On the other hand, you have to eat rodents. Oh, well....

Flying around in a noisy, throbbing bubble over scenery like this is a privilege. Given my health history recently, I don't take this or anything else for granted. That just makes it all the richer.

I hope everyone I know can do this flight. It is profound and thrilling !

By helicopter over the Grand Canyon

I almost hate to put up this post, because it will push my December great white shark trip down the page. Oh, well.
On January 13, 2010,  I made the four-hour drive over to the Grand Canyon and hopped on a helicopter.

It is a fabulous ride, eight thousand feet above the Colorado River.

Even though I have been at the North Rim and at Havasupai, the view from the air reinforces the colossal size of the Canyon.

It is Winter, of course, so the crest of the canyon walls and the surrounding Kaibab National Forest are brushed with snow.

I hope to do the flight again later in the Spring, with the hot colors of a brighter Sun. Still photos only suggest what it's like up there, so let's try some videos.

That gives you the idea! That is early in the flight, circling out over the Colorado. A little later, I pointed the video camera out the pilot's window across the immensity of the canyon. Pictures and videos struggle to do more than suggest the vast size of these formations.

The special contribution of Winter is snow in the upper reaches of the canyon. The snow betrays no tracks, accenting the remoteness and the impenetrable nature of these formations.

Well over a century ago, local Indian tribes would not tell the European explorers that there were safe ways to cross the Grand Canyon. The Spanish and other stried for years and finally gave up, declaring the Grand Canyon 'worthless.'  In this century, we now know better.

Okay--now scroll down the page and enjoy those sharks!!

Oh, and did I forget to mention...?

,,,that today was the day for my Red Baron impression? It was a great day for flying around Sedona, so I did a helicopter tour of the entire perimeter of the huge valley.

I shot thirty clips of video, which I'll edit when I have time at home. Video catches the experience better than stills, but these will do for now.

We flew near some ancient Indian dwellings, several hundred years old, preserved in the shadows of that dark ledge in the center. The Indians chose safe, defensible sites like that one; they could see any threat approaching from their high vantage point.

Then we flew up and down several of the immense canyons on the northwestern side of town. Fay, Boynton and other canyons are favorite venues for the hikers.

Wherever we flew, the scenery was awesome in scale and breathtaking in its rich color.

Oh--and I mustn't forget sunset last evening, when I photographed Cathedral Rocks from a little place where the water catches the reflection. For scale, my guardian angels thoughtfully provided a photographer and his model in the center of the picture--who blessedly stood still in most of my HDR sets. Nice props to show how big the scene really is...