Over Canyonlands 4 October 2014

Flying over Canyonlands

Saturday morning we hustled through a Jailhouse Cafe breakfast and out to Moab airport for our scheduled overflight of Canyonlands. Perfect flying weather, and I was excited for Sienna to get this bird's eye view of her beloved destination.

After checking in with a typical Moabite (immigrated from 'back east' for the outdoor life, a part-time agent for Redtail who conducts adventure tourism trips down the lower Colorado in winter) we clambered into our single-engine, high-wing aircraft, Sienna in the right-hand seat, and away we went into the crisp, cool, morning air.

Our Green River float would pass through winding Stillwater Canyon from put-in at Mineral Bottom to take-out at Spanish Bottom – a bottom is a flat area once inundated by river. Here (at left) is the confluence, where the Green (vanishing into the background) meets the larger, longer Colorado. Spanish Bottom is three miles down the Colorado (to the left).

I was rivetted to the window trying to memorize the windings and likely camps along the Green, and hence didn't take many pictures where I soon expected to be at river level.

The rest of the day involved getting ready for the river – a visit to The Geezer for beef and the world's best jerky, ice, wash clothes, eat gelato, visit the health food store, watch the Homecoming Parade down Main Street – we packed our bags and were even fairly early to bed.