Exploring Southern Utah by Airplane

hatchcanyon

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Joined
May 29, 2013
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136
This is an older story!

We started flying over southeastern Utah in the late 1990ies. It was my wife´s idea to get a better picture about the features and where these are located.

In 2001 we met Tim Martin from LaSal aka "The Flying Cowboy" and had a first flight with him. Inpressive! He knows everything about flying over the area and how to approach points of interest. In 2006 we planned something larger. A flight from Moab Canyonlands Airfield along the Colorado River down to the northern Arizona and back again. Tim calculated between 3 and a half and 4 hours. That sets the price tag.

At first we didn't know that TIm was the guy who flew through a number of arches. As he told us some time later he also said "Don't ask for that, I'll risk my license doing it with paying customers!" We didn't!

Starting at the Canyonlands Airfield we reached the river not far away from Deadhorse Point, followed it more or less down to Page turned around over Coyote Butte flying eastward over the north shore of Lake Powell. At the Dirty Devil River we took a more northern direction to go over Buckacre Point and from there back to Cataract Canyon. Again along the River we returned to the Moab Canyonlands Airfield.

I will not write much text about the flight. The pictures are self-explanatory. Pictures were taken with two cameras, a digital one and an analog one on slide film. Some pics are technically limited (reflections, not always 100% focussed, sometimes shifting colors througt tinted Windows.)

More about flying over Canyon Country: Cross Country Flying written in German. Due to the number of pictures the story will come in several "chapters".

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Tim Martin and his plane - Moab Canyonlands Airfield

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Waiting for the pilot - notice the limited space.

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Determination Towers - sorry something missed!

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Another analog picture

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Bull Canyon System

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Approaching White Rim - so called Airport Tower middle left

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Lathrop and Buck Canyon

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The Loop

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Colorado River - Green River Confluence

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Confluence again

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Canyonlands Maze District: The Doll House

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Waterhole Flat and Gunsight Butte

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UT 95 and Colorado River Bridge near Hite

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North Wash

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White Canyon

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White Canyon

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Glen Canyon

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Castle Butte

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Ticaboo Canyon

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Good Hope Mesa

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Tapestry Wall

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Forgotten Canyon

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Moqui Canyon

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The Rincon

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The Rincon

To be continued.....
 
Very cool. Awesome views. Those are some cool features on top of the rincon. Anyone know if there is a way up there?
 
Chapter 2:

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Hole in the Rock

Nearly half of the way down is now covered by water.

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Reflection Canyon

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North of Navajo Mountain. The trail leading to Rainbow bridge is visible even in the picture is technically mediocre.

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Several views of Rainbow Bridge.

Tim circled three times with the plane.

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Forbidding Canyon

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Navajo Point and Driftwood Canyon

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Teddys Horse Pasture and Dangling Rope Marina

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Propeller killers

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Wetherill Canyon

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Drowned Goosenecks of the Colorado River

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Last Chance Bay

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Dominguez and Padre Buttes

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The Channel - Castle Rock Cutoff is dry and impassable

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Too much window reflechtions - Upper Antelope Canyon

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Glen Canyon Dam

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No hit of Bulls Eye: Horseshoe Bend

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Paria River Canyon

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Vermilion Cliffs

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Marble Canyon

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Approaching Coyote Butte

More to come....
 
Thanks for the pix! We did the same flight with Tim a few years ago. It wasn't until I got home and did some research that I realized he used to fly through arches. It was a great experience.
 
Chapter 3:

Coyote Butte is a very special feature located at the Arizona - Utahb oder Line. One of these where looking down from a plane gives not necessarely the better view - it's a different one.

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Coyote Butte North

This is where the Wave is located. Even if the Wave itself is not easy visible the colorful structures are awesome.

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Buckskin Gulch and Paria River Canyon. Some kind of a slot confluence.

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Nipple Bench north of Big Water

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Stud Horse Point

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Lone Rock and Wahweep Marina

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Wiregrass Canyon. The Cliffs are Called Mustard Cliffs. Must be due to the color.

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Alstrom Point

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Little Alstrom Point

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Gooseneck Point

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Rock Creek

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Dry Rock Creek

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Little Arch Canyon

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Balanced Rock Canyon below Navajo Point

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Reflection Canyon

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Mouth of San Juan River

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Mouth of Llewellyn Gulch (more to the rigt on the left side of the River) and Cottonwood Canyon opposite to Hole in the Rock

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Llewellyn Gulch

More to come....
 
Chapter 4:

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Again Hole in the Rock

On the other side Cottonwood Canyon where the Mormons carried on. The Chute was the next obstacle.

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Escalante River

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Stevens Arch from the South

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Stevens Arch from the North

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East of Stevens Arch

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Stevens Canyon

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Waterpocket Fold

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Moqui Canyon

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Crystal Springs Canyon

Easy to see how much sediments the water contains!

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Forgotten Canyon

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Cedar Canyon

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Ticaboo Canyon

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Castle Butte and Blue Notch Canyon

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Scorup Canyon

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Farley Canyon

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Hite

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Cataract Canyon, mouth of the Dity Devil River and the UT 95 bridge

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Red Benches

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Fiddler Cove Canyon

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Hatch Canyon

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Hatch Canyon and Dirty Devil River

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Hatch Canyon and Gunsight Butte

Tim Martin flew through the right gap so deep that we had cliffs on both sides of the airplane.

To be continued......
 
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