Sightseeing from 30,000 Feet - April 22, 2008 - Part 12 - Green River, Utah

Another bad photo. Sorry.

This is not the city of Green River--which is 56 miles to the south--but the river itself. This stretch is south of Roosevelt (36 miles) and flows into Desolation Canyon, the deepest canyon in Utah and a popular area for white-water rafting. The distant mountains on the left are called, coincidentally, the Roan Peaks (see previous entry). On the right is Flat Top Mountain.


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This concludes our tour.

Sightseeing from 30,000 Feet - April 22, 2008 - Part 11 - Roan Plateau, Colorado

I was intrigued by how the land here gradually rises up to the south, ending in steep gulches and dropping down to the Colorado River. (The gulches remind me of Alpine canyons, just like you'd see in the Swiss Alps, except they're a lot dryer. Which is why they're called gulches.)

It took a bit of research on the internet before I found out the rise is called the Roan Plateau. I also found out it's the site of a dispute over whether the BLM should allow oil and gas drilling. And from the looks of things, they went ahead and allowed it, because those cleared spots in the photo contain drilling rigs and industrial buildings.

The big gulch on the left, leading down to the Colorado River Valley, is Parachute Creek Canyon; the one to the right of it is the Roan Creek Valley. As for the...gulch?...valley?...in the center of the photo, I looked and looked and couldn't find a name for it. Every gulch that branches off from it has a name, but not the thing itself. I know that Piceance Creek runs through it, so it might be called Piceance Creek Basin, but I also know that the bigger basin that contains Roan Plateau is called Piceance Basin, so I don't know, and perhaps I never will.

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Sightseeing from 30,000 Feet - April 22, 2008 - Part 10 - Grand Mesa, Colorado

What caught my eye here was the big snow-covered mesa, which is called Grand Mesa. To the right of the mesa is Grand Junction. The canyon in the foreground is Parachute Creek Canyon. Coming into the picture from the left is the Colorado River Valley, with, appropriately, the Colorado River running through it, and, alongside the river, I-70. The valley beyond that, just in front of Grand Mesa, is the Plateau Valley.


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Photos:

Grand Mesa

Grand Junction

Sightseeing from 30,000 Feet - April 22, 2008 - Part 9 - Dillon Lake, Colorado

The frozen reservoir in the center of the picture is Dillon Lake, named after the town of Dillon, which had to be moved when the dam was built in 1963. The lake is the largest water storage facility in the Denver water system. Dillon is a "suburb" of Silverthorne, the largest town in the county (Summit County).

The mountains in the foreground are the Vasquez Mountains. At the top of the valley in the foreground is St. Louis Peak and to the right is Byers Peak, at the center of the Byers Peak Wilderness Area. I don't know the name of the valley, but St. Louis Creek runs through it, so maybe it's St. Louis Valley.

The ski area to the left is Keystone Resort. To the right is Copper Mountain. Breckenridge is beyond the reservoir.

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Photos:

Dillon Lake

Silverthorne

Sightseeing from 30,000 Feet - April 22, 2008 - Part 8 - Pikes Peak, Colorado

Pikes Peak is the snow-capped mountain in the background. It was named after Zebulon Pike, an early explorer of the area. Although 29th among Colorado's highest peaks, it's the most accessible, with several easy ways to reach the top, including a road and a cog railway. Once a year it's the scene of an automobile and motorcycle race called the Pikes Peak International Hill Climb. And, according to Wikipedia, the view from Pikes Peak was the inspiration for the song "America the Beautiful."

Right in front of Pikes Peak is Colorado Springs, best known as the home of the the United States Air Force Academy.

Also in this view, though I don't know exactly where they are, are the Peaceful Valley Scout Ranch and a former Titan nuclear missile silo, near the town of Elizabeth.

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Photos:

Pike's Peak

Colorado Springs

Elizabeth

Sightseeing from 30,000 Feet - April 22, 2008 - Part 7 - Cheyenne Bottoms, Kansas

Another bad photo, but, again, the landmark is easy to pick out.

Cheyenne Bottoms is a state wildlife management area (and a stop for migrating whooping cranes) between Claflin, Great Bend, and Hoisington (which calls itself the "Gateway to Cheyenne Bottoms"). Hoisington was featured in a segment on "This American Life," which talked about the night a tornado hit during the prom and the prom-goers didn't know it.

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Photos:

Cheyenne Bottoms

Hoisington

Sightseeing from 30,000 Feet - April 22, 2008 - Part 6 - Kanopolis Lake, Kansas

Okay. Yes. I know the photo is horrible. The camera focused on the specks on the window instead of the distant landscape outside. But the lake is a recognizable shape, and I didn't have any problems finding it in Google Earth.

The lake is between Salina and Ellsworth. On the south end of the lake is Kanopolis Lake State Park, the first state park in Kansas, established in 1955.

Nearby Salina was the site, in 2005, of the takeoff and landing of Steve Fossett's record-breaking solo, non-stop flight around the world.

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Sightseeing from 30,000 Feet - April 22, 2008 - Part 5 - Watts Bar Nuclear Plant, Tennessee

The Watts Bar Nuclear Plant, on the Tennessee River, is run by the Tennessee Valley Authority. It apparently took a really long time to build: construction began in 1973, and it didn't go on line until 1993. The town on the opposite bank, behind the plume of steam, is Forest Grove (though there doesn't seem to be much of a town there).


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Sightseeing from 30,000 Feet - April 22, 2008 - Part 4 - Tellico Lake, Tennessee

This lake was formed when the Tellico Dam was built in the 1970's on the Little Tennessee River. The dam almost wasn't built, because of a small endangered fish called the snail darter. A lawsuit brought against the Tennessee Valley Authority to save the fish went all the way to the Supreme Court. The dam was finished only because congress exempted it from the Endangered Species Act in 1979.

The lake inundated the site of Tuskegee, a Cherokee village that was the reputed birthplace of Sequoyah, inventor of the Cherokee alphabet.

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Photos:

Tellico Lake

Sightseeing from 30,000 Feet - April 22, 2008 - Part 3 - Maryville, Tennessee

What caught my eye was the rows of buildings in the foreground; they're part of a smelting plant owned and operated by Alcoa (it's actually located in the city of Alcoa, right next door). Maryville is where Sam Houston spent his youth. It's also the birthplace of Melanie Hutsell, one of the most annoying cast members of Saturday Night Live, although she did a good Jan Brady.

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Photos:

Maryville

Sightseeing from 30,000 Feet - April 22, 2008 - Part 2 - Wears Valley, Tennessee

Wears Valley is west of Pigeon Forge. It saw its first white settlers in the 1790's, and was the scene of conflicts between the settlers and the Cherokee. That curved line along the hillside in the lower right is a line of cabins, called--I think--The Havens at Hedgewood, part of The Preserve Resort. Beyond the valley is the northern border of Great Smoky Mountains National Park.

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Photos:

Wears Valley

Great Smoky Mountains National Park

Sightseeing from 30,000 Feet - April 22, 2008 - Part 1 - Weaverville, North Carolina

From the first Sightseeing from 30,000 Feet:

Whenever we fly, I'm compelled to look out the window and try to figure out where we are. If I could, I'd stay in constant contact with the cockpit so they could ID for me every landmark we pass, but that's not possible; and I found out I can't use my GPS receiver on the plane--so I have to settle for taking pictures out the window, guessing our general vicinity on a road atlas, and then when I get home trying to find the landmarks on Google Earth.

It's actually a fun way to do it, with all the detective work involved, and when I can't find something for a long time and then suddenly there it is, what a feeling of accomplishment I get.

So here is Part 1 of the second official chapter of Sightseeing from 30,000 Feet.



The town where the two roads converge is Weaverville, where O Henry used to spend some time. To the right is the French Broad River, so named because it was broad and flowed into French territory (as opposed to the English Broad River, which flowed into English territory). In the background, at the left, is Asheville. Here it is in Google Earth:


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Photos (courtesy of flickr):
Weaverville
French Broad River