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PART ONE
Some flights you see nothing, and some you see a lot. This one began with not much to see that I had not seen before, but before long I began to realize the trajectory was just a bit different. Before long, I was looking down at a piece of a tributary canyon to the Grand Canyon. As you can tell, I had that MD-80 seat just in front of the air intakes:
I looked for the Colorado River, and soon, along this escarpment called the Echo Cliffs I picked up the Colorado River, with a bridge I had not noticed before. On the maps it is called Navajo Bridge, and the road is Alternate US Highway 89:
Just to the left of the above photo, there is this big bend in the river, and the steep walls to the left are the start of Glen Canyon:
Not long after, Page and the Navajo Power Plant in Hogan, Arizona, and the Glen Canyon dam where the river comes out of Lake Powell, all came into view.
A few seconds later, the Navajo Power Plant was more visible, as was the Colorado trapped behind the Glen Canyon dam, making it into Lake Powell with its thousand miles of spectacular and rugged coastline.
At this point I wished we would veer left a little to allow me to see the Kaiparowits Plateau.
Audrey and I explored that plateau, driving poor dirt roads to gather soil samples for an environmental project. We were supposed to rent a 4-wheel drive vehicle but due to a mishap we instead risked our lives in a giant 1967 Chrysler New Yorker that was so long that going through one river bed both bumpers dug into the ground at the same time, and had I not flown through this spot at a bone-jarring speed and bounced out, we might be there still, two skeletons in an ancient red car. We pulled into Page, Arizona with fuel leaking from the fuel line at an alarming rate, the smell of gasoline was very strong, a stray spark would have fried us. We made it to Page with very, very little gas in the tank. What a blessing finally meeting a paved road was! After the fuel line had been repaired the ride home was a dream! Hence my interest in seeing the plateau again, from a safe airplane seat.
Did I get to see any of it? I think so, but it has to wait for the next page of this flight.
Continue on this flight with me (part 2)
Come to Chicago on this flight with me (part 3)
Link to rediscovered photos of the rather harrowing Kaiparowits Plateau trip of 1976
Go to Life in 2005 Yearbook Page