This is the 9th day of our flying tour to Utah and Idaho. Before leaving Utah, Tyson wanted to see two more airstrips — Dark Canyon North and South. We overflew Dark Canyon South. It was washed out, but it must have been impressive to land when it was usable. The runway ran straight to […]
To have seen some of everything on our big Utah trip, we still needed to land alongside a big river, hike a slot canyon, and see ancient Pueblo ruins. We could fit all that in one day with a quick landing at Mineral Canyon, then on to Fry Canyon for the day’s hike.
We chose to explore the Copper Miner’s trail into Keg Springs Canyon. It was the shortest route off the plateau, if it existed. We only had vague descriptions to follow from blogs and forum threads.
Three days after we left home, we were finally about to fly into the Utah backcountry. What airstrips would be within Tyson’s and my abilities? Which ones would the airplane be able to do?
Monday morning we plotted a course to Moab — 450 nautical miles over passes through the Colorado Rockies. We should get to Moab that afternoon.
Sunday we crossed the Mississippi River. This was our first day into the unknown. Our route and destination would be defined by how long we could fly and what the weather did to us.
Whether our planning and packing were done or not, Saturday morning it was time to catch the tailwinds and fly west on the first day of our trip to Utah.
Without Idaho guidebooks, we were limited to FAA listed airstrips, trails on open street maps, and beta from the other pilots at Johnson Creek. We found some flying and some hiking.
