Photo Gallery One - Fall Trip Part 1

Our first night on the road was spent in Grain Valley, MO, a suburb of Kansas. We were up early the next morning with a goal of flying over the two stadiums on I-70 in Kansas City. We had tried to before but the wind was terrible. This morning, it was gray and cloudy but no rain...yet. We found a parking area overlooking the complex of the two fields: Kauffman Stadium (1-1) where the KC Royals play, and GEHA Field (1-2) where the KC Chiefs play. All us old football fans know GEHA as Arrowhead Stadium, but the name has now changed. Just as John got the drone back, it started to drizzle...whew!

Next night stop was Dillon, CO. It's a lovely little ski town with a very nice lake and marina and a cool sculpture called Big Baldy (1-3). We drove around the area some but had little time so we moved on to Grand Junction to see my brother. He and his wife took us to Palisade to see vineyards on a dark and stormy day, but we did get to fly before the sky opened. Grande River Vineyard (1-4) was lovely and they let us fly over. The next day we drove up to Little Book Cliffs WSA and hiked a little (1-5). It is rugged and has a very nice shooting range at the front entrance!

On the way out of town, we always drive thru the Colorado National Monument (1-6 and 1-7) looking for Bighorn Sheep. Last time, we saw one on the last turn out of the park. This time, we saw a couple of groups starting with this Lady Bighorn (1-8) at the first stop we made. There were a few small groups but as we were about to enter the last tunnel out of the park, I spotted 3 Bighorns (1-9) up along the hill beside the entrance. I pulled over and John got out with his camera and crossed the street. He wasn't more than 15 or 20 feet from the younger male (1-10) who was wanting to get up the hill to the female. Every time he started up, the larger male took a threatening stance (1-11) and the challenger backed down. It was fun to watch and easy to see why they are colored like they are. Talk about blending in!

We moved on to spend the night in Ontario, OR, just north of Boise. The next morning, we went to a little park for sunrise and put up the drone (1-12) at a boat ramp. The sign said this was at a mile marker of about 363 along the Snake River. The sky wasn't all that dramatic but the reflection in the water was really nice! We flew a very pretty farm scene near our son's house in Sublimity, OR (1-13) and had a great visit with the Fam there.

When we left Sublimity, we headed for Ketchum, Idaho. We had been there once MANY years ago and loved the area. We spent a little time on the road to Sun Valley Ski Resort. There is a memorial to Ernest Hemingway (1-14) overlooking a lovely golf course. He apparently loved the trees in the fall. We also found his tomb in a little cemetery in Ketchum. The sun wasn't all the way over the mountains as we came across this wetland (1-15) area. The light on the far hillside is reflected so perfectly in the ponds that it looks like it is IN the water! The colorful willow just made the scene for me. We ended up eating lunch at a place called Warfield Distillery and Brewery (1-16). It has a rooftop eating area, and we figured out that we had eaten at this place all those many years ago, though it was a different name back then. We did a little flying south of Ketchum (1-17) at some old bridges, then more flying (1-18) north of Ketchum on the way to Stanley, ID. That will be our next stop...