Las Vegas, Death Valley, Grand Canyon, Monument Valley trip report

Try this Jay!

After my trips back east a hangar neighbor suggested going to the west
coast. Although I had planned a neat trip to Catalina Island,
Yosemite and Sequoia National Parks, I settled on a quickie trip to
Death Valley, Las Vegas and Monument Valley. Rick decided to go with
me. One weather cancellation and we finally departed early on 13
January. I had checked Weathermeister.com and noticed airmets for IFR
and mountain obscuration in the southwest Colorado and Utah areas.
Page AZ was overcast but projected to improve. Las Vegas and Death
Valley were good.

Rick departs from the Denver area and is overhead when I taxi out to
the runway. The trip across the mountains is uneventful but fog in
the Gunnison area would have made a precautionary landing iffy. As we
crossed the Utah border we saw apparent clouds or similar in the
distance that may have gone to the ground. We contact Flight Watch
and got the same info for possible mountain obscuration as revealed by
Weathermeister so it was correct ahead (not over our path in
Colorado). They had no actual weather observations so we headed
south. After a short while I looked at fueling options and without
knowing exactly where we might finally get clear weather in our
desired path, I got this funny feeling that it was not good to
proceed. It does happen at times in other endeavors and usually my
genetic makeup discounts the feeling. This time I acted on it,
discussed it with Rick (he was thinking the same thing) and we both
agreed to turn back and land at Blanding Utah to refuel and check the
weather. In the picture below you will see that turnaround in the
upper right part of the map.

http://home.pcisys.net/~ronlee/RV6A/...egas2Small.jpg

Due to our early departure we did not have visible satellite imagery
of our flight path. It is possible that having XM weather data might
have helped but it also may have just meant a landing at Blanding
without that wasted 100 plus mile diversion to the south. If someone
knows of a website of historical weather pics that might help in post
trip analysis.

On the ground in Blanding we decided to head west since the weather
appeared to be marginal well into Arizona. Once airborne it was
obvious that the situation had improved enough to safely continue.
The following picture shows Lake Powell and the clouds that were
closer to the gound earlier. In fact Navajo Mountain (beteeen
Monument valley and Page, AZ) was obscured on its eastern and possibly
southern faces so that area was IFR.

http://home.pcisys.net/~ronlee/RV6A/...owellSmall.jpg

This picture shows Rick as we approached the Lake Powell area.
Somewhere on the way out Rick noted the importance of Oxygen to fly
high. The terrain is not conducive to nice off-field landings and
some areas have few roads. Cell phone coverage is probably
non-existant which is why I carry a 406 MHz PLB and when flying alone
use flight following.

http://home.pcisys.net/~ronlee/RV6A/...owellSmall.jpg

As we approached Nevada we picked up flight following before
contacting Las Vegas approach. We flew almost over Henderson
Executive (KHND) so Rick could see and photograph Las Vegas to the
north. We continued west over two more mountain ranges to get to
Death Valley. The next picture is of the Badwater area which I think
is the lowest in the USA.

http://home.pcisys.net/~ronlee/RV6A/...BasinSmall.jpg

This is my trusted airplane on the ramp at Furnace Creek (L06) at an
altitude of -216 feet MSL.

http://home.pcisys.net/~ronlee/RV6A/...kRampSmall.jpg

The trip back to Henderson was uneventful except that I made a mistake
talking to approach control. The guy I got was not helpful and only
leads me to blow off contacting ATC to contribute to safe and orderly
traffic flow. In fact, if I have to do it again in that area...maybe
everywhere...I will just fly according to all approved and accepted
VFR rules and not talk to ATC. It may have the effect of causing
airliners to divert around me but when ATC wants to be rude and
unhelpful to a GA pilot, I will quit playing nice.

Vegas was Vegas. It is not going to be a frequent repeat destination.
Part two discusses the return trip
We took a taxi back to Henderson around 8 AM since the first free
shuttle would not arrive until 1030 AM which would have been
problematic for sunlight at home. Our plan was to cross the Grand
Canyon, fly up Marble Canyon, fly to Monument Valley then refuel at
Cortez, CO.

This picture is of the region a bit southwest of our canyon crossing:

http://home.pcisys.net/~ronlee/RV6A/...nyon1Small.jpg

This is me approaching the south rim of the Grand Canyon:

http://home.pcisys.net/~ronlee/RV6A/...anyonSmall.jpg

Here is Rick over Marble Canyon:

http://home.pcisys.net/~ronlee/RV6A/...anyonSmall.jpg

Here are the mittens in Monument Valley:

http://home.pcisys.net/~ronlee/RV6A/...ttensSmall.jpg

Finally here are the mountains to the left as we cross Wolf Creek
Pass:

http://home.pcisys.net/~ronlee/RV6A/...kPassSmall.jpg

The rest of the trip home was also uneventful. According to Rick we
traveled about 1600 miles and over eleven hours of flying. Rick has
now been to the highest and lowest airports in the continental US and
may now be motivated to get his oxygen system installed.

Ron Lee