If you were to run mapquest to get mileage on a trip from Fresno California to Independence California, the results would yield a driving trip just a hair under 295 miles - at least a 6 hour drive (though mapquest does it in four). Not surprisingly, putting in coordinates on a GPS from the Fresno airport to the Independence airport results in a completely different set of numbers - try a 72 mile trip, less than a 40 minute flight. Though it’s not necessarily news, this makes Keith and I smile. Just a couple glimpse’s of what it looks like at 11,000 ft. over the mid-section of the Kings Canyon Sequoia National Forest.

And I do mean glimpses…just as I was oooohhhing and awwwing at the scenery in the above photos, straight ahead was a view that was somehow so very familiar - just something I had never seen aerially and from this direction. Before me lay my beloved Owens Valley - the deepest valley in North America.

Our time in the valley was cut short - we’d ended up overnighting Thursday night in Fresno to give the mechanics a bit of extra time to complete the required maintenance…..such as a new engine and rotor blades….all pretty important stuff, no need to rush ‘em! Keith was set to start flying tours later that Friday afternoon, so no setting down for any visits. This next picture, where the X marks the spot is where the Manzanar Relocation Camp once stood. And if you look closely - the white spot in the upper left hand corner is the Owens Dry Lake.

From this vantage, if you were to turn your head to the right would be the magnificent view of Mt. Whitney, the tallest mountain in the contiguous United States measuring 14,491′.

Which completes our sightseeing of my old stomping grounds. In the time it takes me to snap a few photos, we begin our climb into the Saline Valley and then over Death Valley. An hour earlier, we’d pushed closed the vents and windows, it was just so dang cold that high up in the mountains - ahhhh how quickly things warm up in the desert.

On our United flight Las Vegas to Fresno, the Captain welcomed us, advised that we would be reaching cruising altitude of 24,000′ and that unfortunately there was not going to be many landmarks to point out, other than we would fly over Death Valley National park. Well, he was not wrong, but at 8,000′ this landscape keeps the ole’ eyeballs busy. My pictures don’t do any justice to the stark contrasts of the barren volcanic landscape shaped by tectonics, alluvial fans and mysterious sand dunes. Morning sun burns the ground, but today there is slight reprieve with mottled harmless puffs of cloud.

Keith tells me I’m spoiled to fly over this part of the country and not have to suffer the normal rough riding turbulence. I smile, yes, yes, I am a pretty lucky girl, no doubt about that

I snapped a few photos of the Vegas urban sprawl, but the one I will post is a close up of just one of the hundreds of zero lot line developments…..pretty much couldn’t pay Keith or I to inhabit one of these places…puhleaze!!!

No disrespect intended to anyone reading this who lives in one of these, no doubt, beautifully decorated homes - but there’s not even room to raise chickens …….no thanks. Here is the space we have - crazy that it’s more than the people living here full time. Ours is the space with the big tree….shading our driveway. We were hoping for a space with a view of Lake Mead, but ya know, sometimes you just can’t have everything -we are happy here.

That about wraps up our 2.5 hour flight, it was a really nice morning