Seemingly keeping with the Utah approach of naming everything the same (Utah Lake, Utah Valley, Utah County), Provo Canyon is just east of the city of Provo, with the Provo River running through it.
The 28 mile drive through the Wasatch Mountains east of Provo takes you through Provo Canyon.
Not far into the canyon is Bridal Veil Falls, which cascades over 600 feet down the mountain in 2 drops.
The river is crossed by numerous bridges serving the hiking/biking path, but fortunately this was not the one we had to use.
The fall colors had begun on this late September day.
U.S. Highway 189 makes it’s way up the canyon, including this cool little double tunnel.
At the east end of the canyon in Deep Creek Reservoir.
We chose to take the Alpine Loop road up the mountain past Sundance Ski Resort. Overall a nice scenic drive for a couple of hours.
The Glen Canyon Dam was completed along the Colorado River in 1966, creating Lake Powell. The lake can hold as much as 25 million acre feet of water, but is currently only at 27%. The photos of that shortage are dramatic.
At 710′ high, it is the 4th tallest dam in the United States.
A look down river at the canyon.
The rock formations around the canyon have some of the distinctive swirls.
Once you cross the bridge you get some dramatic views of the dam, bridge and lake. For those unfamiliar the ‘bathtub ring’ indicates the high water marks.
The Vermillion Cliffs are an eroded escarpment across far northern Arizona, rising as high as 3000′ above the nearby valley. It provides a very scenic drive from the Grand Canyon North Rim to Page, Arizona.
The Glen Canyon National Recreation Area is at an area where the cliffs meet the Colorado River in Marble Canyon.
In the 1800s this area was known as Lee’s Ferry, with some historic structures situated along the river.
Many rafting trips depart from here and head down river.
Back at Marble Canyon is the Navajo Bridge, the last crossing of the Colorado River downriver for almost 300 miles (until you reach the Hoover Dam near Las Vegas).
There is an impressive view of the canyon from the bridge.
A bit further up the road, just before reaching Page, is the famed Horseshoe Bend. While impressive, it is not in my opinion as impressive as Gooseneck State Park in Utah (visited earlier in this trip).
While we have been to the Grand Canyon a few times we had never been to the hard to get North Rim. There is a saying, go to the South Rim first, because when you go to the North Rim you will never go back to the South Rim!
That saying is true – similar fantastic views with (literally) 10% of the people. Nice and quiet.
There are minimal amenities, but that is ok, there is a place to eat and sleep (if you are lucky – which we were).
There are more views of the side canyons and they connect to the main canyon, adding interesting views.
The view from Point Imperial.
Cape Royal views.
The views of Angel’s Window.
More Cape Royal views.
Sunset from the North Rim Lodge and Bright Angel Point.
The Palouse Hills area of eastern Washington is unique in that they were created over tens of thousands of years from wind blown dust called loess. This land turned out to be very fertile for the growing of wheat and barley, and the hills are covered with these fields.
Near the crossroads town of Washtucna is an old bus that, much like Cadillac Ranch, people come along and paint it, over and over again.
Palouse Falls is a 200′ high waterfalls situated in a 377′ deep canyon, shaped like a huge bowl. It is very impressive.
The overlook has a large number of marmot’s.
Birds seemed to like to ride the updrafts from the falls.
Just down the road (and river) is the confluence of the Snake and Palouse rivers at Lyons Ferry. There is an impressive road bridge crossing the Snake.
Just down river is the more impressive rail bridge, which we had the good fortunate of catching a long freight train crossing.
The Palouse Hills is a very scenic area far from any large cities.
Day 3 found us in the western end of Colorado, leaving the town of Cortez in the early morning light. Our primary destination was the Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park, but our route there took us past Telluride.
Colorado Highway 145 took us out of Cortez, and past the town of Dolores, along the Dolores River as it made it’s way up the canyon. The green hills and fields was a dramatic change from the deserts of Monument Valley, just a hundred miles or so behind us.
As we neared the summit of Lizard Head’s Pass, we went through the small town of Rico
The mountains become more dramatic the nearer we got to Telluride.
As we made the turn to go up the valley to Telluride we passed a field of deer.
Telluride is a very exclusive ski community (don’t even ask how much real estate costs in town). They have far less development than other famous ski towns in the west (Aspen, Vail, Jackson Hole), and they like it that way.
After a brief visit we continued on our way, passing more scenic valleys.
After another hour or so we reached the Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park, near Montrose, Colorado. It is so named because of the steep walls of the canyon prevent sunlight all but 33 minutes of the day in the steepest part.
The Painted Wall is over 2200′ of sheer cliff, the highest in Colorado. The Black Canyon of the Gunnison, while not a large park, is impressive.
With the acquisition of a high clearance vehicle it was time to hit one of the ‘off pavement’ routes I have been looking forward to, Montezuma Canyon Road through Coronado Pass.
This route took us past Parker Canyon Lake and up to the pass, with an extensive view of the San Pedro River valley and the multi billion dollar boondoggle fence. This route was 24 miles of dirt and gravel road up over the mountain pass, resulting in the dustiest car I have ever had (which of course I forgot to take a photo of before washing)
One of the more interesting features is the riparian desert features of the San Pedro River. Retaining water year round (a bit), you are instantly in a wooded area with huge trees, literally next to the dry grasslands.
The day ended with a beautiful ‘Blood Moon’ lunar eclipse.
Todays Drone Tour starts out along the Ohio River at Portsmouth. The first view shows the flood wall covered in murals (later posting revisiting the murals).
The sun was just rising in the east, giving the U.S. Grant Bridge and the Ohio River some interesting lighting.
The Carl Perkins Bridge across the Ohio River, where the Scioto River enters.
The hills in Kentucky with the clouds reflected in the river.
Spartan Stadium was home to the NFL’s Portsmouth Spartans from 1928 until 1933, when the NFL had teams in relatively small cities. The Spartans moved to Detroit and live on to this day as the Detroit Lions.
An overview of the city of Portsmouth. The town has for decades lost population, dropping from a high of 43,000 in 1930 to the current population of 20,000.
The view east
Norfolk Southern Railroad has a large yard along the river in east Portsmouth.
Lake White State Park near Waverly.
The next stop was the city of Chillicothe. This view is of a large paper mill.
The same neighborhood has this large grain elevator. Unfortunately at this time the rain came and the drone became grounded.
Portsmouth easily has one of the best collection of murals in the country. They have taken a massive, ugly concrete flood wall and created almost 1/2 mile of murals celebrating the towns history.
The drone view give an idea of how large they are – this is just a small portion.
The theme of the walls was 2000 years of history in 2000 feet of flood walls. They were created by a team lead by Robert Dafford, a famed mural painter.
Most sections of the wall are 40′ wide x 20′ high. Some, such as the view of Portsmouth in 1903, take up multiple sections.
Some aren’t even on the flood wall, including this mural on the side of the local Kroger Grocery store.
The floodwall not only runs along the river but in places goes inland. One of the inland sections celebrates sports, including the ‘Tour of the Scioto River Valley’, an annual bicycling event that goes the 100 miles from Columbus to Portsmouth, then back.
Another section of the inland wall includes a tribute to the local labor unions.
Another includes Portsmouth’s rich baseball history.
The original U.S Grant bridge is featured on this panel.
For a short time there was an amusement park located in Portsmouth, but it was badly damaged in the 1913 flood.
The shoe industry was one of the major employers in Portsmouth.
Streetcars provided transportation from the late 1800s until 1939.
Government Square was the center of the city in the early 1900s.
The murals are done with fantastic depth.
One of the original NFL teams, the Portsmouth Spartans.
Portsmouth has had a few devastating floods, including 1937.
Chillicothe Street has always been the main commercial street in town.
Industry in Portsmouth.
A close up of the detail of the right panel for industry.
A 3 panel education mural shows various periods.
Situated in southernmost Ohio, the railroads have always been an important part of Portsmouth’s industry.
The Portsmouth Motorcycle Club is the oldest in the world, having been founded in 1893. Obviously it had to be founded as a bicycle club first since the first motorcycle was not invented until 1898.
It was known as the Portsmouth Cycling Club from 1893 until 1913.
This western view would be the actual view if the flood wall was not in the way.
Much like the European settlers later, the Native Americans utilized trails that went through the area. One originated on Lake Erie near Sandusky and went south along the Scioto River to Portsmouth.
The original village was known as Alexandria, but was abandoned due to frequent flooding.
The first European settlers arrived in larger numbers in the early 1800s.
The completion of the Ohio and Erie Canal was a boom to the area.
Built in 1901 this rail station served both Norfolk and Western as well as the Baltimore and Ohio Railroads. It was used until 1931 when an art deco station was completed.
A close up of the Chillicothe Street mural.
The Riverfront in 1903.
The Portsmouth Murals are one of the most impressive art installations in Ohio – well worth a trip.
Part 2 of the Drone Views of Central focus more on structures.
Up first is the Perkins Observatory near the city of Delaware, Ohio. Completed in the 1920s it once had the 3rd largest telescope in the world, but they discovered Ohio’s cloudy weather, and light pollution from Columbus made it impractical.
The Delaware tour continues with the football stadium for the small college called Ohio Wesleyan. It too dates from the 1920s – with the claim to fame that all 9000 seats are between the 15 yard lines.
The Delaware County Fairgrounds is home to one of the largest harness races in the country with the Little Brown Jug. The race will occur this year, without spectators.
Somewhat of a continuation of the posting from earlier this year of Columbus Sports Venues is this birds eye view of a few of them, starting with the vacant and partially torn down former Cooper baseball stadium.
From above it is easy to see the outline of the field. The stands continued around the first base side – but were torn down years ago.
Not far away is the new stadium, Huntington Park.
The Ohio State Fairgrounds is home to Mapre Stadium – the Columbus Crew soccer stadium.
The new stadium is under construction just down the street from Huntington Park.
All over town you see ‘brown field in fills’, taking either vacant in town property or tearing down existing structures to build new apartments and condos.
Another brown field redevelopment near Grandview Heights.
Even suburban Dublin, Ohio has gotten into this, with this large new area called Bridge Park replacing a car dealership and shopping center.
A park in Dublin is home to Chief Leatherlips, who was a renown leader of the local Wyandot. This interesting sculpture of him goes down the side of a hill.
O’Saughnessy Dam and Bridge – This is one of my favorite of the recent drone photos.
In this part of Ohio we grow plastic houses in our fields.
The confluence of the Scioto and Olentangy Rivers. Clearly low water season.
From Bicentennial Park. The building on the left of the river is Center of Science and Industry (AKA – COSI).
The drone does provide some nice views of the bridges and buildings.
German Village is one of the most interesting neighborhoods in town – but tough to shoot with the drone because of all of the trees.
I will recreate later in fall after the leaves drop.
We end up in suburbia – with the distant view of the skyline of downtown along the horizon.
RDZ Photography 