Arizona + California + Utah : December 2022 - February
2023
Chris had flight test in Yuma for two weeks in December. Chris and Tami
flew out to Phoenix a few days early and spent the weekend in Sedona. They also
visited the South Rim of the Grand Canyon on Sunday. On Monday they drove back to
Phoenix and Tami flew home. Chris drove on to Yuma to start two weeks of flight
testing. On Saturday during flight test, Chris lead a group to the top of Castle
Dome;
this was the sixth time Chris had hiked the
Castle Dome peak. He also drove out
to and hiked the Picacho State Recreation Area slot canyons in California on Sunday. Flight testing was
paused over the Christmas & New Years holiday break, and then restarted in Yuma
in January.
While on vacation after the first two weeks of flight
testing, Chris drove to
the north end of Arizona and spent three days near Page. He entered the
Coyote Buttes North - Wave Daily
Lottery for hiking permits on Monday and Tuesday from the BLM, but
did not
win either day. He hiked several trails and slot canyons near Page,
including into southern Utah in the Grand Staircase - Escalante National
Monument along Cottonwood Canyon Road. He drove back to Phoenix on
Monday, with side-trips to Lee's Ferry, the Vermillion Cliffs, and Sedona, and
flew home on Tuesday. Chris and Tami went into work for a few hours on
Wednesday, and then they drove to Charleston, West Virginia for Christmas.
Chris was test director for another week of flight testing in January, then
the team took a break for two weeks while the next airplane was prepared for
flight. The next series of flight testing started on 30 January 2023 and
continued for three weeks. Chris went on an overnight backpacking trip in
the Superstition Mountains at the end of that flight test before coming home.
Sunday
Monday
Tuesday
Wednesday
Thursday
Friday
Saturday
November - December 2022
27 November Home
28
Work / Home
29
Work / Home
30
Work / Home
1 December Fly Home --> Phoenix
2 Phoenix --> Sedona
Wineries + Elote
3 Sedona
Off-road + Elote
4 Sedona --> Flagstaff --> Grand Canyon --> Sedona
16
Yuma Flight Test
Drive --> Phoenix
Skyline Regional Park, AZ
17 Superstition Mountains Wilderness, AZ
18 Superstition Mountains Wilderness, AZ
CAF Museum
19
Fly --> Home
20
Work / Home
21
Work / Home
22
Work / Home
23
Work / Home
24
Work / Home
25
Home
Thursday - Monday, 1 - 5 December 2022 :
Sedona & Grand Canyon
Tami and Chris flew to Phoenix on Thursday and drove to Sedona on Friday, stopping
at a few wineries in the Verde Valley on the way to their hotel.
They had dinner at the Elote Cafe on Friday and Saturday nights.
They visited the
Honanki Heritage Site Indian Ruins on Saturday.
After a tire flat slowed
them down on Saturday, they went to the Flagstaff Airport on Sunday
morning to trade their rental car for a new vehicle. The weather
was bad in Sedona and Flagstaff on Sunday, so they continued on to the South Rim of
the Grand Canyon on Sunday afternoon, and had dinner at the
El
Tovar Hotel restaurant on Sunday. They spent Sunday afternoon
along the South Rim, and drove on the West Rim out to Hermit's Rest.
The clouds and weather was perfect for photographs, and Chris captured
some of the best photos of the Grand Canyon that he has ever taken.
They returned to Sedona on Sunday night.
On Monday, they
visited around Sedona for a short time in the morning and them drove back to Phoenix. Chris dropped off Tami at the airport to
fly home and he continued on to Yuma. He flew his flying wing in
the
mountains south of Phoenix and in the
Yuma Foothills.
Tuesday - Friday, 6 - 16 December 2022 : Yuma Flight
Test & Castle Dome & Picacho Slot Canyons
Flight testing ran all week, starting before sunrise and ending on most
days at sunset. Chris was able to fly his RC aircraft after work on a few
days, but it was dark early in December, so the evening RC flights
only happened when they finished flight test early in the day.
Chris and his team
were conducting flight testing on Yuma Proving
Grounds for two weeks. Chris suggested a hike up Castle Dome Peak for
Saturday, in the middle of flight testing. Four other people in the flight
test group accepted the invitation, and they headed out in two cars to the
trailhead early on Saturday morning. This was Chris' sixth climb to the top of Castle
Dome, but it was a brand new hike for everyone else. Chris "over-warned"
the hiking conditions so no one would get to the vertical climb or
exposed sections and be surprised. One person told Chris afterwards
it ended up being less severe that he had feared, based on Chris' warnings.
As it turned out (no surprise to Chris), Chris was the slowest hiker of the
group - as the years pass, the mountains get steeper and higher.
The old driving route to the Castle
Dome hiking trailhead that Chris had always taken, past the Castle Dome
Mining Museum, was not open for driving. Chris had
scouted the driving route on Friday evening after work, and found that an alternate road
had been made around the Castle Dome
Mining Museum and Enchanted Cavern
mining claim. The old driving route had continued on through that private land for
many years (dotted red path on the map below), but the museum and mine owners must have decided to block access at some point after 2017,
which is the last time Chris climbed Castle Dome.
The new driving route is a little longer and has some rougher sections, but a high clearance
vehicle can still make it to the Castle Dome hiking trailhead. Moving the road must have decreased the
number of people visiting the museum or mine, as
anyone bound for the Castle Dome hike will no longer be driving past those
locations, but they must have wanted to avoid visitors on their land.
The hike was great, with five people and everyone enjoyed
themselves a lot. Jumping cholla cactus was again an issue, as three of
the hikers
(Chris included) managed to grab, sit on, or touch cholla such that it attached
itself. Note: that hurts! Fortunately, the fact that they were all
engineers meant that Leatherman tools were quickly removed from pockets and were
used to extract the spines from clothing and skin. They even had a
tarantula wrangler among the group; no spiders
were harmed in this hike.
Chris was dead tired on Saturday afternoon after the hike, and just crashed upon
his return to Yuma; he let someone else in the group drive the car back from
the hike into town. On Sunday Chris was recovered enough to go explore the Picacho
State Recreation Area
slot canyons north of Yuma in California. He flew his RC aircraft along the road and the hike to the slot
canyons, and captured some great video and photos of the driving route and slot
canyons.
Flight testing continued for the following week. On Friday the team
packed up the equipment for the Christmas and New Years holidays, but the
equipment remained at the flight line for continued testing in January.
Chris has lots of "use or lose" vacation time to spend by the end of the year,
so after they finished flying, he drove to the north end of Arizona to spend a
few days hiking near Lake Powell. He spent Friday night in Sedona at the
same hotel where he and Tami had stayed two weeks earlier.
Chris hoped that the cold weather would deter other people from outside
activities, so he entered the
Wave Daily Lottery.
The daily lottery is entered two days in advance, so he entered the
lottery on Saturday and Sunday, for hiking permits on Monday and Tuesday. You have to be
within a short distance of Kanab or Page to enter the daily lottery, so he
had to wait until arriving to Page on Saturday to sign up. While waiting
for the daily results, he hiked at locations around Page on Saturday and Sunday.
Chris normally camps in his car while on hiking trips, but due to the cold
weather he spent the weekend nights at two hotels in Page. He visited
Lower Antelope Canyon on Saturday afternoon after driving from Sedona, and
watched sunset from the
Wahweap Overlook on the west side of Lake Powell. This was the second
time that Chris has hiked through Lower Antelope Canyon. He caught the
last tour of the day, which was at 2:45 PM. With sunset early in the day,
the light was not great, but that slot canyon is always beautiful. While
the lighting in winter may not be as nice as the summer light, touring Antelope
Canyon in winter has a great bonus - no crowds. When Chris toured in
summer, it was almost shoulder to shoulder walking through the slot. In
the winter, Chris has no problems taking photo after photo with no one else
visible walking, as there were just not very many people and the guide allowed
everyone to space themselves out well.
Lower Antelope Canyon, Page, Arizona
Navajo Mountain, Arizona
Wahweap Overlook, Glen Canyon National Recreation Area,
Arizona
Chris hiked the
Potato Hill Overlook and
New
Wave trail on Sunday morning. The "New Wave" is a loop trail around
some red rocks; it is not as pretty as White Pocket (or probably the Wave), but
it is very easy to
access. You can see in the second map view below on the right that it is just a short
distance from Glen Canyon Dam on the west side of the Colorado River.
Chris was test director for another week of flight testing in
January, then the team took a break for two weeks while the next airplane was
prepared for flight. Here are some 4K aerial videos shot with Chris'
Hubsan Zino Pro+ quadcopter during the week of 8 - 13 January 2023. This six day
trip, including travel days, had no side trips and was just out to Yuma and back.
Flightline Views of Signal Peak at Sunrise, 10 & 12 Jan 2023
The next series of flight testing started on 30 January 2023
and continued for three weeks. Chris
bought a used DJI Mavic Pro quadcopter just before he left for Arizona. He flew that quadcopter, along
with his Hubsan Zino Pro+ and two other RC aircraft while on this three-week trip.
Chris flew to Phoenix on 29 January and drove to Yuma that afternoon.
Chris visited nearby parks for hiking on the two weekends off. He drove to
Cayumaca Rancho State Park in
California on Saturday, 4 February, where he hiked the Stonewall Peak Trail.
After completing Stonewall Peak, he drove along the Laguna Mountains Sunrise National Scenic Byway before
going through Julian and descending to Borrego Springs and Anza-Borrego Desert State Park. He visited the
Muggins Mountain Wilderness in Arizona on Sunday, 12 February, and hiked the
wilderness loop trail around Muggins Mountain. He flew his RC aircraft on
the weekends and whenever possible after work during the week.
Stonewall Peak, Cayumaca Rancho State Park, California
After flight testing was complete on Thursday, 16 February,
he drove to Phoenix. He stopped on the west side of Phoenix at
Skyline
Regional Park to hike the Turnbuckle Loop Trail at sunset, and then
continued on to Mesa, on the east side of Phoenix. He spent Thursday night at a
hotel there, and then spent Friday and Saturday hiking a 17 mile loop trail in
the
Superstition Mountains Wilderness, starting at the
Dutchman's Trailhead northeast of Apache Junction. He camped Friday
night in the Superstition Mountains, and made it back to his car early on
Saturday afternoon. Chris drove into Mesa and visited the
Arizona Commemorative Air Force Museum at
Falcon Field Airport on late Saturday afternoon, and then drove out along the
Salt River to
Saguaro
Lake as the sun was going down. He went back to Phoenix Airport to
spend the night at a hotel airport, and flew home on Sunday, 19 February.
Skyline Regional Park, Buckeye, Arizona, 16 February 2023
Superstition Mountains, 17 - 18 February 2023
Bull Bass Panorama, Superstition Mountains, 17 February 2023
