Tuesday, August 6, 2013

PartII - travel day: Seattle to Salt Lake City via Boise (day 12)

 Leaving Seattle we saw a 787 outside of the Boeing building


Take off was directly in the direction of Mt. Rainier - on an absolutely clear day.    What a gorgeous view.  Mt. Ranier is 14,411ft. 

Going thru the Cascades Mountain Range.     There is a mountain just past Ranier -  pretty sure it's Mt. Adams at 12,276 ft.  We can see three mountains here, and we are at 11000.  Looked like a flattened mountain between the two (Ranier and Adams) in the distance.  It might be Mt. St. Helen's according to our maps, but our cameras can't get a good photo.




First big valley one hour out if Seattle after the Cascades. This is probably near the town of Yakima.


At this point, we had a tailwind of 4 knots coming over the cascades, but when we turned at Yakima, it became a headwind.  Of 2 knots!  Compared to out western flights, this is nothing. 

The Cascades Valley (Yakima and Benton counties) seem very fertile - lots of farms. 

Then we headed toward Sunnyside, continuing fairly straight toward Boise.  We will pass over the Columbia River near Umatilla, WA - which is where the McNary Locks and Dam are located.  This is east of The Dalles, where we stopped on Saturday, and saw the Dalles Dam.

Gorgeous views of the Columbia River, and a little sneak of the McNary Dam - which was almost directly below us, so very difficult to get a good picture.



Flew over the Wallows-Whitman national forest, which is in both Oregon and Idaho.  Just beautiful.


Once we were over Idaho, we were in Moutain time. We had been in the air just short of two hours when we decided we could go directly to Salt Lake City (11:10am MT).  Without any significant headwinds, and even with some tailwinds, we were doing well and the ride was gorgeous - there was no real need to stop.  We estimated we had about 1.5 hours of travel left to Salt Lake.  So, Rick adjusted our flight plan and got permission to go directly to Ogden, Utah (just north of Salt Lake City) - where we we planning on landing.)  Interestingly, Seattle Center told us we would have to go to 12000, and asked why we were changing our fight plan.  Not a big deal.  Looks like its 12000 because we will be near Castle Peak which is 11,000+ ft high.

And then, we have a great tailwind :  19 knots.  

Great views of the Snake River 


Passing Boise, but can't see it cause it. Is on the other side of the mountains 


Looking down, we saw this very cool cloud below us - long and wispy.  Very pretty.  




Top picute - leaving Idaho.  Bottom picture, entering into Utah - notice Salt Lake in the top left of that picture.


We had some pretty incredible views of Salt Lake from the plane.  I'm not sure what is creating those colors, but it is beautiful  (hopefully we will learn about it on Wednesday).  


Ogden Hinckley airport is 4,473 ft above sea level.  That's almost a mile above !

Got a rental car (they actually had it right next to the plane when we came in), and we headed south to Salt Lake City.  Because we had flown direct (it was 4 hrs total) we had time in the afternoon to tour Salt Lake City.   I walked around the center of the city for a bit.
 
I thought it humerous to travel across the US and see this.  Even Utah loves Boston.




And then Rick and I toured Temple Square   This is the religious center for the LDS (Mormon) religion.  

And the conference center, which seats 21,000 people, and has a waterfall cascading down the south face.  It even has a garden on the roof.
The covered pyramids are skylights that have to be covered when they are televising events and concerts.


We had a lovely tour guide who took our picture on the roof.

Then dinner at Cafe Molise.  Nice Italian meals.










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