Day 3 - Lake Powell and Horseshoe Bend

Looking back, I'd say Lake Mead and Lake Powell are in the top 5 best days of the entire trip. That's mostly because I was doing exactly what the A5 is meant to do. There were plenty of other great flying experiences, but the days on the water really do stand out.

The water takeoff from Lake Powell was interesting because I had a guy on a waverunner who saw me land, cruised over nearby and was sort of hanging around. I started to take off and you can see him racing along next to me in the video from the wing camera. The high temperature and choppy water made it feel like forever before I finally lifted off and climbed away from him.

After a little more splashing around I decided to call it a day and head back to the airport. Even though it was still early, the convection was building up quickly, so I decided not to try and get to Marble Canyon. If this had been later in the trip I might've gone. I definitely built up a lot more confidence as I logged more hours and dealt with different weather. But, three days into the trip I was still taking baby steps.

Horseshoe Bend was kind of interesting. I didn't have a car, so I had to take a taxi. It wasn't too far and the taxi driver said they do it all the time so no big deal. I didn't realize it was such a tourist attraction, but there were a TON of people there. Several tour buses in the parking lot dumping hundreds of people. 

It's a short, but not insignificant walk to the overlook area and it was mid-afternoon hot. I was worried some of my fellow trekkers weren't going to make it.

Once I got to the overlook I had to stand at one area of the railing and wait for other people to move out of the way before I was able to get a clean shot of Horseshoe Bend. I walked around for a few minutes trying to get away from the crowd and check out the rest of the view. I really like the desert landscape. It's a different kind of beauty from the green woods that I'd be flying towards over the next few days.

After about 20 minutes I went back to the parking lot and called the taxi again.

Dinner was at a Mexican restaurant, El Tapatio. I haven't been doing a lot of research to find the BEST restaurants at my various stops. I prefer to just wander around and choose something that catches my eye. It's a risk, but usually works out OK. I'm also not very picky.

One question I get asked a lot is how I chose each of my stops. The whole idea started out as a list of places around the country that I thought would be interesting to fly the A5 and also some places around the country where I have friends to visit.

It sort of evolved from that into how I could connect them all up into a single trip. If I'd tried to do everything on my list it would've taken many, many months, so I started prioritizing the locations. I also planned to get an early start and fly just a few hours each day. This meant I was flying during the calmer morning hours and gave me time to explore each location in the afternoon.

I also knew I wouldn't be able to take more than a couple months, realistically, so that further narrowed down where to go. That's when I started having to eliminate some destinations in the middle of the country. It was too time-consuming to try and hit all of them. Even narrowing down and taking two months, I could usually only spend an overnight at each location. I did have some places where I scheduled multiple days so I could explore more and also have some buffer in case I got stuck somewhere (foreshadowing), but for the most part I was on the move every day.