Hawaii - Part 1 - In the Air

Thursday, 14 September 2017

We started our trip to Hawaii with a long day of flights from Roanoke to Washington-Dulles to San Francisco to Honolulu. When I have a window seat, I can’t refrain from taking way too many pictures. Usually they are more interesting in the live moment than as photos, but flying over the western U.S. showed many fascinating sights - both natural and man-made. It was also interesting to see from above much of the same territory we drove through two weeks earlier.

Irrigated fields in western Kansas or eastern Colorado. (It’s difficult to place from the air!)

Fall colors in western Colorado.

Black Canyon of the Gunnison.

Texas Gulf Potash near Canyonlands National Park, Utah.

Looking into Canyonlands National Park. The Texas Gulf Potash facility can be seen in the lower right.

Green River north of Canyonlands National Park.

Basin-and-range geography in Nevada.

The Crescent Dunes Solar Energy Project near Tonopah, Nevada.

Chemetall Foote Corporation near Silver Peak, Nevada.

Nevada-California. That might be Mt Whitney in the background.

The Sierra Nevada. Yosemite National Park is probably in there somewhere.

I think this is the (in?)famous Hetch Hetchy Reservoir -- the major source of water for San Francisco and the site of one of the first environmental battles over water and preservation.

I have no idea what makes these bright primary-colored fields/ponds at the far south end of San Francisco Bay.
Mystery solved with the help of Atlas Obscura -- salt ponds. Read the full story on Atlas Obscura.

Directly across the bay are these lightly-hued field/ponds.

The highly artificial-looking Foster City on San Francisco Bay.

About 2300 miles from San Francisco, the first signs of the Hawaiian Islands are the clouds hanging over them.

The Disney Resort on the west side of Oahu.