The View From Above

In a few words... Hot Air Balloons are AWESOME. Try it. You will like it. Guaranteed. 'Nuf said.

 Our hot air balloon ready to go in the South Park Valley in Colorado.

 Some of our high flying company. I think our basket held 12 people.

Inside the envelope of our balloon.

The whole basket crew, minus our balloon pilot (who looked a lot like Mike Rowe from Dirty Jobs).

 This is the view from about 2000 feet above the ground. There are dirt roads and cul de sacs mapped across the whole valley and only a handful of houses. There was a Japanese company that went there in  the 70's with big plans for developing the area. They made and named the roads and then realized there was no water anywhere. So this is what was left. The houses that are in the valley must rely on solar power and if they are lucky they find some water on their land, if not they have to bring water in from town. Talk about living "off the grid".

 Being surrounded by mountains on all sides was amazing and the view was beautiful. The mountains were still a bit hazy from all of the wild fires near Colorado Springs.

While there was nothing but desolation and a Bison farm and "compound" directly below us, we were COMPLETELY surrounded by mountains. It was beyond cool. Our pilot pointed out all of the Fourteeners to us.