This morning I was given the extreme privilege to ride in the sky with Ranger Mike Nicklaus in his two-person plane from the 1940s. It was beautiful enough to see our park from above, including a lot of areas not visible from ground-level. Near the Teton Science School we saw a herd of buffalo spread about the valley like poppyseeds on some enchanted bagel.
The sky was clear and cold, and for twenty minutes I got to steer us through the open space above Jackson Lake and the surrounding lands. I guess he let me fly over water so if I crashed it wouldn't hurt the plane as much...
"Up up and awaaaay, in my beautiful--my beautiful old plaaaane!"
The feel of drifting through the sky with total control and looking down on a much vaster world than the one you knew on the ground, a fragile-looking place full of tiny things all held up with complete silence--
Long morning shadows
That was the most fun ever. Don't let the age of the plane deter you: she is right as rain.
Many thanks to my benevolent pilot for a consummate first experiment in aviation:
Mike Nicklaus: The Jack Nicklaus of the Sky
CF 7/6
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