Home

10%

The Dry Run

An October return to the American Southwest

By Steven Yan

October 16^th, 2018

a return to tradition

Every year, Cec and I down tools, load up the car and the pup, and hit the open road. What began as an experiment to see if Cec even liked camping has since become tradition. After canceling our 2017 trip at the last minute, the yearning for new trails was even stronger this year.

Every October since 1972, hundreds of balloons take flight for nine days over the New Mexican desert at the Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta; it's the largest hot air balloon festival in the world. It seemed fitting to serve tradition with tradition. We decided we would be there this year.

This year I also discovered that Google Maps can't handle more than 10 destinations in a single map. I'd say these road trips are trending in the right direction.

wide open spaces

With fresh legs and hot coffee, we left early in the morning and made the 10 hour drive south to Twentynine Palms. Autumn is a popular time in the desert. We came up empty after spending two dark hours visiting every single campsite at Joshua Tree National Park but found a spectacular flat of BLM land just north of the park. Neska knew just what to do with all of that space the next morning.

Neska knew exactly what to do when she saw open desert.

JOSHUA TREES AND CHOLLA CACTI

Joshua trees and fuzzy-looking but dangerous cholla cacti dotted the landscape for hundreds of miles as our first days took us through Joshua Tree National Park and Kofa National Wildlife Refuge. I stepped on a cholla cactus and spent 30 minutes removing the spines from my shoe with needle nose pliers.

Palm Canyon sits at the end of a seven mile gravel road within Kofa National Wildlife Refuge. Some of the few native palms in Arizona grow along the canyon walls. We found peace and quiet within an endless field of cholla cacti. The fine spines of the chollas glow in the evening light and we saw our best sunsets of the trip here.

Glowing cholla cacti. Dangerous but beautiful!

white on white

Stormy skies threatened rain on Highway 10-E to Tucson -- weather is always a factor in the desert when traveling on the edge of winter. We decided to press on to White Sands and witnessed a pretty epic sunset over the white gypsum dunes. White Sands National Monument has blue skies and sunshine 330 days out of the year. The other 35 days don't seem so bad either.

Ascending in Albuquerque

After a morning of navigating some scenic side roads through Alamagordo and Carrizozo, we finally arrived in Albuquerque. There's probably more eloquent ways to describe it, but I'll just say this: the Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta is a big f*cking deal. The festival attracts nearly 1 million visitors over nine days. It brings in over $100 million to the local economy. Hundreds of balloonists attend from around the world, including Brazil, Japan, and Germany. The festival creates its own morning traffic jam as tens of thousands of people clamor to get onto the launch field by sunrise. The highway overpasses on I-15 through Albuquerque sport balloon-related designs. There is a permanent hot air balloon museum at the end of the launch field. News helicopters report daily on the festival. Even the cashiers at Whole Foods talk about the morning's launch.

Each morning of the festival, hundreds of balloons ascend into cotton candy New Mexican skies as part of Mass Ascension. Dawn patrol launches around 6 AM to help other pilots read the wind currents at various altitudes. If all looks good, the launch director flies a green flag in the middle of the field and the launch field comes alive as hundreds of teams inflate their balloons for launch. The magical part is that there are no boundaries -- spectators are allowed right onto the field to experience Mass Ascension up close. I got chills the first time I saw it.

Confirmed. Your propane burner is working.

Looks like chaos but there is order to it all.

"Zebras" are volunteers who help coordinate a smooth and orderly launch

All the good things in one place. Not pictured: the stand where I got a chicharron green chile burrito. #yas

Box Weather

Perfect flying weather is known as the Albuquerque Box. Since a hot air balloon can only control its altitude, the Box is a set of air currents blowing in opposite directions at different altitudes that allow a skilled balloonist to take off and land at the same spot. We flew with the Special Shapes Rodeo on Thursday and our pilot, Steve, was able to use these currents to circumnavigate the field and give us a bird's eye view of Mass Ascension. He also took us for low flyby over the Rio Grande and skimmed the top of the river with the basket.

A few facts about our balloon. Our balloon was 275,000 cubic feet. For comparison, the Goodyear blimp is about 200,000 cubic feet. The balloon can haul up to 6000 lbs. Our basket held 13 people, weighed 1200 lbs, and the fabric of the balloon itself is 800 lbs.

There are three burners available to heat the balloon, and they each burn a gallon of propane a minute. We had 90 gallons of propane on board, it took 13 gallons to get off the ground, and after our 90 minute flight we had 15 gallons remaining.

View of the launch field from our balloon

A view of Mass Ascension as we're flying over the Rio Grande

Downtown Albuquerque in the morning light

Selfie! The propane burners keep the basket pretty toasty.

Steve, our pilot. He's from Maine and has 20+ years of flying experience. We were in good hands.

Hot air ballooning was invented in France. By tradition, a balloonist carries two bottles of champagne -- one to celebrate a successful flight, and the other for whomever owns the property where the balloon lands. Our pilot, Steve, taught us the Balloonist's Prayer:

The winds have welcomed you with softness. The sun has blessed you with its warm hands. We have flown so high and so well that God has joined you in laughter and set you gently back into the loving arms of mother earth.

After navigating around the launch field for 45 minutes, we floated on the prevailing winds to the southwest of Albuquerque. Every balloon has a chase vehicle that follows it to its landing spot and is in constant communication with the pilot. These landing spots can be anywhere, such as a commercial parking lot, or in our case, a residential neighborhood.

The light started out pretty flat, but we got these awesome cloud breaks.

The sheets of what look like rain are virga -- evaporating rain that doesn't hit the ground

I'd be a little nervous trying to hit this park, but I'm not an expert balloonist

We landed about a 20 minute drive away from the launch field.

The pilot opens the top of the balloon to begin the deflation process

Our hardworking ground support crew packed up 800 lbs worth of balloon. Though we landed in a pretty rocky area, the fabric is pretty tough.

SPECIAL SHAPES

Every Thursday and Friday, the Special Shapes Rodeo flies, where dozens of colorful and funny shaped balloons fly with the normal Mass Ascension balloons. We got to see this both from the air and from the launch field.

My favorite balloon. Christ the Redeemer.

Valley Hopping

After one final morning of Mass Ascension, it was time to leave the chilly New Mexican desert behind and head west again. We would spend a few nights at Valley of the Gods before heading home through Monument Valley and Death Valley. Road trip after road trip we find ourselves drawn to this scenic part of the country.

The approach to Monument Valley and Valley of the Gods

With the Gods

Valley of the Gods was my favorite campsite. None of the crowds of Monument Valley, with golden mornings, epic lunch views, and clear moonless nights. Neska got some sun.

The riverbeds were dry but still bursting with color due to recent rains

Korean BBQ and epic lunch views, yes please

The Milky Way sets early this time of year -- this was around 8 PM.

"I'm pretty tired. I think i'll go home now."

Moody mitten mornings at Monument Valley, along with every Instagram influencer trying to capture that famous perspective from the east entrance.

"you can check out anytime you like...but you can never leave."

Finally, Death Valley. It was our first time coming here, and the sheer scale of this place caught us off guard. We felt like we had to drive forever to escape the valley, exacerbated by our rush to get home the same day. As a photographer, this place was the hardest to figure out. I'll have to come back.