Kelly is away in Ireland at a family wedding and I was determined to get a short St. Patrick’s Day flight logged; unfortunately we had snow and rain for most of the day so that wasn’t possible. However, Friday’s (18 March) weather was perfect and I decided to clock off work a little early and head for Santa Fe, NM.

Pikes Peak

We’ve seen Pikes Peak quite a few times, but always from the east side when visiting Colorado Springs. The routing on today’s flight took us to the west of Pikes Peak, giving a different view of this fourteener.

Mosca Pass

To get from Northern Colorado to Santa Fe, you need to cross the Sangre de Cristo Range - it is a more-or-less north/south mountain range with many peaks above 13,000’. Having verified that the La Veta High MOA was not active, we crossed the Sangre de Cristo Range at Mosca Pass.

Great Sand Dunes National Park

An unexpected and quite impressive sight from the air is Great Sand Dunes National Park - both Orla and Cara have visited there with friends.