RIDING ON AIR CURRENTS

Just after dawn on a weekend in Southeast Utah crews pulled lines tout as shimmering fabric slowly filled with air.
The giant colorful pouches morphed into brightly colored balloons.
Rising slowly and beautifully into the crisp clean blue Utah skies.
It is the Hot Air Balloon Festival in Bluff, Utah, now in its eighth year.
You can see for twenty miles, the famous red rock of Southern Utah. It just doesn’t get any more beautiful than this.
Balloon pilots will tell you there is nothing to compare to floating in the air. It is a natural high.
There is no better stress relief than being in a balloon they say.
If you would like to experience this for your self before taking the big step of riding in a balloon, most of the time you can take a trial run. It is a tethered balloon that takes you up about 50 feet or more. Letting you get the feel with out the commitment of going on a full ride.
For those of you who don’t like early mornings, there is a “glow” one night of the event where pilots use burst of propane flame, to illuminate their colorful balloons. They are very sticking against the night sky.
This makes for interesting digital pictures. But the real beauty is getting up at the crack of dawn and seeing them lift off.
I think next time I go I will take a tethered ride. Then maybe someday I will do the big one.



DeLorme Atlas & Gazetteer: Utah