Our Journey date: 2020-03-18

I recently took a plane trip up to visit my family in Washington state! My sister just had a baby and now I'm an Auntie! :D 

💕 Lily and I! 💕

I've taken this flight a few times, and the last time I flew I thought I had seen Elko. It was getting dark so I wasn't sure, but it was still cool to think I was flying over Elko. 

This flight; I was ready. The sky was clear enough, the sun was up: I was totally going to get those pictures of Elko! 

First stop: the Montello area! 

This a bit harder for me to identify. I remember staring at the Toano's thinking to myself - I don't normally see them from this angle, but boy do those look familiar. 

The dead give away of what I was looking at tho was definitely Murdock Mountain. I've spent a large amount of time studying this mountain in particular from all sorts of angles and it paid off!

There were too many clouds over the Pilot Range, but if I had seen them I would have been able to use those as another identifier as Pilot Peak is quite unique and impressive!
 

Once I identified ranges, it was all about the waiting game. I knew we would soon come across the Rubies and then Elko! I'm sure the guy in the seat next to me thought I was being silly pointing my camera out the window and zooming in and double checking what I was looking at. But it was too cool! How often can you point out and name mountains in the middle of your flight?!

The first thing I spotted were the Rubies!

What an impressive sight! 

The next thing I pointed out was Spring Creek! It's hard to see from the pictures, but in person it was much more visible.

Next up Elko! And what a sight to see!

And now, for my favorite picture of the whole trip!

MVR U12 stands for Meadow Valley Ranchos Unit 12! I was able to identify a subdivision! That was such a cool thing to see. Since I make the maps, I see a lot of aerial views of this area - but to see them in real life, now that was pretty dang cool.

As soon as I got off the plane, I sent all these pictures to Char and here was her response:

It was a very fun little journey on my way to meet my new niece and I'm glad I was able to share it with everyone! :)

-Lynn (Sherilyn), Your friendly neighborhood mapper