Inflight Entertainment Just A Window Seat Away – Grand Canyon and The Rocky Mountains

by Lufthansa Flyer | Feb 25, 2012 | Trip Reports | 2 comments

Last weekend I flew out to Santa Ana to visit family for a few days. On the return trip I flew the Santa Ana-Denver-Chicago-Grand Rapids route home (great service all around on United, even cleared the majority of my upgrades). I try to fly this return route as much as possible because it affords a great viewing experience if weather is cooperating.

The descent into Denver begins well over the Rocky Mountains so it does afford some great views. This time there was some snow but it did not entirely cover the mountains so it increased the viewing pleasure. An added bonus earlier in the flight was having just a few broken clouds while flying near an edge of the Grand Canyon (at least thats what I thought I heard the pilot say, but my QC15s do a great job blocking out that kind of stuff!). So instead of watching Top Gear episodes, I put the Ipad into “Music” mode and enjoyed the view for nearly 2 hours. My only regret is that I was too lazy to reach into the overhead and get my DSLR. I used my Panasonic point and shoot for these pictures and the videos. Not bad quality, but not nearly as good as what they could have been with the DSLR.

Next time you find yourself sitting in a window seat, considering forgoing the “community” movie on the overhead 12 inch screen and tune to the view outside! Look at my recent post about flying over Siberia if you don’t believe me!

Here are a couple of videos of the take off and landing (also have other take offs and landings on a new dedicated page), along with some pictures of what was outside along the way.

First off, the take off from Santa Ana (noise abatement departure):

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iYU7R_STeHo[/youtube]

Views of the Grand Canyon and surrounding areas:

Views Of The Rockies:

And finally, the landing video in Denver:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mO2ok8kzGRw[/youtube]