Landing on highest airport in North America

December 2021 – With Frode Kjems Uhre i flew back to California for flying my Cessna 185 for another week. Less than a month after going there and doing the same with my oldest son Søren Jøhnk. On this trip we headed due east from Tracy where mu plane is hangared, eventually reaching Lake County/Leadville airport at 9.934 ft, highest airport in North America.

Day 1 – From Bishop (KBIH) in California to Bryce Canyon (KBCE) in Utah. With multiple coffee stops on different dry lake beds across Nevada. Coffee was brewed on a small stove running on aviation gasoline taped from the wing.

Day 2 and 3 – Flying nowhere but hiking 24 km. through Bryce Canyon. The weather was severe IMC for two days, but what a beautiful place. I have been to Bryce Canyon before, but never during wintertime in thick fog and snow.

Day 4 – From Bryce Canyon (KBCE) in Utah to Grand Junction Regional (KGJT) in Colorado. The day started with two hours of manual deicing and once airborne, we flew along Capitol Reef, landed at three backcountry strips in Utah, Bolder, Dirty Devil and Mineral Canyon, and flew by some of the arches in Arches National Park.

Day 5 – Flying over the Rockies at 14.000 feet and having coffee at FBO’s on a number of airports, from Grand Junction (KGJT) to Aspen (KASE, $65 for landing, 30 minutes of parking and coffee), to Lake County/Leadville (KLXV, highest airport in North America at 9.934 feet, free landing, parking and coffee, and certificate), to Telluride (KTEX, at 9.078 feet, just $6 for landing, parking and coffee), to Durango-La Plata County (KDRO, free coffee, landing and parking) and finally to Four Corners Regional (KFMN, in New Mexico) for parking for the night.

Day 6 – What a birthday 🙂 Yet another early start, low flying around Shiprock and among the monuments in Monuments Valley, high flying over Grand Canyon and landing at two bush strips (Grand Canyon Bar Ten Airstrip and Pearce Ferry) before flying into Las Vegas (KVGT) for the night.

Day 7 and 8 – This was an uneventful flight back to Tracy. Weather wasn’t good so the first day we only made it to Los Banos where we had to wait for the night before flying the last 50 miles. But this gave us plenty of time to wash and clean the plane before storing it back in its hangar.