Scott Hall, the instigator of the RenoTracks project and a pilot, offers to take me up for an aerial tour of some of the landscape north of Reno. It’s an interesting day to do it because the temperature inversion currently sitting in our area makes visible layers of hazy, cloudy (and smoggy), and clear air that fill the valleys but leave the hills and mountains poking up. It also makes for a much warmer ride – the air temperature goes from the 20s on the ground to 50s in the air. I learn the names of some nearby mountain ranges that I didn’t know (the Diamond Range, Dixie Mountain, Horton Ridge) and spot many intriguing rock formations in otherwise hidden places.
A few highlights from the full photo set:
On the tarmac
Cockpit
Inversion clouds
Needle rock and inversion clouds
Rocks and clouds
Dixie mountain fire lookout