Day 0: Seattle-Denver-Cortez
The Denver-Cortez flight set the tone of the trip; A tiny plane going to a tiny town for a backcountry vacation. I was expecting the plane to be small, but did not expect a twin-prop Beech 1900 with just two rows of seats along the windows - there is no bad seat in the house. After the pretty girl finished tucking us in and showing us the only emergency exit, she went to the flight deck, donned an aviator cap and sat besides the pilot, which is when I realized she was a pilot and not a air hostess. As we flew SWW, I craned through the starboard window to see large patches of charred ground where Colorado had burned a few days earlier.
Descending on Cortez, visible through the cockpit glass, was the landing strip, oscillating wildly. It was almost as if the tiny plane was being thrown around in the air. The pilot skillfully managed a touch down, the left wheel first, a good five seconds later the other wheel.
The Cortez airport is one room deep. I rented the last car at the terminal and point it towards Bluff, Utah
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