Above the Red Rock: A Scenic Flight Over Moab

Moab | Adam Clark

Guided aerial tours with Redtail Air widen the lens, capturing the raw beauty and quiet grandeur of Southern Utah's backcountry.

At a time when the entire world fits on a screen in the palm of your hand, the opportunity to view sweeping geological wonders seems like a contradiction. However, this dissonance is a matter of perspective: directing one’s gaze at a tiny screen narrows focus and limits attention. To truly see, one must widen that gaze, expanding both your vision and your sense of what is possible.

There is perhaps no better place to put this into practice than the red rock wilderness of Southern Utah. Moab serves as the gateway to two of Utah’s "Mighty Five" national parks and is also home to Redtail Air, a scenic flight operator that allows visitors to experience the rugged terrain from high above.

Redtail Air director of operations and pilot Dan Wheeler muses, “Every flight is different,” and “the variety of geologic features here is unlike anywhere else.” In an era where people crave attention-grabbing shots scrolling past at the speed of light, there is a profound value in the opportunity to slow down, widen the lens, and change perspective.

The following photo essay offers a glimpse of that expansive view; we invite you to scroll through and see the desert from a new vantage point.

"Air travel is more than transportation; it’s a portal for exploration."

For those who enjoy exploring the world, a guided aerial tour can take modern-day travelers further into remote places like the redtail hawks that soar above Southeastern Utah.

Photo: Adam Clark

Aerial tours provide visitors, limited by time constraints or physical abilities, with a way to see vast areas, such as Canyonlands’ Island in the Sky and Needles districts, which span hundreds of square miles and are otherwise only accessible via primitive hiking trails, dirt roads or unmarked sandstone slabs.

Photo: Adam Clark

There are no age limits or physical requirements for an aerial tour; only the desire to see a fast-changing world slow down for 30 minutes to three hours. To oversimplify several theories of relativity: the faster you move through space, the less you move through time.

Photo: Adam Clark

Redtail Air Adventures is the only operator permitted to fly passengers over Arches and Canyonlands National Parks, as well as Monument Valley. Its certified pilots are drawn to this region like so many of Utah’s outdoor professionals — to experience, discover and share one of the most unique landscapes on Earth.

Photo: Adam Clark

Beyond just getting you from hub to hub, a guided aerial tour transforms passengers into participants without scuffed heels or hefty backpacks. The efforts and emotions are felt in the deep breaths, sighs and repeated mutterings of “I had no idea…,” that overcome and exhaust even the most experienced travelers.

Photo: Adam Clark

Every seat is a window seat during an aerial tour over Utah’s famed national parks, monuments and the escarpments and plateaus that connect them, where shutterbugs and professional photographers can capture once-in-a-lifetime shots of Utah’s iconic arches, canyons, rivers and wildlife.

Photo: Adam Clark

Venturing by air allows passengers to fly deep into Southern Utah’s backcountry, land on remote strips, such as Mineral Bottom, to explore where few have ventured and even enjoy lunch. Operators, such as Redtail Air, adhere to and advance Utah’s Leave No Trace philosophy to preserve the environment for future generations.

Photo: Adam Clark

Back in the air, sunset casts an indigo light upon Porcupine Rim with the La Sal Mountains in the distance. Rising more than 9,000’ above sea level (with some peaks topping 12,000’), the second-highest range in Utah is often topped with snow well into early summer. It’s those melting waters that carve the sandstone to form the deep canyons in this high-elevation plateau.

Photo: Adam Clark

"Despite flying over this terrain for over 15 years, pilot Dan Wheeler still discovers, with childlike wonder, new arches and formations in this outdoor playground."

Illuminated by the setting sun, Redtail’s aerial tour reveals to guests the region’s distinctive ‘layer cake’ formations, including shale topped by the distinctive bleached sandstone lining the edges of the White Rim’s red rock cliffs and canyons.

Photo: Adam Clark

Lighting, wind, weather, the time of day or year, as well as aspect and altitude, can all change the appearance of the terrain below.

Photo: Adam Clark

The 400-foot freestanding pillar of Wingate sandstone sits atop a 1,000-foot cone, almost begging climbers to top it. One of the most iconic views of the southwest, Castleton Tower is typically viewed and photographed from below. This birds-eye view, however, showcases its unique position and structure on the vast, topographical landscape.

Photo: Adam Clark

The dark red spires and jagged fins forming Fisher Towers resemble Gothic organ pipes. While banking beside them, air adventurers can feel and hear the winds whipping around the edges, calling people to worship and commune at evening vespers beside the Colorado River below.

Photo: Adam Clark

From this perspective, Parriott Mesa appears to be a potential landing strip. Stretching more than 1.5-miles long and almost a half-mile wide, the flat sandstone summit sits at over 1,500’ above the Castle Valley floor, but getting down would be challenging, even for the most experienced climbers, whose fixed ropes line the 400’ of nearly-perpendicular walls.

Photo: Adam Clark

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About the Author – Paula Colman

Paula Colman is not a professional skier, mountain biker, sommelier or chef, but spends her time pursuing these and whatever else pops up along the way with an inordinate amount of enthusiasm and humor. As a recovering attorney and practicing parent, who has lived in seven states across all four time zones, she landed in Utah over a decade ago and decided that she could study for the bar or learn to ski…hmmm. She now shares her stories about outdoor adventures and entertainments throughout Utah as a regular contributor for Visit Utah, Ski Utah, ApresSkiUtah.com and others and on Instagram at @harpo_utah.