Day 292: October 18th – The Shape of the Land

Sunny, cool 60s, light SE winds

       We are off the ground and headed for Long Beach, California as I write this entry.  We will be in the air for a little over 5 hours before we reach our destination.  After a two day stay in the Golden State with hopefully a few new “yard birds” to add to the year list, we’ll head out to Australia and New Zealand.  We’ve been in Australia once before, but that was in the BB era….before birding.  We spent almost the entire two plus weeks in the Sydney area and really love it.  This time, however, we’ll be touring a great deal of the country and should be able to bag some new avian additions to our life-lists. 

 

      As we fly over the Great Plains in Nebraska, a myriad of ponds and lakes dots the landscape.  The flood plains of the meandering streams supply the farms with rich alluvium which is the life-line of the folks that live out here.        

       The “Upland Trough” becomes visible as we pass into Wyoming.  The change in drainage patterns can be seen even at our elevation of 35,000 feet.  

  

       Eventually, the plains begin to undulate as the foothills of the Rockies take over as the dominant landscape.  The snow-capped peaks of the Rockies can be seen looming in the distance as we continue west through Wyoming and Colorado.

       Passing into Utah, the topography changes again as we find mesas and buttes punctuated by deep valleys and dendritic drainage typical of these landscapes.

       Next, we find the Colorado plateau and the incised meanders which cut their channel downwards as the land rose.

       As we pass into Nevada, the landscape changes yet again to the desert lowlands of the Basin and Range province.  These downthrust blocks of land are actually below sea level and and result in some of the most arid regions in the country.

  

       Finally, we reach the Pacific Highlands stretching out to the  “left coast”.  A spectacular view which portends what lies ahead, albeit on a totally different continent.  We are all anxious, but we are pleased to have a couple of days here in California to regroup and prepare for the rigorous journey ahead.