High Dynamic Range Photography by Carl Roessler

A year after the El Nino provided superb sunny weather! 2017 has been far less kind. There have been a series of large Pacific storms, and one cut this adventure short.

Still, I was able to complete what could be called a Great Dam Trip! I visited the big lakes around Mesa in my earlier visit, so this year I went after the dams that created them.

In 2016, the El Nino caused wonderful summery weather in February. I made the most of it!

That El Nino ended in November of 2016, and the weather has been difficult for us drone pilots ever since.

It rained for most of my drive over here, and all of my days this time had intermittent Sun and lots of patchy clouds.

On my way to Roosevelt Dam, I traveled on a wonderful subject for drone videos, the Apache Trail's Switchback road. I did it last year with a GoPro mounted on the hood of the car. This year I flew the drone high above the road.

I love these mountain roads where one drives on a single-lane dirt road with several hundred feet of dropoff on one side. When another car approaches going the other way, it requires courtesy and very careful steering. I accidentally captured one of these meetings in the 4th video below.

Then I proceeded to, the Roosevelt Dam on the Salt River, which created the Roosevelt Lake. This is a great drone spot, and I launched right from one end of the dam, and then soared out over the gorge and river below.

Next day, I drove eastward to the town of San Carlos, on the Indian Reservation of that name. While there, I visited the small Takalai Lake on the outskirts of town.

A half-hour South of San Carlos we find the Coolidge Dam, which controls the San Carlos River.

While the drone was out flying over the dam, a nice man named Dood introduced himself. After we chatted for a while, he told me I should stop at a site where a memorial for the original site of San Carlos was built along the river.

After I left the dam, I drove several miles on dirt roads and filmed the statuary on the memorial site. Very serene and inspiring, set on a mesa above the river.

On my final day, I launched from the marina at one end of the Waddell Dam on Lake Pleasant. Then I wrapped up the whole Dam Trip by flying over the Stewart Mountain Dam on Saguaro Lake.

The two visits to Mesa provided a wonderfully varied gallery!!

Apache Trail Switchback Road	Roosevelt Dam	Takalai Lake
Coolidge Dam	Old San Carlos Memorial	Stewart Mountain Dam On Saguaro Lake
Waddell Dam At Lake Pleasant