From Rapid City, we now head into the Rockies.  Yellowstone is our next destination. We decided against the two big airports and chose a small place on the edge of the national park. 29S is the designation. It is located right next to the small village of Gardiner. Rafting tours are offered there on the Yellowstone River. That's on the agenda for tomorrow! 

Over the Rockies it was slightly hazy. Forest fires have clouded the otherwise very clear view a bit. Some areas were also already restricted zones and specially reserved for seaplanes. 

Over the Rockies we are now facing new challenges. Now mountain flying is the order of the day. The challenge is that the sites are all between 2,000 and 3,000 meters. The air is very thin here. In summer, even much thinner due to the heat. The combination of altitude, air pressure and temperature results in the so-called "density altitude". Because the air is thin, the aircraft flies much faster and the turbine has less "power" because it has less oxygen available for combustion. In addition, there may be up and down winds over the mountain edges that must be considered. 

If you fly into a valley, you should also already know if you can turn in the valley and if it ends in a dead end :- )

Very well. After a good flight planning we descended from our safe altitude into the valleys of the Rockies towards our small airfield. We followed the Yellowstone River and then found 29S-Gardiner. On landing, you can see nicely how the higher landing speed has consequences. When braking, immediately the left wheel blocked and left a small skid mark :- )

There was no real parking place for our plane in Gardiner. So we went off-road and hoped that the cacti would not puncture the tires.

Luggage is loaded again. It is only 10 minutes by bike to Gardiner.

A coffee for breakfast and then it's off to our rafting tour!

The rafting was fun. The change did us good. Completely soaked but satisfied, we cycled back to our plane. Our next stop is Jackson Hole!