I love a spur of the moment road trip embarked upon in the middle of the night. A last minute decision at midnight made for a wonderful morning in Reno watching what seemed like 99 hot air balloons lifting off into the dawn sky.
I got there early and parked in the garage at the University of Nevada-Reno and began the walk to the park. It was a little bit farther than I expected, but that could be because we took a wrong turn. Don't worry...we made it...
You can go down onto the field where the balloons are laid out and watch them inflate. It's pretty cool actually.
They inflated these balloons (and a few not shown) and then played some music while lighting the balloons to the beat. And then they deflated them. lol
But! Then they inflated some other balloons which were all lined up. These were the Dawn Patrol and they would actually take flight in the dark. Only certain balloons and pilots can fly at night, as you can imagine.
Dawn Patrol!
And then we had lift off. It was really beautiful watching the balloons float up into the ocean of darkness.
And when see floating altogether, they looked like a string of brightly lit lanterns above a party.
So at this point, I really had to go to the bathroom. It was a 2+ hour drive! And I was NOT going to go in a porta-potty in pitch black conditions. No. Friggin. Way.
So we left. And went to a convenience store. But! It was cool because we still got to watch the balloons and it was the blue hour so we could see where we were going (we could see before actually...it's a decently lit neighborhood).
The above picture is how dark it was leaving the park.
The below picture is how much lighter it was when we got back to UNR.
So, post convenience store, with coffee and breakfasty snacks, we decided to go back to the parking garage and park on the top level to see what we could see. It was a fan-fucking-tastic idea!
At first they were rising one or a few at a time. It really was a cool vantage point. And kind of exciting to see what would appear above the trees next. And then suddenly, there were a bunch afloat! The sky was full of balloons.
The thing about hot air balloons is that they are pretty much at the mercy of the wind. Well, the wind loved us that day because the wind brought them directly overhead. I laid on the hood of my car and took pictures as they floated hundreds of feet above us. It was so cool.
Two of my favorite balloons were these adorable fish balloons. You can not get any cuter than this!
Fishes and lions! Oh my!
The balloons were passing overhead from Northwest to Southeast into the ever lightening sky.
The sun was rising and the sky was painted with strokes of pink and grey.
Final opinion on the Reno Hot Air Balloon Races:
Loved it!
Definitely recommend getting up early and arriving in the dark so you can see the show before the show. I'll be there next year!
xoxo
