The USA's Great Plains Region from Above

Golden wheat fields and lush green hills highlight the sweeping landscapes of Kansas farm country, on the Great Plains of the United States. This amazing drone video shows the beauty of the Kansas plains and the bounty of wheat harvest.  In the video and accompanying description, contributor and drone pilot Doug Armknecht describes how drones allow him to share stunning views of his family farm with the world. This video was selected as a finalist in the 2017 New York City Drone Film Festival.

South Dakota is a lightly populated state in the Great Plains region of the north-central United States.  While South Dakota is amongst the top third of USA states in terms of land area, it has the fifth lowest population.  It is a state of flat terrain and large farms to the east, with a much more hilly and rugged environment to the west.  Content creator Toby Brusseau treats us to an aerial tour of this great state, home of the famous Mt. Rushmore in the western part of the state and a popular road trip destination.

As much as anything, the Great Plains region of the United States is known for a long-vanished sight: massive herds of bison (also known as American Buffalo), which at one point numbered over 25 million in population in North America.  While the species was nearly extinguished as American settlement moved inexorably west there has been some (modest) recovery in the population.  In this aerial video by Aerialphoto_brandon you'll see a few bison on the plains of northwestern Oklahoma.

The Great Plains of the United States isn't flat everywhere.  In many places, various geological processes have produced much more variable terrain.  One of those places is the Gloss Mountains, an area of mesas and buttes in the northwestern part of Oklahoma, the portion of the state known as the Panhandle. Award winning contributor and drone pilot chrisxgxc shot one of his epic creative videos on this amazing looking terrain in the heart of the Great Plains region near the Kansas border.

Badlands National Park is one of the natural treasures of South Dakota, one of the USA's Great Plains states.  Located near the southwestern corner of the state, the park is home to thousands of unusual rock formations, which lie on the largest contiguous mixed grass prairie in the country.  In this excellent drone video by AirVuz contributor armando_martinez, you'll explore the nearlu 400 square mi. (just under 1k square km) park from above.  The video was filmed in collaboration with the Indian Council and Pine Ridge Chamber.  

One of the things which makes the USA's Great Plains so spectacular in places are the rock formations and small mountains which seemingly come out of nowhere and dominate the flat surrounding landscape.  One of the most famous of these formations (called inselbergs) is called Chimney Rock.  It's in western Nebraska, in the heart of the Plains.  Check out this drone video of Chimney Rock, the centerpiece of the Chimney Rock National Historic Site, compliments of contributor and drone pilot Balazs.  

Contributor and drone pilot Riel Creative created this epic drone video of Tulsa, a city in the United States' Great Plains region.  It's located in eastern Oklahoma, on the edge of the true plains area.  The city was favorably situated relative to some of the USA's most productive oil fields in the early 20th century and was the unofficial "Oil Capital of the World" for decades until being usurped by Houston later in the century.  The video has some great aerial shots amongst the city's skyscrapers. 

Shot on a DJI Phantom 4, chrisxgxc uses his skills and mighty imagination to bring us what a dronie would look like if the world was taken over by zombies. A master of visual effects, Chris says this is how he would break out of a horde of zombies - mapping his escape route with a drone!  Chris was a winner at the first annual Drone Video Awards with his classic "Cardboard Cadet"; he repeated the feat the following year when this video was chosen as the Winner in the Dronie category for the 2nd Annual Drone Video Awards.

Prepare to be blown away by this drone video from the Great Plains of the USA after an ice storm, a meteorological phenomenon which is common in the region.  Award winning contributor and drone pilot Chrisxgxc, who hails from the town of Woodward on the Panhandle of western Oklahoma.  The ice storm coated uncountable trees and bushes with a crystal clear layer of ice.  Flying a drone over this frozen wonderland yielded him an amazing 90 second video.  This was discussed in his episode of the Drone Dish.

While Colorado is generally thought of us a mountainous state (and not without justification), the eastern portion of the state is 100% Great Plains territory.  The effect of the mountains rising up from the dead-flat plains is quite sudden, but in this drone video by contributor Mikeyg733 you'll get a good look at the state from a spot where the transition is particularly dramatic; shot at sunset, it starts with a dronie facing west and finishes with an epic shot facing east, towards the endless flatness of the Plains.

Contributor Ryan Jones created this drone video of the Wyoming landmark, Devil's Tower, which is a rock formation in the northeast region near the Bear Lodge Mountains. The mountains are part of the Black Hills range of South Dakota, and the entire area is part of the Great Plains system which covers much of the west-central United States.  The unique inselberg or butte was featured prominently in the 1977 blockbuster movie Close Encounters of the Third Kind, including in its climactic final scene.  

In this highly creative short film, contributor Chrisxgxc teamed up with his five year old son and used his DJI Phantom 4 drone with some very clever editing to create the impression of chasing his son piloting a World War I era biplane.  The video was the winner of the 2017 AirVuz Drone Video Awards in the Originality category and was also a winner at the Los Angeles Drone Film Festival.  The backdrop is area of northwestern Oklahoma known as the Panhandle, which is located in the heart of the USA's Great Plains. 

The USA's Great Plains are known for many isolated rock formations which seemingly spring up out of nowhere.  In western South Dakota, there's a large area where the rocks are the rule rather than the exception - it's known as the "Badlands", and they are generally considered the most scenic part of the entire Great Plains Region.  In this first person view (FPV) video by contributor and FPV pilot Badlandr, you'll get to see the South Dakota Badlands from an entirely new perspective.  

Kansas is a USA state that lies close to the geographic center of the country.  The western part of the state (by far the majority of its overall land area) is part of the Great Plains.  Western Kansas is one of the principal wheat-growing areas of the USA; it regularly produces well over 300 million bushels of the grain on an annual basis.  Award-winning contributor Doug A used a drone to create this spectacular reel about the landscape of the Sunflower State, whose vast rolling wheatfields are the Breadbasket of America.   

In this drone video by North Sky Aerial Imaging, you'll get a bird's eye view of Pierre, South Dakota, the capital of this Great Plains state.  Located near South Dakota's geographic center, Pierre was founded in 1880 on the left (eastern) bank of the Missouri River, opposite the older trading post of Fort Pierre.  With fewer than 15k residents, it's the second-least populous state capital.  The video includes some great footage of the riverfront, the early 20th century South Dakota State Capitol, the city's surrounding hills, and more. 

While the USA state of Colorado is closely associated with the Rocky Mountains, the eastern third of the state has a much different topography - that of the Great Plains, which give way to the mountains roughly on the north-south line running through Denver and Colorado Springs.  In this drone video by AIrVuz contributor Where-is-Fab, you'll get a bird's eye view of the Eastern Colorado Plains in Pawnee National Grasslands, which covers about 300 square mi. (a bit under 1k square km) in Weld County, in the northeastern part of the state.  

Check out this fantastic drone video of the Wichita Mountains, in the USA's Great Plains state of Oklahoma.  The mountains are located in the southwestern part of the state, east of the panhandle.  The mountains consist of a series of rocky cliffs and promontiries formed by a geological phenomenon known as a failed continental rift. The area is home to the Wichita Mountains Wildlife Refuge, a popular backpacking and hiking area that covers almost 240 square km (a bit under 100 square mi.).   

Take an aerial tour of Omaha, Nebraska in this excellent drone video by FoxFlight 2020.  Situated on the Missouri River, Omaha became the eastern terminus of the Union Pacific railroad, which built the eastern half of the first transcontinental railroad.  The video appropriately enough opens with a monument of UP locomotives, then will take you around the city's skyline, topped by the 45 story First National Bank Tower.  Other locations include the Bob Kerry Pedestrian Bridge at the :45 mark, TD Ameritrade Park (2:45), and more.

Contrary to what many believe, the Mississippi is technically not the USA's longest river.  That title belongs to the Missouri River, which runs over 3.7k km (over 2.3k mi.) before joining the Mississippi in St. Louis, Missouri.  Over its course, towns and cities in ten different states owe their existence to the mighty waterway.  In this drone video by AirVuz contributor and pilot SdDrone, you'll get a bird's eye look at the river as it flows through the Great Plains in the state of South Dakota. 

In this video, contributor and drone pilot raphael.elijah gives us a bird's eye view of Oklahoma City, the capital and largest city of the Sooner State.  It's located in the middle of the state, in the heart of the Great Plains region of the USA.  This city was the site of one of the most infamous acts of terror in US history: on April 19, 1995, a truck bomb exploded in front of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building, killing 168 people and causing widespread devastation in the central district of the city.  

Check out this fantastic drone video of the area around Fort Pierre, South Dakota, comliments of AirVuz contributor and pilot SdDrone.  Fort Pierre lies along the western bank of the Missouri River, roughly in the geographic center of the state.  It's part of the city of Pierre, the state capital.  Originally "discovered" by explorers from Quebec (then part of France) in the 18th century, it became the site of an American fort and trading post in the decades following the Louisiana Purchase in 1803.  

In this video, contributor and drone pilot Projekte uses a drone to remind us that some of the world's largest plains aren't actually called "plains".  This video was shot in Eastern Colorado in the USA, on the Great Plains.  The video is entitled "Safari" to show how similar the terrain appears to the most famous plain in Africa - the great Serengeti, which runs across much of Tanzania and is considered the world's best safari destination.  Watch the video and picture roaming zebras and lions! 

On this episode of The Drone Dish, host Tyler talks with Chris Castor (AirVūz Profile: chrisxgxc), a visual artist turned filmmaker from whose breakthrough video "Cardboard Cadet" won the 2017 Drone Video of the Year in the "Originality" category.  Chris's videos (including his more recent video "The Last Dronie", which was nominated as a Finalist in the Dronie category for the second annual DVA's) are all shot against the backdrop of the Great Plains in his native Oklahoma.

On this episode of The Drone Dish, Tyler chats with Kansas-based pilot Doug Armknecht. Doug was a finalist in the news/documentary category at the 2017 New York City Drone Film Festival for his film "Beauty & Bounty." He talks with Tyler about that film, what it was like to be a finalist in the festival, and about his favorite parts of showcasing harvesting and other farm activities from a bird's eye perspective.