Bird's Eye Views of the Southwestern USA

Award-winning content creator and drone pilot Jay Worsley hails from Phoenix, Arizona in the Southwestern USA.  This epic aerial film showcases the beauty of the western United States, seen from the perspective of a drone.  "Perspective" was a winner at the first annual AirVuz Drone Video Awards, taking the honor in the Landscapes category.  Prepare to be mesmerized by his "Perspective" of the great American West, one of the most popular videos ever uploaded to the AirVuz online community.

The Southwestern USA is home to some of the world's most spectacular natural scenery.  Due to a variety of geological and meteorological factors, this region offers an incredible variety of landscapes.  What makes many of these features so distinctive is the coloring, some of which can't be found anywhere else on earth.  Witness this spectacular drone video by contributor OCDroneProductions.  Shot with a DJI Mavic Pro 3, the video does an outstanding job of bringing out some of the incredible visual scenery of this corner of the USA.  

Contributor Hayden Kast explores the legendary Moab area of Utah in this video, which was nominated for the Drone Video of the Week in March, 2019.  Moab is located in the southeastern part of Utah.  It's a series of canyons laid out across an iconic-looking desert landscape and interspersed with spectacular rock formations, often drawing comparisons to the Grand Canyon to its southwest.  This video was shot outside of the Arches and Canyonlands National Parks, which are off-limits to drones.

In this outstanding video, former Drone Video of the Week Finalist Framework Films takes us over some of the most stunning scenery in the American Southwest.  Featured locations include the great Shiprock formation in Northern New Mexico; Moapa Valley, in the desert outside of Las Vegas, Nevada; Goosenecks State Park on the San Juan River and the nearby Valley of the Gods in southeastern Utah; Yucca Valley,and the Alabama Hills in California's Mojave Desert; St. George, UItah; and the outskirts of Albuquerque, New Mexico.

Inspired by a book he read about the colonization of Mars, Peter Franc shot this Drone Video of the Week finalist in the Southwestern USA.  The video was compiled from footage assembled from three states - Arizona, New Mexico, and the southwestern portion of Utah.  Here are found the USA's deepest canyons and gorges, as well as some of its most unusual rock formations.  All are on vivid display in this remarkable drone video, which was shot across several hundred miles/km of the great Southwest.    

Top AirVūz contributor Hayden Kast created this stunning Drone Video of the week nominated film of southern Utah. Using his DJI Mavic Air, Hayden explores BLM land which covers almost 22.9 million acres of public lands, representing 42 percent of the state of Utah. BLM which stands for Bureau of Land Management offers an array of gorgeous landscapes and recreational activities that attracts adventure seekers and outdoor enthusiasts from all over the country. 

The Four Corners area of the Southwestern USA - where the states of Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, Utah come together - is home to some of the country's most unusual-looking geological formations.  In this outstanding drone video by dmjpix:), you'll be treated to aerial views of several Four Corners spots: the great Shiprock rock formation in New Mexico; Needles Overlook, in Utah's Needle District; Valley Of The Gods (including Mexican Hat rock), also in southeastern Utah; and Monument Valley, just south of the Valley of the Gods.  

What would it look like to land on Mars? This Drone Video of the Week Nominee and Drone Video of the Month Staff Pick by contributor and pilot petemaj23 shows us what he imagines a lone astronaut on the Red Planet would see and feel. The deserts of southern Utah are the perfect backdrop for his short, experimental narrative, shot with a DJI Mavic Air, about what life would look like on another planet.  This video was picked as a Finalist in the Originality category for the second annual Drone Video Awards.

New  AirVuz contributor Totality Films brings us this marvelous aerial tour of the great Southwestern USA state of Arizona.  The last of the "lower 48" states to be admitted to the Union (in 1912), the giant territory covers nearly 300k square km (114k square mi.).  While its population has exploded to over 7 million as of 2020, much of it remains thinly populated, and a quarter of its land area is covered by Indian reservations.  This video was chosen as a finalist for the "Best of Arizona" category at the 2019 AZDroneFest Film Festival.

Explore the geology of the Southwestern USA in this fantastic first person view (FPV) drone travel reel by multiple Drone Video of the Week Winner Hayden Kast.  The video was shot during the Fall over western Utah, which is known for its spectacular rock formations, yawning canyons, and wide-open expanses of desert.  At about the :45 mark, there's a great shot of the spot on Highway 163 Scenic Drive outside of Monument Valley which was made famous from its appearance in the 1994 Academy Award Winner Forrest Gump.  

Top contributor and drone pilot Hayden Kast created this stunning aerial video showcasing the natural beauty of the Southwestern United States.  The video features footage from the area around Zion National Park, the Valley of the Gods, and Mexican Hat in southeasern Utah; and Durango in the southwestern part of neighboring Colorado.  Lying to the south and west of the Rocky Mountains, these desert and semi-arid landscapes are home to some of most amazing canyons and rock formations found in North America. 

This outstanding drone video by flyinghighaz will show you the Southwestern USA's Salt River during different times of the year.  The location is an area on the lower portion of the river about 50 mi. (around 80 km) east of (and upstream from) Phoenix, Arizona.  The greenery of the area immediately surrounding the river stands in stark contrast to the surrounding portions of the Sonoran Desert.  The video also features some excellent aerial footage of the wild horses which live along this stretch of the river.  

The Grand Canyon in the Southwestern USA state of Arizona is considered one of the Seven Natural Wonders of the World. The almost 2,000 miles of red rock canyons that surround the Colorado River are one of the most heavily toured parks in the county.  The great canyon is up to 29 km wide (around 18 mi.) and has a maximum depth of up to 1.85k meters or around 6.1k ft.  It's part of a large US National park in the northwestern corner of Arizona.  See its magnitude and beauty in this drone video by contributor emanuele. 

Burning Man is an annual multiday concert and personal discovery event held in the desert of Nevada in the western United States.  The event began as a modest affair in the mid-1980's in San Francisco, switching to a desert location the next decade.  The modern era Burning Man see tens of thousands of attendees, many of whom camp in the desert during the run of the event.  Contributor and pilot Memmi used a DJI Inspire 2 drone to fly over the Burning Man grounds, treating us to this amazing aerial video.  

Located only 70 miles from the most well-known canyon in the world, the Grand Canyon, Coal Mine Canyon is a remote gem in the southwestern United States. Bordering the Hopi and Navajo Indian Reservation in the state of Arizona, the canyon features brilliantly colored sandstone rocks.  Top AirVuz contributor and drone pilot tglass000 brings us this stunning drone video of this gaping gash in the earth. This video was selected as a Finalist for the Drone Video of the Week contest in March, 2019.

The western USA state of Utah is one of the country's most varied in terms of landscape.  The northeast corner of the state is in the heart of the Rocky Mountain system - it looks like Colorado, its neighbor to the east.  The southern part of the state couldn't look more different.  Contributor and drone pilot John Stinnett spent a day driving around southern Utah with a DJI Mavic Pro drone, giving us some epic bird's eye views of this very arid and mysterious looking land in the heart of the mythical American West.  

Check out the beauty of Utah in this incredible travel video by AirVuz contributor and pilot mr.skyboy. First stop is Monument Valley, the red-sand desert at the border with New Mexico known for its sandstone buttes. Next up, Angels Landing Summit in Zion National Park and Lone Rock near Lake Powell. Rishel Peak in Utah’s west desert comes in at 1:00, followed by Price Canyon Road and the infamous Bonneville Salt Flats. Our final destination is Dead Horse Point State Park along the Colorado River. 

Las Vegas, Nevada is one of the world's most improbable cities.  Nothing in the physical environment of southern Nevada would suggest that a city of 2 million would rise there some day.  In this video, top contributor AttilioRuffoPhotography took the opportunity to show this surrounding area.  He gives us some epic aerial footage of nearby Lake Mead, Red Rock Canyon, the Valley of Fire, and Hoover Dam, whose construction during the Depression years was the spark that lit what became modern Las Vegas.

Opening with some tree proximity flying, this aerial video of Arizona is a compilation of some of the most scenic places in the southwestern state. A finalist in the 2019 Arizona Drone Festival, the piece is by JordanB22. He’s taking us to Saguaro Lake, a reservoir on the Salt River; Tonto National Forest, the largest of the six national forests in the state; Bartlett Lake Marina; the desert own of Sedona and its famous red rock bluffs; Flagstaff, the city surrounded by mountains and desert; and Payson, the “heart of Arizona.”

Enjoy these drone views of the great Southwestern USA, compliments of talented contributor LUK☰☰.  The video consists primarily of first person view (FPV) drone footage, with some great "establishing" shots that appear to have been filmed with a gimbal-stabilized drone.  Created with footage captured during a trip across Arizona, Nevada, and Utah, the video will let you soar over and around some of the most spectacular natural scenery for which the region is famous, including deserts, canyons, massive rock structures, and more.  

In this video, AirVuz contributor and drone pilot Dave Yip takes us all on a road trip through the beautiful outbacks of Utah, USA. With five breathtaking national parks - Arches, Canyonlands, Capitol Reef, Bryce Canyon, and Zion - and a plethora of state and city parks, Utah is an adventure worth taking for anyone who loves the great outdoors. See some of the sunset-red deserts, petrified sand dunes, canyons, vibrant pine forests, and more in this fantastic, 4K aerial video from one of the top AirVuz content creators.

The Great Salt Lake in Utah offers up some of the more interesting scenery in the USA.  Situated in the northern part of the state, it's the largest saltwater lake in the Western Hemisphere.  With a maximum depth of only about 10 meters (less than 35 ft.), it's area varies considerably based upon rainfall.  In this drone video by aviancyclops, you'll get a bird's eye view of the lake, sometimes called America's Dead Sea.  It includes footage of the Lucin Cutoff, salt mines, the Bonneville Salt Flats, and more.  

Former Drone Video of the Week Finalist RobSkyHigh brings us this stunning drone video of the magnificent rock formations near Moab, Utah in the Southwestern USA.  Located in the southeastern part of the state, Moab is located atop the Colorado Plateau.  The soil deposition and erosion and water flow patterns here created a whole series of spectacular formations from the underlying sandstone.  The other-worldly landscapes here have been featured in countless movies and TV shows over the years, particularly Westerns.      

Former Drone Video of the Week Finalist ViDeo Creator jP created this stunning drone video of a woman in a white dress wandering the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah.  One of the Southwestern USA's most visually distinctive spots, the flats are the remains of an ancient lake that's situated about a two hour drive due west of Salt Lake City.  The flats cover an area of about 40 square mi. (around 100 square km) and the thickness of the salt crust varies from about five ft. (junst under two m) to a few inches/centimeters.  

The Colorado River is one of the principal waterways of western North America.  It rises in the Rocky Mountains, and runs over 2.3k km to discharge into the Gulf of California in northern Mexico.  Its course carved out some of the world's most well known canyons, including the Arizona's Grand Canyon and the Black Canyon, the site of Hoover Dam.  In this drone video by pk productions, you'll get a great aerial view of the river flowing through Moab in southern Utah, compliments of PK Productions.

The area around Moab, Utah is known for its spectacular rock formations.  In this excellent drone video by robinsaville, you'll get an aerial view of two of the most famous: Corona Arch and Dead Horse Point.  The former gained fame as the site of a viral YouTube video called the "World's Largest Swinging Rope".  The latter is even more well known for its screen appearances: Dead Horse Point was the filming location for the final scene of the 1997 action film Thelma and Louise and the opening scene of Mission: Impossible 2 (1999).

Former Drone Video of the Week Finalist Dave Yip brings us this stunning drone video of the famous Shiprock rock formation in the Southwestern USA.  It's what's known as an inselberg (a large isolated rock), and it's situated Navajo Nation lands in northwestern New Mexico near the Four Corners border with neighboring Utah, Colorado, and Arizona.  Standing about 1.6k ft. (480 m) above the surrounding plain, it's considered to be of significant cultural importance to the native peoples of the region, who named it the "Winged Rock".   

Top contributor NGreyTravels created this short-but-epic drone video of Monument Valley in the Southwestern USA, near the spot called Four Corners where four states come together: Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, and Utah.  Situated on the Colorado Plateau, the area is home to some of the most iconic scenery in the American West.  So much so that this very spot was used to film a famous scene in the 1994 film "Forrest Gump"; this was where Forrest (Tom Hanks) and his followers stopped after he "ran to the ocean".  

Set in the heart of the Southwestern USA, Nevada is really two states (three if one includes Reno) - a largely empty desert, and Las Vegas, now one of the country's largest and most dynamic cities.  In this video, contributor Where's Fuji uses a drone to show the "two Nevada's" in one video.  Starting with aerial shots of the Las Vegas Strip (the area south of the city proper which is home to its largest casinos), it transitions to areas just outside the city, showing the stark contrast between these two planets.

In this drone video by ray dunakin, you'll get a narrated tour of a side of Nevada which is far removed from the Las Vegas Strip - a desert land which is full of flora and fauna that are unique to its desert landscape.  The video, which combines drone and ground camera footage, will bring you sights like the pronghorn (a member of the antelope family), herds of wild horses, mule deers, and even beautiful butterflies, in addition to some epic views of the seemingly endless deserts and spectacular rock formations.   

Former Drone Video of the Week Winner Balazs Busznyak brings us this stunning drone video from northern Arizona, in the Southwestern USA.  Shot with a DJI Air 2S, the video will take you over Monument Valley, which straddles the Arizona-Utah border and is home to some of the world's most stunning rock formations.  Part of the Colorado Plateau, the sandstone buttes here reach heights of up to 1000 ft. above the surrounding terrain (about 300 m) and have served as the backdrop for some of the most famous Western movies.  

Check out these stunning drone views of the Colorado River Basin in the Southwestern USA, compliments of AirVuz contributor Dog and Eye Productions.  The great Colorado River runs a course of 1.45k mi. (a bit over 2.3k km), rising on the western slopes of the Rocky Mountains in Colorado, running southwest through Utah and the southern tip of Nevada, then turning almost due south, emptying into the Gulf of California (aka the Sea of Cortez) in northwestern Mexico.  The video covers a wide variety of landscapes across this vast area.  

You could argue that there are no colors quite as lovely as the ones that can be seen in the hills surrounding Sedona, Arizona, in the Southwestern United States. The rich crimson and blood orange of the red-rock buttes and steep canyon walls, blended against the deep plums and cobalt blues of the distant skies are something to behold. Sedona is located about halfway between Phoenix and the Grand Canyon.  See it for yourself in this gorgeous 4K aerial piece by top contributor and drone pilot Dave Yip.

Mt. Rose Summit is a pass through the Carson Mountains near Reno, Nevada.  The Carson's are considered a spur (a type of extension) of of the Sierra Nevada range, which run along the border between eastern California and western Nevada.  With an altitude of about 2.7k meters above sea level (about 8.9k ft.), Mt. Rose Summit is the highest pass through the Sierra's which is open year round.  You can see this beautiful spot in the winter in this stunning drone video of the pass by contributor pnoymavic30.

This drone video is all encompassing when it comes to the Southern Utah State and National Park experience. Contributor and pilot vospader took his DJI Mavic Pro out to the great western American state to capture all that he saw. Locations he flew include Bryce Canyon, Red Canyon, Connonville, the Bonneville Salt Flats, and Grand Escalante. The vivid colors of the sky reflect off of the majestic peaks, canyons, and buttes; a landscape which reflects the immense natural diversity of the state.

Top AirVuz contributor Allan Crawford used a DJI Mavic Pro 3 drone to create this marvelous aerial video from a spectacular rock formation in the Southwestern USA.  The Kolob Terrace is located just outside of Zion National Park in southwestern Utah, not far from Utah's southern border with Arizona.  It's one of the natural wonders of  of this area, where the Colorado Plateau, Great Basin, and Mojave Desert come together in a series of magnificent canyons and other geological wonders produced in over 150 million years of sedimentation.  

Former DVOW Finalist thedronalist brings us this excellent drone video from the fabled Strip of Las Vegas, Nevada.  The video opens with a shot looking west towards the Venetian and Harrah's casinos from the perspective of the Mirage, which sits on the opposite side of Las Vegas Boulevard.  Next up is a shot looking south towards the Flamingo (whose construction in 1946 marked the birth of the strip) and opposite the ultra-luxurious Bellagio.  Other featured locations include the Nevada High Roller Ferris Wheel, Treasure Island and more.   

Moab Canyon is actually not a single spot but rather a series of canyons and related geological marvels created by the Colorado River in southern Utah.  Named after the biblical region of Moab in Jordan, the area around Moab Canyon has become a huge magnet for outdoors-seekers of many stripes, ranging from rock climbers to Jeep drivers, as well as for big-budget movie makers.  In this video, you'll get an aerial look at marvelous Moab shot on an EVO drone, produced by its maker Autel Robotics.  

Top AirVuz contributor montesinosdroneworld created this fantastic drone video of a well-known rock formation in the Southwestern USA called Factory Butte.  So named by settlers in reference to its resemblance to a giant factory, it's a monolith (an isolated formation) located in the San Rafael Desert in southern Utah.  Its summit sits at an altitude of about 6.3k ft. above sea level, or around 1.9k m.  This video was picked by the AirVuz editorial staff as a Finalist for the Drone Video of the Week contest in November of 2023. 

Contributor Katie.j11 created this awesome bird's eye look at the Cumbres and Toltec Scenic Railway in New Mexico.  The narrow-gauge historic railroad runs just over 100 km (around 60 mi.) between  Antonito, Colorado and Chama, New Mexico in the Southwestern USA.  Famously, the railroad was the filming location for a chase scene in the 1989 film Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, the third installment of the Indiana Jones series which was a collaboration between Steven Spielberg and George Lucas.  

Here's a terrific aerial view of a rock formation in New Mexico, compliments of contributor and drone pilot azgeek.  It's called Cathedral Cliff, and it's located in San Juan County, in the northwestern corner of this southwestern US state.  It's what's known as an Inselberg, which is basically a rock formation that rises abruptly off of a plain.  Cathedral Cliff is located close to the better-known Shiprock formation, a larger inselberg, which you can see off in the distance at around the :50 mark of the video.  

Lake Havasu is one of the largest artificial reservoir lakes in the USA.  It was created by the damming of the Colorado River at Parker Dam on the California/Arizona border, about 255 km (around 150 mi.) downstream from Hoover Dam.  Its most famous landmark is the London Bridge (not the original medieval bridge but its 19th century replacement) which was deconstructed and moved here in the 1960's as a tourist attraction.  You can see Lake Havasu from above in this drone video by contributor and pilot Aces Up. 

Contributor and drone pilot Weatherman created this amazing aerial view of Utah's Great Salt Lake as well as its most prominent man-made landmark: the gigantic Kennecott Garfield Smelter Stack.  Known as "the stack", it's one of the world's largest chimney structures, standing 370 meters (just over 1.2k ft.) above the surface.  Built in 1974, the chimney is part of the gigantic Kennecott copper smelter, which refines copper ore from the nearby Bingham Canyon mine, the world's largest open pit mine.  

Utah has some of the most diverse set of landscapes of any USA state.  While the northeastern part of the state is covered by the Rocky Mountains, its southern and southwestern parts are lands of spectacular deserts, canyons, and other-worldly rock formations.  In this drone video by contributor robinsaville, you'll get a bird's eye view of the area around St. George, in the southwestern corner of the state.  Situated near the borders with Arizona and Nevada, St. George sits at the northern end of the great Mojave Desert.

Check out this beautiful drone video of Arizona's Superstition Mountains, compliments of contributor and pilot cward360.  They are situated just east of Phoenix, and draw heavily from the metropolitan area's estimated 2019 population of over four million.  The highest mountain in the range is Superstition Mountain, which has a peak elevation of about 1.55k meters (around 5k ft.) above sea level.  Most of the mountains are part of the Federally-designated Superstition Wilderness Area.  

Scottsdale, Arizona has sometimes been called the desert equivalent of Miami Beach.  It's essentially a very large suburb of Phoenix, Arizona, located to the north and east of the state's largest city.  The large, rectangular-shaped city is about 50 km (around 30 mi.) north to south.  Its estimated population of about 25k, it's the fourth-most populous city in the Grand Canyon State.  You can check out this legendary wintertime destination from above in this drone video by RussellKriz85.

Check out this amazing drone reel of the Phoenix, Arizona area, compliments of contributor and pilot Axlfro.  This desert city has been one of the fastest growing urban areas in the United States for decades.  With only about 65,000 residents on the eve of World War II, the Phoenix metropolitan area is now home to over 4 million and is the principal city of the Southwestern USA.  The video features aerial footage of work done around the Phoenix area, including Camelback Mountain and nearby Scottsdale.  

Take an aerial tour of the mountains, canyons, and deserts of Utah in this fantastic video by former Drone Video of the Week Finalist Drone_Alaska.  The video features footage from the following locations: Monument Valley, which is famous for its red sandstone formations and is located near Utah's southern border with Arizona; the Valley of the Gods, just to the north of Monument Valley; Coral Pink Sand Dunes, a bit to the west; Bonneville Salt Flats, just west of the Great Salt Lake in northern Utah; and Moab, in east-central Utah.   

Enjoy these magnificent aerial views from the Southwestern USA, compliments of talented content creator and drone pilot Dog and Eye Productions.  The video features footage from Lake Powell, a giant artificial reservoir of the Colorado River on the border between Arizona and Utah; the nearby Glen Canyon National Recreation Area; the area around Page, Arizona, a town on the southern side of Lake Powell; and more.  As you'll see in the videos, the area has been blessed with an other-worldly level of beauty. 

Most people don't associate Arizona with waterfalls; this may be the reason why a waterfall system near Flagstaff may be the state's best-kept secret.  The Grand Falls is located about a half hour drive from Flagstaff in the Painted Desert.  The falls sports a total height of 56 meters (around 185 ft.).  The mud content in the water yields a dark brown water, earning the falls the nickname Chocolate Falls.  You can see this natural treasure from above in this drone video by contributor Nteschler.  

Contributor TampaRandy created this beautiful narrated video from Hoover Dam, arguably the world's most famous.  Situated on the Colorado River about a half-hour drive from Las Vegas, the 221 meter (726 ft.) tall concrete gravity dam created Lake Mead, the USA's largest reservoir.  A Depression-era public works project designed for hydroelectricity and flood control, its construction cost over a hundred lives but provided much-needed employment for thousands and helped give birth to modern Las Vegas.  

The strangest sight in the great western USA state of Nevada isn't actually in Las Vegas, as you might expect.  Rather it's a spot in the desert called International Car Forest of the Last Church, where abandoned cars have been "planted" into the ground in various orientations and covered in graffiti.  Located in Goldfield, Nevada these "sculptures" are the work of some very creative modern artists.  Check out this most unusual bit of modern art in this drone video by contributor and pilot 60 Seconds.

Check out this stunning drone video of a canyon in the Southwestern United States, compliments of contributor and pilot Allan Crawford.  Snow Canyon is located in Washington County, the southwesternmost county of the state of Utah.  Snow Canyon and its "sister" canyon West Canyon sit in the Snow Canyon State Park.  The two canyons are notable in part for their fabulously colored rocks, which are part of the Navajo Sandstone formation that covers huge tracts across the region, as well as for its cinder cones and lava tubes.

The Theodore Roosevelt Dam is located in Arizona, in the Southwestern United States.  The dam, which is primarily for irrigation and flood control rather than to generate electrical power, was built in the early 1900s.  With a height of over 100 meters (350 ft), the spillway moves up to 4,300 cubic meters of water (150k cu ft) per second.  Contributor and pilot RusselKriz85 used a drone to create this amazing aerial video of the structure, which is a  protected landmark under US conservation laws.    

Check out this remarkable drone video of a famous sculpture built into the shores of the Great Salt Lake, Utah, compliments of contributor and pilot Dewey_Drone.  The Spiral Jetty was built by an American sculptor named Robert Smithson.  Completed in 1970, the unusual landmark spans a length of over 450 meters (about 1.5k ft.).  Its construction was documented in a film produced by the Smithsonian.  The Spiral Jetty is situated on the shore of the lake, the largest salt lake in the Western Hemisphere.  

Check out this DJI Mavic Pro 2 drone video of Mt. Lemmon in Tucson, Arizona, compliments of contributor azgeek.  It's the highest peak in the Santa Catalina range which runs through the northern part of Arizona's second largest city.  The mountain has a peak elevation of almost 2.8k meters (about 9.2k ft.) above sea level, making it one of the highest in the entire Southwestern USA.  The mountain hosts a ski resort which reportedly averages about 500 centimeters (200 inches) of snow per year. 

Get an aerial view of one of America's tallest bridges, compliments of contributor and pilot Luiz Gerbase.  The Navajo Bridge in the Southwestern USA state of Arizona is actually two separate spans over the Colorado River.  The original bridge opened in 1929 and is 250 meters long (834 ft.).  The second span, which is 23 meters (75 ft.) longer, opened in 1995 and now handles all vehicular traffic.  With a height of about 142 meters (around 470 ft.), both rank amongst the country's ten tallest bridges. 

Grafton, Utah is perhaps the USA's best-known true "ghost town".  It was settled in an area south of what is now Zion Park in 1859.  Between flooding, silting of its river, and attacks from the native population, it was more or less completely abandoned by 1920.  Gone, but not forgotten: with the dawn of the movie age, Grafton was used in the first outdoor "talkie" movie in 1929 and later in the 1969 classic Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.  Check out Grafton from above in this drone video by NOSTROMO.   

Plaza Blanca is a popular hiking area in northern New Mexico.  It's situated about an hour drive north of Santa Fe, in the north-central part of the state.  The rock formations here were immortalized in a painting by Georgia O'Keeffe, who had a clear view of the scene from her house in nearby Abiquiu.   Her masterpiece, entitled the White Place in Sun, is considered one of the great works of 20th century American painting.  Get a bird's eye view of the storied Plaza Blanca in this excellent drone video.

Contributor azgeek used a DJI Mavic Pro 2 drone to create this nice aerial view of Picacho Peak in the USA's southwestern state of Arizona.  The centerpiece of a state park of the same name, Picacho Peak is located roughly halfway between Phoenix and Tucson, a bit closer to the latter.  the summit has a peak elevation of a little over 1k meters above sea level (just under 3.4k ft.).  It's well known for its spring wildflower blossom, as well as its clear views of the vast Sonoran Desert from its western side.  

Historically, the USA state of Nevada was closely tied to the mining industry.  In the 19th and early 20th centuries, mining finds created instant towns, some of which were subsequently abandoned.  In this drone video by ray dunakin, you'll get a bird's eye view of one of these Nevada ghost towns.  It's called Blair, and it's situated roughly midway down the diagonal section of Nevada's western border.  Blair emerged out of the silver strike in nearby Tonopah in the early 1900's; by 1920 it was a ghost town.  

Seeing the giant casinos of the Las Vegas Strip, it's sometimes easy to forget that this giant metropolis of over three million people is in the middle of a desert.  Just a few km/mi away, you will find some of the world's most spectacular desert landscapes.  Witness this stunning drone video from AirVuz contributor North Skye Aerial Imaging.  It was filmed around Lake Las Vegas in Henderson, just a few km/mi south of the intersection of Las Vegas and Flamingo Boulevards, considered the center of the Las Vegas Strip.  

Check out this fantastic drone video of Lake Powell in the Southwestern USA, compliments of AirVuz contributor Dog and Eye Productions.  The second-largest reservoir lake in the USA by volume, the Lake Powell straddles the border between Arizona and Utah.  While Powell was created for flood control and hydroelectricity, it's also a major aquatic recreation destination in the region.  Created in the early 1970's, the lake is named after noted explorer John Wesley Powell.  The lake is over 185 mi. long (about 300 km).   

AirVuz contributor GBdrone returns after a three year hiatus from AirVuz to bring us this magnificent drone video from the Sonoran Desert in Arizona.  The desert covers about 260k square km (around 100k square mi.) in southern California, southwestern Arizona, and northern Mexico.  Unlike adjacent deserts such as the Mojave and Chihuahuan Deserts, the Sonoran features relatively warm winters and two seasons of rainfall.  It's home to a wide variety of flora and fauna, including 350 species of bird, 20 reptile species, and more.   

Contributor and pilot Michael McColl created this excellent drone video of a well-known rock formation in the Southwestern USA called Mexican Hat.  It derives its name from its sombrero shape, which you'll see clearly in the video.  The rock can be climbed via two separate routes.  The rock (and the town which is named after it) are located near the San Juan River in San Juan County, which lies in the southeastern corner of Utah, not far from the Four Corners area where Utah touches three other states.

Of the famous "red rocks" of Sedona, Arizona, probably the most famous is the one you'll see in this drone video by contributor and pilot JordanB22: Bell Rock. It's located near the town of Oak Creek, just south of the city of Sedona.  Like the other rock formations here, it's what's known as a butte - basically, a giant "rock hill" arising out of an otherwise flat landscape.  Created by deposition and erosion patterns, buttes are among the more distinctive features of the Southwestern USA landscape.  

The United States and Mexico share two deserts, both of which are amongst the world's 15 largest: the Chihuahuan and Sonoran Deserts both straddle the two countries' long border.  The Sonoran covers about 300k square km (around 120k square mi.) in the states of California, Arizona, and New Mexico on the USA (northern) side and the states of Sonora and Baja California on the Mexico (southern) side.  In this drone video by contributor and pilot AZGeek, you'll get a look at the Sonoran Desert just northwest of Tucson in Arizona.  

AirVuz contributor montesinosdroneworld brings us this beautiful drone video of one of the most iconic spots in the Southwestern USA: Dead Horse Point, which is part of the Moab Canyon area in southeastern Utah.  Due to its similarity to the Grand Canyon, Dead Horse Point has been used to film numerous movies and TV shows, most notably the famous (but tragic) ending scene of the 1991 road adventure/comedy movie Thelma & Louise, and the opening scene in the 1999 installment of the Mission: Impossible series, Mission: Impossible 2.  

TampaRandy created this marvelous drone video involving the Durango & Silverton Railroad, a historical (narrow-gauge) line in southwestern Colorado.   Opened in 1882, the railroad once used to hauling gold and silver ore out of the San Juan Mountains is now a major tourist attraction.  And filming location: it was used to film the famous train heist sequence in the 1969 classic Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, and years later to film another famous train heist scene in the TV show Breaking Bad. 

The area west of Great Salt Lake, Utah is home to many instances of a natural phenomenon called a salt flat or salt pan.  These form in desert environments when water evaporates quickly and the ground can't absorb the minerals which had dissolved in the water.  The most well-known of these is the Bonneville Salt Flats. Seen here in this drone video by primeson, the Bonneville Flats are owned by the US Bureau of Land Management.  These wide-open expanses have been used to set numerous land-speed records.  

AirVuz contributor and pilot AerialWings brings us this excellent video of Mt. Charleston in Nevada.  Mt. Charleston is considered a sub-peak of Mt. Jefferson, which in turn if part of the Toqima Range near the southern tip of the state.  Mt. Charleston has a peak elevation of just under 12k above sea level (just over 3.6k m).  Despite its rather modest elevation, it's actually one of the more prominent peaks in the United States.  It's easily accessible from Las Vegas, which is located about 35 mi. (around 56 km) to its southeast.  

Take thirty-seconds to check out this quick clip of Monument Valley in the heart of winter, courtesy of pilot NonexistentJay. The red-send desert region lies on the Arizona-Utah border and is known for the tower sandstone buttes like the ones you see here. Frequently used as a filming location for Western movies, the valley experiences cold winters and hot summers. You can see a little snow on the ground as NonexistentJay takes his FPV drone through the desert, earning himself a spot on the FPV Pilots to Watch list in December, 2019.

Top AirVuz contributor and first person view (FPV) drone pilot Tomz FPV spent three weeks traveling throughout the western USA to create a series of FPV videos.  In this first piece, he explores the famous Fisher Towers rock formations.  Located near the town of Moab in eastern Utah, the towers are made of Cutler sandstone and capped by rock of the Moenkopi Formation.  The Fisher Towers have appeared in numerous movies, TV shows, and commercials, most famously in the opening of the 2002 comedy Austin Powers in Goldmember.       

Lest anyone forget, the giant city of Las Vegas, Nevada is completely surrounded by desert.  In this outstanding drone video by AirVuz contributor dronebyddodell, you'll get an aerial tour of some beautiful desert lands just a few mi./km away from the glitz of the gaming capital.  It's called the Red Rock Canyon Conservation Area, and it's located about 15 mi. west (about 25 km) of the Las Vegas Strip.  Managed by the Bureau of Land Management, the Red Rock area is known for its distinctive-looking red rock formations.  

Check out this fantastic drone video of a train making its way through the Southwestern USA, compliments of AirVuz contributor Vwkaufman.  He was able to film the Southwest Chief passenger train heading west towards Albuquerque, New Mexico.  Operated by Amtrak on tracks owned by BNSF, the route runs between Chicago and Los Angeles.  The line is the successor to the Super Chief line on the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway, one of the predecessors of BNSF, which was known as the "Train of the Stars". 

The Southwestern USA is known in part for its unique geological features.  One of the most unusual is the one seen in this drone video by AirVuz contributor RobSkyHigh: the Waterpocket Fold.  The geological structure runs for close to 100 mi. (around 160 km) through three counties in southern Utah.  It was formed during a geological period known as the Laramide orogeny, which began about 80 million years ago and ran for around 40 million years, a period during which the present-day Rocky Mountains were formed.  

Enjoy these outstanding aerial views from the Southwestern USA, compliments of AirVuz contributor and drone pilot My Travels.  The video was shot over and around Ivins, Utah, which is part of the larger St. George metropolitan area in Washington County, in the southwestern corner of the state.  The highly distinctive geology of the region is a function of the convergence of the Mojave Desert, the Great Basin, and the Colorado Plateau, three of the most important geographical features of the multi-state Southwest region.   

For a first upload to AirVuz, brand-new contributor Hollandaze.Photo brings us this excellent drone video from the desert of Arizona in the Southwestern USA.  The video was filmed in the Monument Valley, just outside of Monument Valley Tribal Park.  Monument Valley, which is part of the Colorado Plateau, straddles the Utah-Arizona border.  It is famous for its sandstone buttes, which rise hundreds of ft./m off the desert floor and are created by the unique deposition and erosion patterns of the region.  

Take a trip through the other-worldly landscapes of northern Arizona in this excellent drone video by AirVuz contributor and pilot Greenz By Air.  The video features footage from areas around the Grand Canyon, Sedona (which lies about halfway between the Grand Canyon and Phoenix, to the south), and more.  As the title of the video suggests, much of this land was the territory of the Navajo tribe.  The Navajo Nation Reservation covers about 27k square mi. (71k square km) of land, mostly in northern Arizona.  

Top AirVuz contributor and first person view (FPV) pilot Tomz FPV brings us this highly cinematic FPV piece from Moab, Utah in the Southwestern USA.   Located in the southeastern part of the state, the area around Moab is known for its spectacular rock formations, which were created from the underlying sandstone by the unusual erosion patterns which occur here.  Among other highlights, the video features a number of adrenaline-pumping shots flying through some impossibly tight canyons.    

AirVuz contributor and pilot brings us this excellent drone video of the famous Red Rocks of Sedona in the Southwestern USA state of Arizona.  Located about 200 km north of Phoenix (around 120 mi.), the sandstone rocks are one of the top tourist attractions in the Grand Canyon State.  The video features footage of three of the most well-known of the formations: Bell Rock, Courthouse Butte, and Cathedral Rock.  Actually orange rather than red colored, the rocks are part of the larger Schnebly Hill Formation.   

While the arid southwestern United States isn't typically associated with aquatic recreation, the region does have a number of great boating lakes.  One of these is Lake Powell, a reservoir on the Colorado River which straddles the states of Arizona and Utah.  While Powell was created for flood control and hydroelectricity, it also makes for some epic boating.  Witness this spectacular drone video by contributor pk productions chasing a "Supersports" boat across this aquatic paradise.  

Top content creator and drone pilot Wrenee, aka Queen of the Dronie, took this epic drone selfie shot off of Dead Horse Point, in southern Utah.  It's part of the Moab Canyon area in southeastern Utah.  This area has been a go-to shooting location for moviemakers for decades, due in part to its similarity to the Grand Canyon.  The spot where this video was taken was the filming location for the opening scene of Mission: Impossible 2 (1999) in which Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) is seen scaling a giant rock face.  

For a second upload to AirVuz, new contributor FlyBoy73 brings us this excellent drone video from Comb Wash Canyon in the Southwestern USA.  The canyon runs a course of about 35 mi. (around 60 km) through Utah's San Juan County, not far from the southeastern corner of the state.  The video was filmed along the eastern side of the wash, known as Comb Ridge, which is a series of cliffs rising up to 1k ft. (around 330 m) above the canyon floor.  The southern end of the canyon ends at the San Juan River.  

Experience the beauty of Moab, Utah by first person view (FPV) drone in this excellent travel video by top AirVuz contributor WestPsydeFPV.  Located in Grand County, in the eastern part of the state (not far from the border with neighboring Colorado), the Moab area is known for its distinctive rock formations, canyons, and other geological phenomena.  It's home to two National Parks, as well as numerous scenic lookouts and hiking and mountain biking trails.  This video was picked for the FPV Pilots to Watch list in July, 2023.  

For a first upload to AirVuz, brand-new contributor Flyboy73 brings us this excellent drone video of a butte near the Four Corners area of the Western USA, where the states of Arizona, New Mexico, Utah, and Colorado meet.  Buttes are isolated rock formations caused by the erosion of layers of structurally weaker rock below a hard caprock, a pattern which is particularly common in this region.    While similar landforms are found in other parts of the world, the term "Butte" is typically only emplyed with respect to those in North America.

Tsé Bitʼaʼí or "rock with wings" in Navajo is a monadnock, rising above the high-desert plains of the Navajo Nation in San Juan County, New Mexico, United States. Shiprock has large religious and historical significance for the Navajo people and has been featured in several prominent movies and novels.  It's made up of what remains of the throat of a volcano and was probbably formed 2,500 - 3,000 feet below the Earth's surface, but has been exposed after millions of years of erosion. 

Monument Valley spans the Utah-Arizona border in the Southwestern United States.  With its giant sandstone buttes, the valley was discovered by producers of Western movies in the 1930's.  Ever since, it's been known as one of the most iconic "cowboy" filming locations in the world.  In this 18 second drone video by contributor and drone pilot Rick Ray Films captures a "cowboy" sitting on his horse overlooking this spectacular expanse of desert in the heart of the great American West. 

Top AirVuz contributor and first person view (FPV) drone pilot WestPsydeFPV brings us this fantastic FPV video of the Fisher Towers rock formation in Utah.  Located about 16 mi. (around 25 km) northeast of Moab, the towers are made of Cutler sandstone and capped by rock of the Moenkopi Formation.  The tallest of the towers reaches a height of about 900 ft. (around 270 m) above the floor of the surrounding mesa.  A popular rock climbing spot, the Fisher Towers have appeared in numerous movies, TV shows, and commercials.  

Las Vegas, located in the desert of Nevada in the Southwestern US, is a most improbable city.  What has sustained the city almost since its beginnings has been legalized gambling, mostly in the form of huge casinos which line the Strip, a 6.8 km (4.2 mi.) stretch of Las Vegas Boulevard south of the city limits.  In this episode of Droning America, hostess Angie Avestruz collaborated with Anthony Cools, an avid drone enthusiast and pilot who has a long-running hypnosis show at one of the larger Las Vegas casino properties.  

In this episode of Droning America, host Angie Avestruz heads to sunny Phoenix, Arizona.  She meets up there with award-winning drone pilot Jay Worsley, who hails from the great city in the American Southwest.  Together they explore the greater Phoenix area and the surrounding desert, capturing the highlights with Jay's DJI Phantom 4 drone.  Highlights include shots of Camelback Mountain just outside the city center, some of the area's famous golf courses, and some great shots of downtown Phoenix.

In this episode of Drone Dish, host Tyler Mason catches up with American drone pilot Hayden Kast.  He got started flying drones with a DJI Spark, and soon upgraded to a DJI Mavic Air.  While his videos cover three continents, his home base is the American west.  Based in Colorado, much of his content features the Rocky Mountains region and the arid Southwest.  In this segment, you can listen to him talk about how he developed his passion, tips and tricks on flying in difficult mountainous conditions, and more.  

In this episode of Drone Dish, host Tyler Mason caught up with the award-winning drone pilot Jay Worsley.  Jay traveled from his home in Phoenix, Arizona to the New York City Drone Film Festival, where one of his entries was a finalist.  Jay's videos of the Southwestern USA's spectacular landscapes are some of the most popular videos on AirVuz; his classic "Perspective" won the "Landscapes" category in the first annual Drone Video Awards, and "Ethos" was selected as a Finalist for the second.