I signed up for a photography workshop with UTadventure and drove out to Salt Lake City over a couple of days to join the tour. The trip was 7 days total, covering Salt Lake City, Moab, and Green River — then I took a few leisurely days to drive home.

This trip was also my first real outing with a brand new DJI Mavic Mini. My only prior practice was a single flight in my backyard — which didn't go smoothly. My yard is basically an obstacle course for a drone and I managed to clip my palo verde tree. To make things worse, I live near a flight path so I was limited on altitude right from the start.

My first serious drone adventures were at Goblin Valley. Most parks ban drone use entirely, but at Goblin Valley you can purchase a permit — and with all that open space, it felt like the right place to get comfortable. I discovered that without an internet connection the Mavic's range is automatically limited, which was mostly fine out there. I didn't quite get the hang of gracefully reversing course when I hit my horizontal range limit, and I ran into a strange glitch where the controller claimed I was too far away when the drone was less than 20 feet in front of me.

I made several flights across a couple of visits and grew more adventurous each time. My first flight just hovered above the Goblins while I got used to the controls. By the later visits I was gliding down into the valley and threading around the formations — a lot of fun once you find your rhythm.

My second drone session was at the abandoned water park in Newberry Springs. These were my longest flights — enough to drain at least one full battery. The heat didn't help either; it was in the 90s and the drone kept warning me it was overheating. Unlike the sheltered bowl of Goblin Valley, there was real wind here, which became a problem when I tried to fly out of the buildings through a doorway and suddenly hit the full force of the gusts.

With a good internet connection and no airspace restrictions, I could push the drone much higher — higher than I was really comfortable with, honestly, since it became very easy to lose visual contact. Controlling the drone in bright sunlight was its own challenge: the glare on the phone screen was awful unless I found some shade, and juggling shade, the controls, and keeping an eye on the drone in the sky was a bit much to manage at once. At one point the battery ran critically low and the drone automatically returned to its launch point — which happened to be inside a building. I watched helplessly as it made a beeline for the roof above where it had taken off. Fortunately it made it out!

On the drive home I passed through Zion National Park and caught the incredible tunnel on the east side approach. It turned out to be a free entry weekend in honor of National Parks history, which explained why the crowds were especially thick. Still worth every slow mile!