You might find this surprising, but hot air balloons are a very polarizing topic in the local community.  Last issue my unfavorable report on the Balloon Rodeo garnered both enthusiastic support from my fellow non-morning people, and extreme disapproval from the segment of the population that is capable of achieving consciousness before dawn and loves the tradition of ballooning in Steamboat.  From this second group of people I received many emails explaining why I am a bad person for not appreciating the Balloon Rodeo.  Also among the many emails I received was an olive branch extended to me by Pegasus Balloon Tours.

Owned and operated by husband and wife team Ian and Shelley Cox, they suggested that my lack of enthusiasm for the sport of ballooning was due primarily to ignorance, and if I would simply experience the activity first hand, I would be a convert.  They told me that if I were willing to pry myself out of bed early enough, they would be willing to let me tag along on one of their daily commercial flights over the valley.

Being a good journalist, I’m always willing to be open-minded about my positions when free stuff is involved, so I readily agreed.
On the morning of my scheduled flight I actually found myself excited enough that I awoke 5 minutes before my alarm went off.  The launch field was located just east of town, and after signing a quick waiver and watching the balloon inflate, we climbed in the basket and were off.

The basket we rode in had a 10 person capacity, but on this day there were only 8 of us and the pilot, Ian Cox.  Ian moved to Steamboat from England in 1979 as a ski bum. To make ends meet, he began training to be a balloon pilot in 1982 in order to get a job with one of the local balloon tour companies.  After many years of working for other companies, he bought his own balloon in 1998 and started Pegasus Balloon Tours.

The experience of riding in a hot air balloon was different than I expected.  Aside from the loud propane fueled flame bursts that heat the air inside the balloon, it is remarkably calm and peaceful.  Even if there is a breeze, you feel absolutely no air movement because you are moving at the exact speed and in the exact same direction as the wind.  In fact, if they allowed you to smoke cigars, you could easily blow smoke rings out of the basket and they would remain intact and float right along in the current with you.  It is definitely not a thrill ride, but the view from 1000 feet above the ground provides you with a whole new perspective of the area.  You see people and cars come to life in the early morning and begin to move about in the different parts of town.  You notice parts of the town you never noticed before, like amazing private ponds in peoples’ backyards, new housing developments that weren’t there a few years ago and you see lots of weird stuff on business rooftops.  You also get a wonderful perspective on the natural landscape surrounding Steamboat as well.  Floating directly above the Yampa River and looking 40 miles in every direction makes you realize how important of a waterway the Yampa is.  Seeing the many beetle kill patches in the forests at a single glance gives you a sense of the scope of that problem.  And seeing how green the entire valley is late in July emphasizes just how ideal the weather has been this summer.

Without trying to sound too fruity, a balloon trip over Steamboat makes you feel a sense of peaceful intimacy with the landscape below you.  Even though you are separated from it by 1000 feet, you somehow feel more connected to it as well.

After a one hour flight and a gentle landing, the ground crew picked us up and took us back to the launch area where our cars were.  Before we left though, Shelley opened a bottle of champagne and explained that it is customary to always toast a successful balloon flight; the idea being that since you can’t always control your exact landing spot in a balloon, you should always bring a bottle of champagne with you as a gift to make friends with whoever’s property you manage to land on.  In the case of our flight, ballooning landed on my heart and it managed to make a friend out of me.

Of course, part of me still thinks being a spectator at the Balloon Rodeo would be more fun if the balloons jousted or shot flaming arrows at each other, but next year I’ll definitely be there with a new found appreciation for the event.

(To book your balloon flight over Steamboat, call Pegasus at 970-879-9191.)