All sights in Colorado

Google Sightseeing takes you on tour of the world as seen from satellite, using the free Google Earth program, or Google Maps in your web browser. Each weekday your guides James and Alex present new weird and wonderful sights as suggested by readers.

The editors: James & Alex

Giant Pumpkin!

Thursday, 31st May 2007 by Alex

Now make sure your children’s eyes are covered, because we’ve found a completely naked Giant Pumpkin on Street View!

giant-pumpkin.jpg

Mmmm, pumpkin….

Thanks to Brian.

Buckley Air Force Base

Sunday, 30th April 2006 by James

Buckley Air Force Base is home to the 460th Space Wing Staff and features loads of these giant radar golf balls, which I guess are used for communicating with their “Defense Support Program” satellites.

The base also hosts the Colorado Air National Guard, who we can see here performing a rescue training exercise. It would appear that a rescueman is being lowered from a Blackhawk helicopter to the lake below, where the helicopter’s downwinds are creating circular waves.

Thanks: Mark Eaker

Keeping up with the Joneses Pt 2

Friday, 2nd December 2005 by James

You might remember the communities where to be part of the “in” crowd is to have your own tennis court. That’s all very well but in Cielo Dorado Estates you need your own plane! There’s a private runway running right though the centre of the community which is shared by all the residents. The community website has annotated maps and ground level photos. It looks like there might still be a couple of plots of land available, if you’re interested :D

Perhaps you’d prefer Denver to New Mexico? No problem, they’ve got a similar setup. Most of the houses in these areas have large hangars to house their planes, but the odd one is parked outside.

But what about those houses which aren’t directly on the runway (like this one in another community in Dallas)? That’s no problem as the connecting roads are extra-wide to accommodate you driving your plane down to the runway for your Sunday afternoon flights.

Thanks: Myke Westover, BlueTypewriter & Mousky

The Flatirons

Friday, 25th November 2005 by Alex

These are the Flatirons, an incredible rock formation near Boulder, Colorado. Don’t quite see what you’re looking at? Tilt your head 90 degrees to the left…

The Flatirons

More information on the Wikipedia page.

Thanks to Geoff.

The Oldest Electronically Lit School Emblem in the World

Wednesday, 12th October 2005 by Alex

Perched on the side of Mount Zion in Colorado is a giant ‘M’ for the Colorado School of Mines. The school claims that it is the ‘largest electronically-lit school emblem in the world’, a claim which is disputed by Brigham Young University, whose giant illuminated ‘Y’ is clearly much larger.

However, the M is definitely older, and has also been lighted for a good thirty years longer – so Colorado is entitled to lay claim to having the ‘oldest electronically lit school emblem in the world’ . . . if they wanted to that is.

School of Mines \'M\'

Thanks to Andrew G. Milmoe, Cyndi Wheeler, Timothy, Keith Maxon, Skor Grimm and Charles Christensen

Red Rocks Ampitheater

Thursday, 4th August 2005 by James

Red Rocks Amphitheatre is considered by many as the greatest music venue in the world (including most of the people who submitted it). The naturally occurring amphitheatre is between two 320 foot monoliths, Ship Rock to the south and Creation Rock to the north, which provide excellent acoustics for live music.

Apparently you might recognise Red Rocks from the U2 live video and album “Under a Blood Red Sky”, which was filmed there way back in 1983. U2 must be getting really old by now ;-)

Red Rocks

Thanks: shannon, Geoff, Yablo, Michael Sauers, Dgold, mz, Anne Dudfield, Matt Thompson

Colorado Balloon Things

Thursday, 2nd June 2005 by Alex

Doug described these things in Colorado as ‘deep space satellites’. Can anyone confirm what they are? (Please, please don’t say ‘weather balloons’…) ;-)

Colorado Balloons

Update: Turns out that these are actually two parabolic dish antennas belonging to the Deep Space Exploration Society located in the Table Mountain Antenna Fields Site.

Thanks to everyone is the comments for clearing that up :-)

2002 Fritzlers Corn Maze

Sunday, 29th May 2005 by James

The 2002 design for the Fritzlers Corn Maze depicts an eagle in front of the American flag and the slogan “God Bless America”.

Fritzler Corn Maze

Thanks: Gus