Phoenix Sunset Hot Air Balloon Ride, Guided Desert Flight

Every other balloon ride on this site goes up at dawn. This one does not. It launches late in the day and flies into the sunset, which makes it the only evening flight in the catalogue, and a reason to look twice even if you have already done a sunrise flight somewhere else. The desert of the American Southwest gets its low light at the other end of the day here. There is a reason dawn is the standard. Balloons need still air, and the stillest hour is the one after sunrise, before the ground warms up and starts throwing off the rough air that keeps balloons down for the rest of the day. Towards evening that process runs in reverse. The heating stops and the disturbed air settles again. In dry country a second usable window can open before dark, shorter than the morning one and not produced by every climate, which is why sunset flights stay rare while sunrise flights are everywhere. Golden hour does the same work at this end of the day that first light does at the other. The sun sits low and the Sonoran Desert is lit from the side rather than from overhead. The colour in the sky changes while the balloon is up in it, rather than before or after. The flight is guided. One practical difference: you reach this one without an alarm set for the middle of the night.