These pic­tures were tak­en at the Great Reno Bal­loon Race in Reno, Neva­da in 2009. It is the largest free hot air bal­loon exhi­bi­tion in the nation and the 2010 race was this past week­end. I did­n’t go this year, but it is a great oppor­tu­ni­ty for pho­tog­ra­phy and the won­der­ment of get­ting close to these hot air bal­loons.

When I say close, I mean that the pilots will actu­al­ly let you inside the bal­loon while it is inflat­ing with the fans only (which they use before the propane fire breath­ing blasters). You can walk through the field of 100 bal­loons ris­ing at once with no restric­tions or cost. I have a stop action ani­ma­tion of the mass ascen­tion at this link.

It is an easy dri­ve to Reno from the San Fran­cis­co bay area and it is pos­si­ble to avoid the down­town casi­nos all togeth­er if you want.

Plan on get­ting up ear­ly if you want the “Glow Show” and “Dawn Patrol” pic­tures. They start at 5am. The entire 3 day event is over by 10am each day.

For more infor­ma­tion, see the Great Reno Bal­loon Race web site.

Anoth­er sim­i­lar but big­ger event takes place in New Mex­i­co, Octo­ber 2–10, the Albu­querque Inter­na­tion­al Bal­loon Fies­ta with more of every­thing. I’ve nev­er been there but this is the mec­ca, accord­ing to the bal­loon­ists I talked to. Good luck get­ting a hotel room at this date.

Well, thanks for play­ing.