"Above the Clouds"

March 1977. Someone pressed a camera against an airplane window and captured something extraordinary.

A vast sea of clouds stretches endlessly to the horizon, soft and billowing in every shade of lavender and purple, lit from below by the warm golden amber glow of a sun either rising or setting — it is impossible to tell which, and somehow that ambiguity makes it even more beautiful. Above, the sky fades from gold to the softest blush pink to a deep, quiet violet.

There is no ground here. No city, no road, no sign of the world below. Just clouds and color and the particular silence that exists at 30,000 feet when everything ordinary falls away.

Some places can only be reached by letting go of the ground entirely. This one is worth the trip.