just got back from two weeks driving through utah and nevada and wanted to share because i was pretty stressed going in but it ended up being fine mostly. i have the dji air 3 and just kept it in a pelican case in the back seat. the biggest thing i learned is that national parks are a total no go, like rangers will actually come find you, one guy at zion told me they have people specifically watching for drones now. but state parks and BLM land is usually way more chill, i flew every single morning at some random BLM spot outside moab and got the best footage ive ever taken. the light at 6am in the desert is just insane. altitude was weird for me though coming from the east coast, had to recalibrate my expectations for how the drone handles when youre already at 5000+ feet

the BLM land thing is huge, people sleep on that. so much of the west is BLM and you can basically fly wherever as long as you're following part 107 or recreational rules. i did a similar trip last summer. pro tip is to download the FAA drone zone app and also Aloft before you go because cell service out there is garbage and you want the airspace data cached offline

wait does altitude actually affect how the mini or air series flies? i always assumed it was fine up to like 10k feet or something. never really noticed a diference when i was in colorado but maybe i wasnt paying attention