WADDINGTON -- The St. Lawrence River takes on a whole new look when viewed from several hundred feet in the air.

Recently, I had a chance to take aerial shots of the river while on a ride with Saranac-Lake based Adirondack Helicopter Tours. A slideshow with some photos from the ride is at goo.gl/tEbA7A.

Having spent a lot of time on the river in a boat, an aerial view gives you a better sense of the massive amount of water passing through at any time. A portion of the river near Waddington is about two miles across, which you don’t really get a sense of from water level.

It’s way more, for lack of a better word, intimidating to see that all at once from the air instead of the snapshot the eye can see from the ground.

The massive amount of rural neighborhoods and forest land along the riverbanks made me think of Charlie Kelly from the TV show It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia saying “I mean trees! Everywhere trees!”

Being afraid of heights, I was terrified before getting on board, but the ride was much smoother than I anticipated. There is no jarring and shaking and the turns are fluid.

So long story short, if you have the chance to check out the St. Lawrence, or any other part of nature from the air, do it and ask them to take the doors off.