(Hint if you can't fit the pics on your screen: Hit CTRL-(minus) to zoom out.)
For several years, the flight between Seattle and San Francisco has been my favorite one ... when it's clear that is. For those who are not familiar with it, there is a string of large volcanoes along this route. When it is clear, the view is spectacular. I'm a window seat kind of guy (unless travelling with my son, then he gets the window seat, and I'll take the middle).
Normally, I can't get good pictures out the airplane window ... I just enjoy the view. This evening, on the flight, I tried it with my phone - the windows weren't too dirty or frosty. I got some that are decent that I wanted to share. Not all of them ... I don't even know the names of all of them ... but I got the pictures of some of the most famous (Actually, about the time I was directly over LFFA's head, I could see 6 of the large volcanoes all at the same time.
So here goes ... you have to be on the east side of the plane since this flight path goes along the west coast. Typically, going south, you are farther west than going north, so some of the volcanoes (like Crater Lake) are harder to see, but either way, they are spectacular when it is clear.
First, as you take off from Seattle, at 14,411 ft (4,392 m) tall with a base near sea level: Mt. Rainier (Simply called "The Mountain" by the residents of Western Washington):
As I was waiting for the next Volcano to come behind the wing where I could get a better shot, the pilot turned the plane, dipping the wing. When he did that, I got a shot of three of the Washington volcanoes in one picture. Going left to right, they are: Mt. Rainier, Mt Adams, and Mt. St. Helens.
You can't see it well in the picture, but one side of Mt. St. Helens is blown off from the famous eruption in 1980. It looks to have a full wall to the south (right, in the picture) and has a horseshoe shape with the hollow to the north (toward the left):
Closer to LFFA, , as you get into Oregon, the next big volcano is Mt. Hood. Unfortunately, I wasn't happy at all with my pictures of Mt. Hood - they were very blurry (Need something better than my phone, I think). But for what it's worth, here is Mt. Hood:
Next come the Three Sisters, and I could not get a clear picture of them at all.
The next volcano is HUGE, and that is Crater Lake. We were so far west that in person, I could only see about half of the lake, and that only fainltly in the mist. However; I could hear Browncoat saying "Pictures or it didn't happen," so just for Browncoat, I took a picture of Crater Lake. Here it is:
Honestly, in the picture, I can't see water. Where you see the clouds, if you look directly below that, you see a little bit of white like a mountain. That is the edge of Crater Lake. The lake is left and above that in the picture. If you can see water in that, you're doing better than I can in the picture, but that's it. No the Northern route, we would be farther east and be able to see it better.
The tallest and largest in terms of the rock that is still standing (which disqualifies the caldera of Crater Lake) are the ones on the End. The northenmost is Mt. Rainier. On the Southern End is Mt. Shasta, CA. When we draw even with Mt Shasta I know we've passed out of Oregon and into California. So rising 14,179 feet (4,322 m) above sea level, with a base that is much broader than Mt. Rainier, and 3 peaks that I can make out as we fly over is Mt Shasta:
The sun is positioned just right so that the reflection make it almost look like it was glowing.
There are lots of lakes in the higher parts of the Cascades in Oregon that are still frozen over.
I thought I might get some pictures of the Golden Gate Bridge, but when we got to that area, the Marine Layer had moved in so that only one tower of the bridge was even visible ... I took a pic, but you really have to look to see the tower. I didn't think the pictures I got of the Bay Area were worth posting ... even where the marine layer wasn't thick, it was hazy enough that the pictures look really hazy.
So that was today's volcanos flight. If you haven't flown it, do it. Hopefully on a clear day ... and try to get the window seat on the east side of the plane (A, when you are going south, and F, or whatever the highest letter is when going North)
