What Do You See Flying DFW To LAX?

I know, I said yesterday that there wouldn’t be any pictures from today’s flights back to Los Angeles from Norfolk, but I was pleasantly mistaken. It turned out that the airplane on the DFW to LAX leg was only about half full. While I was booked into a middle seat, with no one in the window seat in our row I slid over to the window seat and got to take pictures. (I take a LOT of pictures.)

The Skybridge people mover at DFW can be seen above the planes at Terminal A here as we’re getting ready to go.

I didn’t take many pictures over Texas (it can be a bit monotonous, despite being BIG) but the scenery gets more interesting in New Mexico. This is around Willard, NM.

We started dodging some building thunderheads over the Manzano Mountains in New Mexico.

The Rio Grande valley around Belen, NM really stands out, a bright stripe of green running north and south.

More building cumulus clouds over eastern Arizona, then it turned into a solid, flat deck of clouds, that’s even more monotonous than west Texas.

The next time I peaked out the window, the clouds were gone and Lake Havasu, AZ was below, formed by the Colorado River being backed up behind Parker Dam.

Twenty-Nine Palms, CA. If this isn’t the middle of nowhere, you can see it from here.

These buttes stand out around Landers, CA, while from 25,000 feet the city looks more like Mos Eisley spaceport.

Moving into the greater Los Angeles area, the first big airport you see is San Bernardino International, which is used primarily for cargo.

Smaller airports dot the area also, although not nearly as many as there used to be. I believe this is Flabob Airport in Riverside, CA.

Airports aren’t the only big landmarks that stand out. So does the Ontario Motor Speedway.

Just to the west of the Ontario Motor Speedway is the Ontario International Airport.

On final approach to LAX you’ll see downtown Los Angeles off to your right, with Hollywood visible in the far distance beyond it.

Then it’s time to shut off all electronics because we’re going to be on the ground in about three minutes. Now it’s time to shut off my brain because it’s been a twenty-one hour and 2,781 mile day.