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Las Vegas → Bellingham

LAS–BLI · Harry Reid International Airport to Bellingham International Airport

Best bet

Left side

Strong betOne side has clearly more to look at.

Mount Rainier is the main event, and it has company: 4 more worth looking at out the left.

Flight paths move around. Treat this as the better bet, not a promise.

What you might see

In flight order, with distance measured from the representative route.

LAS to BLI: where each landmark sits relative to the routeA diagram of the representative route running left to right, with the departure airport at the left and the arrival airport at the right. Landmarks on the left side of the aircraft are plotted above the route line and landmarks on the right side below it, each at its distance from the route. The numbered list below this diagram carries the same information as text.LASBLILEFT SIDERIGHT SIDE12345678
Distance from the route is to scale (up to 66 miles); the shaded ends are the 40-mile zones around each airport where the runway in use decides the view. Numbers match the list below. Hollow markers didn't count toward the recommendation.

  1. Mount Adams

    LeftThree quarters33 mi off the route

    About three quarters of the way, Mount Adams sits roughly 33 miles to the left.

    Good possibility

  2. Mount Rainier

    LeftNear the end25 mi off the route

    Mount Rainier is about 25 miles off the left, late in the flight.

    Strong candidate

  3. Puget Sound

    LeftNear the end25 mi off the route

    Look left late in the flight for Puget Sound, about 25 miles out.

    Distant possibility

  4. Mount Baker

    RightNear the end29 mi off the route

    Mount Baker sits close enough to BLI that the runway in use and the procedure of the day decide whether it shows up at all.

    Runway dependent

Show 4 more along the way (Mount Hood, Mount St. Helens, Glacier Peak, San Juan Islands)

Further off the route, closer to an airport, or both. Still in flight order, still numbered to match the diagram.

  1. Mount Hood

    LeftThree quarters66 mi off the route

    Mount Hood is about 66 miles off the left, about three quarters of the way.

    Distant possibility

  2. Mount St. Helens

    LeftThree quarters63 mi off the route

    Look left about three quarters of the way for Mount St. Helens, about 63 miles out.

    Distant possibility

  3. Glacier Peak

    RightNear the end39 mi off the route

    Late in the flight, Glacier Peak sits roughly 39 miles to the right.

    Distant possibility

  4. San Juan Islands

    LeftNear the end28 mi off the route

    Whether San Juan Islands appears comes down to how you come into BLI, which is not something we can know in advance.

    Runway dependent

The sun

Flying soon? Add your date and departure time and we'll work out where the sun should be, and which side gets less of it.

Airport codes or city names. SEA, Seattle, and Seattle-Tacoma all work.

Skip the date and you still get the landmark answer. Add it and we work out where the sun will be, using the departure airport's local time.

The route we used

954 mi
Great-circle distance
6
Landmarks that counted

That is the shortest path between the two airports, used as a representative corridor rather than a flight plan. The first and last 40 miles are treated as uncertain, because that part of the flight is shaped by the runway in use and the published departure or arrival procedure. Anything in those zones is listed and marked, never counted toward the recommendation.

Left and right, from where?

Left and right are from your perspective sitting in the cabin, facing the front of the aircraft. Seat letters are not a reliable guide to which side you are on, because aircraft are configured differently.

Why this isn't guaranteed

Flights don't follow the same path every day. Runway configuration, weather deviations, traffic, and air traffic control all move the track around, and none of it is knowable in advance. We also have nothing to say about cloud cover, which is the other thing standing between you and Mount Rainier. The full method.

Flying the other way?

Bellingham → Las VegasRight side

Calculated from scratch, not by flipping this one. The landmarks arrive in the opposite order, the sun is somewhere else entirely, and the answer changes with them.

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