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Portland → San Francisco

PDX–SFO · Portland International Airport to San Francisco International Airport

Best bet

Left side

Strong betOne side has clearly more to look at.

Mount Shasta is the main event, and it has company: 5 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.

PDX to SFO: 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.PDXSFOLEFT SIDERIGHT SIDE12345678
Distance from the route is to scale (up to 50 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 Hood

    LeftEarly44 mi off the route

    Mount Hood is about 44 miles off the left, early in the flight.

    Good possibility

  2. Mount Jefferson

    LeftEarly38 mi off the route

    Early in the flight, Mount Jefferson sits roughly 38 miles to the left.

    Distant possibility

  3. Three Sisters

    LeftQuarter in39 mi off the route

    Look left about a quarter of the way in for Three Sisters, about 39 miles out.

    Distant possibility

  4. Crater Lake

    LeftQuarter in21 mi off the route

    Crater Lake is about 21 miles off the left, about a quarter of the way in.

    Good possibility

  5. Mount Shasta

    LeftHalfway15 mi off the route

    Around the halfway mark, Mount Shasta sits roughly 15 miles to the left.

    Strong candidate

  6. Lassen Peak

    LeftThree quarters50 mi off the route

    Look left about three quarters of the way for Lassen Peak, about 50 miles out.

    Distant possibility

  7. Golden Gate

    Either sideNear the end5 mi off the route

    Golden Gate sits close enough to SFO that the runway in use and the procedure of the day decide whether it shows up at all.

    Runway dependent

  8. San Francisco Bay

    Either sideNear the end8 mi off the route

    Whether San Francisco Bay appears comes down to how you come into SFO, 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

551 mi
Great-circle distance
179°
Course out of PDX
179°
Course into SFO
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?

San Francisco → PortlandRight 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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