From an Airplane

Here is some aerial eye-candy for you. My flight from Denver to Las Vegas flew over some of the most stunning mountain vistas in the West. I know taking pictures out an airplane porthole is stupid and the results are rarely worth saving, but I could not resist. Besides, as a Big Fly, the birding was dismal: house sparrow, rock pigeon, Euro starling.

I was fascinated by how the topography changed, how it seemed there were different species of mountains. So here's what I saw and what the camera captured. I was sitting over the wing in the exit row (and there's a funny story there, which I will try to get up here later today), so I had to crop the plane's engine and wing out of a few of these.
Hope you enjoy....

Snowy-capped peaks leaving Denver.

This view reminded me of a Japanese watercolor.

Red and coppers as we flew over Utah.

The last mountain ridge east of Vegas.

Las Vegas:The anthill in the desert.

The actual mountains all around Las Vegas must not have been pretty enough to look upon.

Manmade mountains along The Strip. Please, Mr. Captain-From-the-Flight-Deck, can we fly over the real mountains again?