JFK-SFO on Alaska Airlines

On my recent trip to Oakland, I flew on Alaska Airlines from JFK to SFO. I chose an aisle seat for the long flight and when I boarded, a young lady was in my seat with a service dog. I politely told her it was my seat and she realized that she was actually in the window seat and moved over, with the pup resting underneath the seat in front. Between us was an older woman who was quite pleasant and chatty. After boarding was complete but before the doors were closed, the young lady's mother came by and told her that there was more room up front, so the young lady and the dog moved into the "premium" seats. This annoyed the gate agent who happened to be on the plane at the time but he let her go, before turning his attention to the woman next to me. Turns out she was also in the wrong seat and he insisted that she move back to her correct location, which she did, no longer so pleasant and chatty. Which meant that I had a row to myself on a nearly full flight!

I moved over to the window after take-off and promptly fell asleep for a couple of hours. When I awoke, I signed up for the Wi-Fi and used FlightRadar24 to find out that we were over South Dakota, a more northerly route than usual due to weather in the central part of the country. After opening the window shade, I used Google Maps to figure out some geographic features and started posting pictures on X. I'm going to do the same here, for posterity. Above is Little Bend on the Missouri River in South Dakota, just northwest of Pierre, the state's capital. 

A few minutes later we were over Rapid City and I was able to recognize the arena complex where the Rapid City Rush of the ECHL play; it is the collection of three white buildings in the middle of the photo above.

We then entered Wyoming, which has some interesting and colourful formations from the air. I was unable to determine exactly what these are called.

We flew over Bridger-Teton National Forest and clipped the corner of southeastern corner of Idaho.

Below is the town of Montpelier, Idaho, home of the Butch Cassidy Museum.

Up at this height, it is obvious the earth isn't flat, but that doesn't stop some people from believing it to be so.

These same people believe that these formations in the photo below are crop circles made by aliens no doubt.

We entered Nevada, passing by some inhospitable locations where even roads are hard to spot.

Pyramid Lake is amazing from the air, with the foothills of Tule Peak in the upper left corner of the photo.

We began our descent as we passed into California, with Sutter Buttes and Yuba City in clear view.

As we turned south, we went by Point Reyes National Seashore.

We flew by San Francisco but I was on the right side of the plane, so unable to get a picture. Instead, I saw the wetlands by San Jose.

On final approach we went over the San Mateo-Hayward Bridge, as most flights arriving at SFO do.

Shortly thereafter, we were on the ground. I was fortunate to end up with a window seat on a clear day that we took a different flight path than normal that brought us over some cool spots. The planet we inhabit is truly incredible and to have a chance to see so much of it from above is something that few take advantage of. Alaska Airlines Wi-Fi was excellent and allowed me to post my pictures in real-time. I hope to have the opportunity to do so again. 

Best,

Sean