Cities with distant mountains.

[Jbrow327]

What cities in the western USA can you see far distant mountains from? Can you see the Sangre De Christo's from Amarillo Texas?,etc.

[AndrewLyonsGeibel]

You can see Denali from quite a distance. I don’t know exactly what cities since I was in 7th grade last time I was there.

[Jbrow327]

I mean outside of Alaska. Denali is one of the biggest mountains on the planet by vertical rise. You'll be able to see it from hundreds of miles away.

[Ptglhs]

Have you considered taking a course in geometry and trigonometry and figuring this out for yourself?

[Chicago Transplant]

I don't think most of the mountains are all that visible unless you are talking the larger volcanoes in the PNW or as mentioned, Denali. You need a lot of prominence to account for the curvature of the earth.

Based on what I could find, the earth curves 6668' at 100 miles and at 200 miles it jumps to over 26,000' of curvature. 10,000' of curvature hits at about 123 miles. That is if you don't have other obstructions between you blocking your view.

You should in theory be able to see Denali from sea level if you are 175 miles away based on geometry. Calculator here:

http://earthcurvature.com/

[Wentzl]

What cities in the western USA can you see far distant mountains from? Can you see the Sangre De Christo's from Amarillo Texas?,etc.

No

[pvnisher]

The view of Rainier from Seattle is what got me into wanting to do more than just hike easy mountains.

View of Fuji-san from most of the Kanto Plain is pretty good, too.

[JROSKA]

I did some rudimentary geometry (x-squared + y squared = z squared) using the earth’s diameter as “x” and the earth’s diameter to Long’s Peak summit as “z” and I come up with 207 miles for “y” (the line from Long’s summit to the farthest visible point on the horizon). That seems awfully high, as that’s around the point where I first start to see Long’s on a Milwaukee to Denver flight, and that’s from 30,000 feet in the air. This calculation is just theory and doesn’t take anything like haze, atmosphere, humidity or hilly terrain into the equation.

In practice, it seems like when I drive I-76 towards Denver from the East, I start to see the front range just before Fort Morgan, which would be about 100 miles. Likewise, I’ve seen Pikes from Longmont and coming up I-25 from south of Denver, Long’s can be seen from south of Castle Rock, again, both are about 100 miles. Another example I can think of is how the Spanish Peaks quickly become visible on I-25 as soon as you get south of Colorado Springs, again, that’s about 100 miles. So it seems reasonable to assume that any city within 100 miles of a 13er or 14er with flat terrain in between, would have a pretty clear view of that mountain.

[JROSKA]

So going to the OP’s example of the southern Sangre’s being visible from Amarillo, the straight line distance from Amarillo to La Veta (near Spanish Peaks) is 236 miles, which is well outside the range of 100 (or slightly more) miles 13ers or 14ers can be seen from. I’ve never been in the southeastern part of Colorado but I’m guessing that you need to be inside the state line to see the southern Sangres.

[Chicago Transplant]

So going to the OP’s example of the southern Sangre’s being visible from Amarillo, the straight line distance from Amarillo to La Veta (near Spanish Peaks) is 236 miles, which is well outside the range of 100 (or slightly more) miles 13ers or 14ers can be seen from. I’ve never been in the southeastern part of Colorado but I’m guessing that you need to be inside the state line to see the southern Sangres.

You can see the Crestones from New Mexico on 285, but that is only about 60 miles line of sight at the border. Around 6500' elevation difference.

[JROSKA]

Oops that’s right. I forgot about New Mexico to the south. I should have clarified in my point (about being inside Colorado), I was referring to points to the East or southeast (like Kansas or Oklahoma). I’d be surprised if Colorado’s mountains can be seen from any of those areas but I’d be curious if it’s possible.

[jmanner]

From 30,000’ you can some crazy distances. I’ve seen Pikes from Scott’s Bluff,NE{(at 10,000’ MSL) 140 NM}. I’ve definitely seen the Front Range from well inside Kansas. That’s all super different than being on the ground.