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help identifying texas from the air

3K views 15 replies 11 participants last post by  Jasonhouse 
#1 · (Edited)
i was in las vegas last month. it was the first time i flew to or from las vegas during the day while over the west, so i took lots of pictures. the flight that was during the day was from las vegas to houston (where we later connected to philly). using my map skills and geography skills, i have identified some of these pictures. however, there are some i am unsure of. can you guys help me?

i'll start off with the first picture that i was able to identify. it's of the rio grande vally in new mexico.

for this first picture, i think i can identify the caballo reservoir on the left, the san andres mountains in the middle, and white sands national monument in the back. the rio grande valley is visible with all the green.



for the second picture, i have a closer look at the san andres mountains, which formed a pretty straight line, and white sands national monument behind it.



las cruces, new mexico, in these next two pictures. i was able to identify the interstate 10 and interstate 25 intersection at the right, as well as us route 70 as it comes down from the mountains and curls towards downtown. i was also able to identify amador and lohman avenues in downtown, and the new mexico state football stadium (i don't think you can see it in the picture, since it was pretty much straight down).





"EAT PECANS". this sign is huge, considering i could clearly read it from 35,000 feet in the air. i zoomed in a little to get a bigger picture. each letter much be the size of 4 city blocks. since i saw this as we flew over las cruces, it must be just outside of town, somewhat near the interstate 10 & 25 split.



this picture was taken right after flying over las cruces, and before the sierra tinaja pinta/ does anyone know what town this might be?



this was confusing to me at first, but by identifying pictures of las cruces, nm, and monahans, tx, i was able to trace a route the plane took, and saw that it passed over these strange mountains.



my skills tell me that this is dell city, texas. i can see the salt basin on the right, which is labelld in my road atlas. i couldn't really idenitify countyr routes 1437 or 1576.



i believe this is red bluff lake, on the border of loving and reeves counties. new mexico is in the distance, just past the northern edge of the lake.



this picture is of monahan, texas. interstate 20 curls around the city, and a county route cuts through the city, then parallels interstate 20 for a little while. i can see state route 18 heading northwest. lastly, the white area northeast of the city must be monahans sandhills state park.



now we get into the harder pictures. some of these pictures i have a guess as to what they are. others i am completely clueless.

san angelo, texas.



the killeen/temple area in central texas.



a picture with the twin buttes reservoirs (possibly) in the middle of the picture. that might be san angelo on the right.



i finally figured this city out. this is hearne, texas, on the right, with the brazos river on the left.



this was the hardest picture to identify, but i think i finally got it. this picture is just noertheast of anderson, texas. state route 90 is seen going right through the middle of the picture. roans prairie is to the left of center in the picture, where route 90 seems to disappear into the countryside. state route 30 is then seen farther away, behind route 90. the town of anderson is just out of sight of the bottom of this picture.



a forest fire, which was visible for 3 to 5 minutes before we flew over it. this fire is just south of montgomery, texas, and just west of conroe, texas. lake conroe is visible at the top of the picture, with state route 105 straddling the southern end of the lake.



i believe this picture is of the woodlands, texas. about 20 seconds after i took this picture, i was able to identify a skyscraper located at an office park near what i presume is an interstate. right now, i can't remember if the skyscraper was in the developed area in between the lake and the interstate (near the upper middle), or down in the developed area at the bottom right of the picture.



at around the time of this picture, we had made a u turn and had goe from flying in a general eastern direction to a western direction. i think this is lake houston. is this correct?



and to finish all this off, here are few pictures of the houston skyline as we came in for the landing. i was sitting on the left of the plane, and we were landing at bush intercontinental, so i was looking south towards the city.







thanks to everyone that helps me figure out where these pictures are of.
 
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#4 ·
Those are awesome. I love looking at aerials.

no clue where this is. the important landmarks to help you guys figure out where it is are the winding river, what looks like a horsetrack in the top right, and a major road cutting through the top right area, as it passes a small populated area.
The horesetrack looking thing appears to be an airport. The rounded portion would be part of the taxiway. But have no clue where it is.
 
#5 · (Edited)
If you went east from then The Woodlands, then it was definitely Lake Houston.

Since you were on the left side of the plane, I'm assuming you were facing the southern half of the lake looking towards Crosby.

Great Pictures... The Woodlands looks very.. woody. :jk: I've seen those mountains before, but I can't remember what they are.
 
#7 ·
Sorry I can't help on any of the western US stuff, but you seem to be pretty clear on most things.

I love this photo because you can see another plane lining up with your plane for a parallel landing at IAH. I might be totally wrong, but the silver coloring on the body make me think it's a United Airlines plane. The strange thing is is that it disappears from your view as you approach the airport.

 
#9 ·
now we get into the harder pictures. some of these pictures i have a guess as to what they are. others i am completely clueless.

i have no clue where this is. i can see a reservoir to the left.



this picture might be of the area west of san angelo. are those the twin buttes reservoirs on the right?



a picture with the twin buttes reservoirs (possibly) in the middle of the picture. that might be san angelo on the right.

Im not positive but that first picture looks like the san angelo area. The resevoir looks like twin butte resevoir, behind it you can see what looks like a runway (mathis field?) and then lake nasworthy, and finally the actual town of san angelo.

The other two pictures both have two lakes in them, so I would guess it is the kileen/temple area, which makes that large road in the last picture I-35 i suppose. Thats the only thing i can come up with.
 
#10 ·
RS2585 said:
Im not positive but that first picture looks like the san angelo area. The resevoir looks like twin butte resevoir, behind it you can see what looks like a runway (mathis field?) and then lake nasworthy, and finally the actual town of san angelo.

The other two pictures both have two lakes in them, so I would guess it is the kileen/temple area, which makes that large road in the last picture I-35 i suppose. Thats the only thing i can come up with.
i think you're right about the killeen/temple area. looking at the map, the reservoirs looks to be in the same sort of shape as they do in the picture. thanks for pointing that out.
 
#11 ·
here are the pictures from las vegas to las cruces. they are mostly for your viewing pleasure, since you guys probably don't know as much about arizona as you do texas. but if you can identify anything, i appreciate it.

some pictures of las vegas as we leave. i think we were already flying east or southeast, but i haven't been able to identify any roads yet.







skip a couple las vegas pictures to save time...

the last vegas picture



and now i start with the first unidentified picture. this was taken minutes after the last vegas picture.



i'm guessing these next few pictures are of lake mead, but what part? and in what direction was i flying?







a close up of the previous picture since i've never seen a desert before



what town is this?



are these next few pictures of the grand canyon? or of some other river?













i'll skip a picture that had too many clouds

one more of a river



here's one with too many clouds to identify anything on land, but it looks nice so i uploaded it anyway.



a couple desert pictures. what desert is this? also, i think there's a small town in the second picture.





a picture of a mountain we flew over. this mountain stood alone, and was not part of any range or collection of mountains. we flew right over it, so i couldn't get the whole thing in the picture.



looks like a forest ending and a desert beginning. any clue where this is?



anyone know what the river winding around at the bottom is? or what that bigger river near the top part of the picture is? i think i see a town also at the left.



some farms, with what looks to be a lake to the left.



the desert. anyone know what desert this might be? is it possibly san carlos or fort apache indian reservation?



a little town in the desert. anyone know what this town might be?



skip a picture that didn't turn out well...

approaching the rocky mountains. this picture would have to be of the very western part of new mexico.



a picture of the rocky mountains. i believe these mountains are in gila national forest.



after this picture were the ones of the rio grande valley and las cruces, new mexico, which are already up.



you can see these pictures in a thread i made in the the west and inland west section.
 
#13 ·
astro said:
Those are awesome. I love looking at aerials.



The horesetrack looking thing appears to be an airport. The rounded portion would be part of the taxiway. But have no clue where it is.
i think you're right. a horsetrack wouldn't be as big as a town. one slip up in my skills isn't so bad though.
 
#14 · (Edited)
update: i think i have positively identified every picture now. i even got that really hard one, with just forests and ranches. i edited the original post and put in the new information. if you want to double check my research and information, you can see satellite images here:
http://maps.google.com/

let me know if you draw the same conclusions as i did.
 
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