Beautiful and this has always interested me too. To me, distant hills and mountains, turning bluish in the distance, are almost my favorite scenery.
Me too — except when I’m trying to photograph then without adequate UV or “Haze” filters... ‘-)
I’m surrounded by non-forested mountains it is amazing how many times they change through the day. Blue, purple, rose brown, shadowed, right now covered w/California poppies making it look like someone spilled millions of gallons of orange stripe highway paint.