Impossible to pick one but several US national parks such as Yellowstone, Yosemite, Grand Canyon…so breathtaking and unique. Many locations in Hawaii from coral reefs to volcanos.
My first thought was Grand Prismatic, just after dawn.
Cool enough that the thermal features create a fog over the water, and more importantly, all the tourists (I was a hotel employee in the park) were still in bed. Had the boardwalk area all to myself.
I think I just sat in contemplation for half an hour, which if you knew me would say is impossible. Very peaceful.
I know it’s weird, but the view of the graveyard my grandparents are buried in. It’s in a mountain village, and they put the graveyard right at the edge looking out at the other nearby mountains. It looks very green and untouched, just a few old style stone houses and sheep scattered about. Also the crisp cool air in your lungs and the sun in your face makes it such an experience.
Mackinac island. It’s the best island in the world, nothing else compared to the aroma of fresh made fudge wafting around the island. No other island does it better than mackinac
Haven’t seen much yet, but driving through Colorado and its mountains comes to mind. Absolutely gorgeous state, and the roads going through the lush green forests and steep mountains + rock faces were awe inspiring to me, having spent most of my life in California cities.
The most beautiful place I’ve seen so far was Jiuzhaigou in Sichuan, China. That was in 2017, months before the place was severely affected by a huge earthquake.
We took a bus to the top of a mountain in the national park and then hiked all the way down through lush forests. For a good portion of the hike, we didn’t meet a single soul and felt like the last people on Earth. I felt like I saw everything nature has to offer in a single day: tall, lush trees; majestic waterfalls; shimmering lakes in every imaginable shade of blue; exotic birds; rivers that had two different colours (yellow and blue-ish) because of different sediments.
But the most stunning view for me was the view to the mountaintop near our hostel. It was like a postcard or a painting. Underneath the bright blue sky, you could see light grey mountaintops covered in snow. At the foot of the mountains, there were lush meadows, yaks chilling on them, wild flowers growing everywhere. And right beneath those, seemingly endleelss fields of lavender. It was the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen!
When I was 16 my mom had a conference in Mexico and it was at a resort under construction, so therefore really cheap with plenty of extra rooms, so she brought me along and even let me invite my girlfriend.
It was snow and ice when we went to the airport. We stopped in Guadalajara airport to transfer flights. My girlfriend had no coat or anything on. Like shorts and a t-shirt and some sandals. I was like “is that gonna be enough?”.
I knew it was warmer in the south, but I didn’t realize the tropics have like zero winter. My experience with going south was like 10 - 15 degrees warmer after driving south for six hours.
Anyway we had a week to just do whatever at this remote little conference center / resort. The bartender let me buy beers. There were some boogie boards and sea kayaks. There was a bay you could swim across if you were a strong swimmer. There was a conference going on full of American businesspeople doing some kind of spiritual work. There were people going up and down the coast in sailboats and yachts, dropping anchor in the bay and boating over. People who lived on boats continually.
I vowed I would move to the tropics. The warmth, the sea, the chill attitude.
So that was when I was 16, and I’m now 40, and I still haven’t done it.
I’ve felt that pull in other places too. Tokyo was one, actually. I kept thinking “If I just went ahead and moved here, I would not regret it”.
Tulum. It’s an ancient Mayan city in the Mexican Caribbean. The main palace of the city is on top of a little plateau. I was focused on hiking, watching my steps, expecting a bit more of dirt ahead, but when I looked up I saw the palace, the sea behind it and some little ships in it, the blue sky with birds flying all around. I literally gasped and cried for a bit.
People give too much credit to the pyramids in Egypt. It’s structurally impressive but there’s nothing to do there but stare at stacked blocks.
Luxor & Aswan on the other hand is beautiful. There are some temples there that blew my mind, very intricate and well made. I also never realized how big the nile river was until I got on top of a ship there, it’s very wide.
It was winter, the snow was fresh and, well, snow white. The trees had crystals growing on their branches, that in the morning light glittered like chandeliers.
There is an absolutely lovely island off the coast of Maine called Monhegan Island. It’s a mix of biomes with tall rocky cliffs, wide placid fields and a deep aged forest. If you’re nearby you should definitely check it out.
Up at the top of the Harmony Express chairlift on Whistler in winter there is a view of Black Tusk peak off in the distance. It is a vertical black mountain top untouched by the white snow below it.
During fall the leaves of the golden larches in Manning Park on Mt Frosty turn golden amongst the green evergreen trees. There are streaks of gold trees along the mountain top and it is an amazing contrast especially because a month before that the mountain is all green.