1. The Wave, Arizona, USA
The Wave is a sandstone rock formation in the Paria Canyon-Vermilion Cliffs Wilderness of Arizona, formed over millions of years of wind erosion in the Navajo Sandstone. Besides looking like something from another planet, it also makes for one hell of a photo-op.
The Wave in Winter
2. Grand Canyon, Arizona, USA
One of America’s most recognizable natural wonders, there is only one word describe the Grand Canyon: breathtaking. A trek through this 227 mile long canyon isn’t unlike entering another, ancient world.
Try to visit it in winter, when a thin blanket of snow folds over the deep cliffs and valleys and makes the surreal landscape all the more beautiful.
3. Grand Prismatic Spring, Yellowstone National Park, USA
If the Yellowstone National Park is one of America’s greatest natural treasures, then the Grand Prismatic Lake is the crowning jewel in that treasure. This hot spring gets its unique colors from the presence of pigmented bacteria that grow around the mineral rich waters.
The waters are hot, but visitors – human and animal – can walk around the edges.
4. Fly Ranch Geyser, Nevada, USA
What looks like a digital-artist gone wild is actually a man-made geyser inside a private ranch in Nevada, USA. The geyser was made in the 1960s when an improperly sealed oil well started sprouting up dissolved minerals around the well’s exterior.
5. Antelope Canyon, Arizona, USA
The Navajos called this slot canyon “the place where water runs through rocks”. Faint beams of light shine down on the canyon floor, bathing the walls in hues of pink, brown and violet. The effect is haunting and surreal.
6. Horsetail Fall, Yosemite National Park, USA
No, this isn’t a screencap of Mordor from LoTR. The Horsetail fall is actually a seasonal waterfall in the Yosemite. The sun shining down upon the falls at certain times makes it glow yellow-red, like a torrent of fire falling to the earth.
It is often called a ‘firefall’ based on an actual man-made phenomenon in the Yosemite until a few decades ago.
Still makes for one heck of a photo-op though.
7. Monument Valley, Arizona, USA
How many westerns have you seen with a man on a horse riding into the wilderness with these stone pillars rising in the background? The Monument Valley has been a Hollywood staple for years, and it is easy to see why: the rock formations cropping up from the dry, flat land seems like something straight from a surrealist Dali painting.
Here’s another shot of the Valley from the John Ford movie Searchers
8. Bonneville Salt Flats, Utah, USA
The Bonneville Salt Flats is one of the flattest landforms on earth. It is dry, dusty, and flatter than a racetrack. Which is probably why car racers like to drag their souped up vehicles to these flatlands and head out for a spin – something we highly recommend. Just don’t go in the peak summer – the 120F temperatures will turn your car to toast!
It’s even better with a bit of rain when the entire region gets covered in a thin film of water, turning it into a giant mirror.
9. McWay Falls, California, USA
This eighty foot waterfall falls right onto a beach, which opens out to the great wide blue of the Pacific. Throw in some wildflower covered cliffs and white sands of the beach, and you have a landscape that appears just too beautiful to be real.
10. Glass Beach, Fort Bragg, California, USA
Sometimes, trash can be beautiful.
Take the Glass Beach in Fort Bragg, California, for instance. In the early part of the 20th century, residents of this small town threw everything from household garbage to appliances over the cliffs and onto the beach (the 1900s weren’t a really enlightened time). Over the next several decades, the waves of the Pacific washed away everything but the glass and the pottery from this trash. The glass smoothed out over years of erosion, and the result is a beach literally littered with colorful glass.
Like a scene straight out of a Lewis Carroll book.
11. Devil’s Tower, Wyoming, USA
Picture this: you are riding a horse through the vast plains of Wyoming when you come across a sheer faced rock rising a thousand feet of the ground. The rock is the color of ash, and in the fading sunlight, it seems to glow a fiery red, like the breath of the Devil himself.
You can now imagine how this rock formation in the Black Hills came to be called the “Devil’s Tower”. It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that this would be perfectly at place in the Lord of the Rings.
12. Mount Grinell, Glacier National Park, Montana, USA
This mountain nestled deep within Glacier National Park is beautiful by itself, but what makes it truly surreal is the sun shining off its surface and the reflection bouncing off a nearby lake.
13. White Sands National Monument, New Mexico, USA
Imagine a desert, but with sand as white as the first snowfall in Montana.
That’s the White Sands National Monument in New Mexico. Stunning, by any measure.
14. Mendenhall Ice Caves, Alaska, USA
The Mendenhall Ice Caves are nestled deep within the Mendenhall Glacier near the city of Juneau, Alaska. The light from the cave entrance bounces off the ice and bathes it in a beautiful blue efflorescence. Beautiful.
15. Spotted Lake, Osoyoos, Canada
The Spotted Lake is an alkali lake in British Columbia. Every year in summer, the water evaporates, leaving behind mineral deposits. The mineral deposits lead to the creation of large “spots” on the lake, often with different colors depending on the mineral composition of a particular spot. The effect is breathtaking.
16. Emerald Lake, BC, Canada
Pretty much all of Canada is beautiful (even you, Toronto), but if we had to pick one place for a spot on this list, it would have to be the Emerald Lake in Yoho National Park, British Columbia. The stunning emerald green waters surrounded by mountains of the President Range is just too beautiful to be real.
But don’t take out word for it; let this picture speak for itself:
17. Berry Head Arch, Newfoundland, Canada
Naturally occurring archs are very rare, which makes this gravity defying landform all the more special. Take a look – isn’t this the perfect place for your next profile picture?
18. Hidden Beach, Marieta Islands, Mexico
In the early 1900s, the Mexican government used the Marieta Islands for target practice, dropping bomb after bomb on its rugged cliffs. One of these bombs tore through the cliffs, revealing a beach hidden behind cliffs and thick forests. This beach lay undiscovered for years until tourists in the 1970s chanced upon it.
Today, the hidden beach is a major tourist destination, though the remote nature of the beach means its relatively unspoiled.
19. Agua Azul Waterfalls, Mexico
This heavy white cascade of water dropping into a turquoise blue river is just one of the many reasons why you need to visit Mexico.
20. Underwater River, Cenote Angelita, Mexico
No, that’s not a typo: there actually is an underwater river in Cenote Angelita in the Yucatan Peninsula of Mexico.
“But”, you ask, “how can a river be underwater?”
Good question. The “river” is actually a separate flow of saltwater beneath the freshwater of the cenote above. A three foot layer of Hydrogen Sulphide keeps the freshwater and saltwater separate. Since the saltwater is heavier, it sinks to the bottom and flows just like a regular river.
It looks just like regular river as well, except, you know, it’s all underwater. That’s why the people in all these pictures are wearing scuba suits!
21. Cenote Samula, Valladolid, Mexico
There are thousands of sinkholes in the Yucatan Peninsula – sinkholes formed when limestone caves collapse, revealing underwater pools. Because of their particular topography, most cenotes tend to be stunning. The Cenote Samula in Valladolid, however, is particularly beautiful, with steep limestone walls opening into turquoise blue waters.
22. Rio Secreto, Riveira Maya, Mexico
Rio Secreto, literally, “secret river”, is a river that goes through limestone caves. The waters are bright blue and the limestone greyish white and the light bounces off the walls and bathes the caves in beautiful blue efflorescence. Mesmerizing.
23. Cave of Crystals, Naica, Chihuahua, Mexico
Nope, this isn’t Photoshopped. Those are actual humans inside a cave of giant selenite crystals inside the Naica Mines. The crystals were formed millions of years ago when magma heated up gypsum inside the cave. Over the years, as water flooded the caves, the gypsum turned to crystals, slowly growing to its current size.
Easily one of the most surreal landscapes on Earth.
24. Great Blue Hole, Belize
Picture this: you’ve anchored your boat a few dozen miles off the coast of Belize City. On a whim, you decide to head for a swim in the clear blue waters of the Caribbean. You happily paddle away, when suddenly, the ocean floor gives way beneath your feet and you come face to face with a seemingly unending drop into a pit of darkness.
Scared? This is the Great Blue Hole of Belize, one of the best scube diving destinations in the world, and a surreal sight, no matter whether you’re on a boat, or in the water with a diving tank strapped to your shoulders.
25. Torres del Paine National Park, Chile
The Torres del Paine National Park in Chile is a national treasure, a stunning expanse that stretches nearly a 1000 square miles and is covered in mountains, forests, glaciers, lakes and rivers.
The most stunning sight in this park, though, is the Paine mastiff, a spectacular formation of granite rock spiralling above the landscape.
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