We live in a colorful world, but many of the world’s best colors are not man-made. Sometimes we need to step out of urban settings and step into nature, with no flocks of tourists to intrude. If we would steer off the fast lane and hike off the beaten path in non-tourist trap areas, we would remember that the best adventures are those you seek. The colorful palettes of Earth and the gorgeousness of nature should remind us of one more reason why we should fight to save her. On your next vacation, you should try to go off-trail to mostly uninhabited locations to renew your spirit and refresh your mind. Here are 45 exquisitely colorful places that you should see for yourself before you die.
Colors Everywhere
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Has it been awhile since you were last awestruck by the gorgeousness of nature, since you really saw why we must save the naked natural Earth in all her glory? Get off the beaten track, get out of that rut! The brilliant palette in resplendent rural settings can still renew your spirit. Stretch your imagination and be inspired. Let your creative right brain loose and refresh your heart in the wilderness playgrounds that Earth still offers us. Be a weekend warrior adventuring through Arches National Park (top left) in Utah. Although a day trip to a local park (top right) with colors blooming is a nice break, a hike through the green untamed woods near a stream (middle left) should be on your lists of sights to see in real life. Go back to the forest in autumn and have a picnic like by Silver Falls in Oregon (middle right). If you are not a fan of the water, then perhaps you would be better served marching over the sand dunes in Death Valley (bottom left). How about a trip through the tundra of Sunset Valley (bottom middle) in Alaska? Or how about soaking in the colors at Palouse Falls (bottom right) at sunset?
Land Or Sea
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If you really enjoy the trappings of civilization and enjoy having your land-lover holidays at tourist trap locations, then perhaps Alkmaar in North Holland would be for you. There is certainly plenty to see in the Netherlands, but plan a sightseeing trip to the bountiful colors found in tulip fields (right). You will forget you are so close to cities for a little while as you breathe sweet-scented air and soak in the vibrant intensity of colorful tulips that surround you. If you would rather be near water, then simply step away from the crowds and cut your path to the sea. In Spain, the color-rich northwest Canary Island near Martorell can offer you breathtaking views.
Angel Falls in Venezuela Rainforest
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Has it been awhile since you stopped and took an accounting of Earth’s treasure, since you were last bedazzled by the colorful gift of nature? Take a trek into unspeakable beauty; take an awe-inspiring adventure through the mysterious humid rainforest in Venezuela. Stop in the land of mists to camp and to shower in the pounding waterfall as you are awed at Angel Falls. National parks, for the most part, are conserved natural terrains, yet mankind has urbanized the areas for the benefit of tourists.
Canaima National Park, however, is still a wild jungle, a remote region, and retains its untouched rugged beauty. Angel Falls is the world’s highest waterfall at 3,211 feet tall, which is about 16 times taller than Niagara Falls. Each photo above is a view you could have soaking in colors within Caniama. There are no tame adventure to be had as in you might see jaguars or toucans. You might even swim in a lagoon if you visit this land with hundreds of pounding waterfalls within the pristine national park. Visit South America’s Angel Falls and you will treasure the adventure for the rest of your days.
Off trail Havasupai Reservation and Havasu Falls
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Grand Canyon? You’re thinking gorgeous, but tourist trap city. There are thousands of places at the Grand Canyon where you can go off-trail and find uninhabited spots in nature. Grand Canyon, Havasupai Reservation is one of them. The Havasupai tribe have inhabited the Grand Canyon for over 800 years. They know beauty when they see it, such as the colorful canyons and the waters that run through them. If you blaze your own adventure and seek separate-from-the-herd sights, you could witness in real-life and not the cyber-world where each one of the above pictures were taken on Havasupai Reservation and Havasu Falls (middle and bottom left). No, that’s not the tidy bowl man…that is breathtaking beauty of nature tinting her waters. You can swim behind the falls and enter a small a rocky cavern behind it. This brightly colored adventure will delight more than your sense of sight. A trip back to nature here will refresh you as it etches spectacular views into your memory.
Colorful Variety of Sights to See Before You Die
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In Brazil, see the shifting sand dunes and the sparkling freshwater lagoons that stretch as far as the eye can see at Lencois Maranhenses National Park (top left). South America is a continent full of some of the most beautiful scenery in the world. For a spectacular hike in Utah, 20 people a day are permitted into the intensely hued chute in the sandstone mountain called “the wave” (top right). For yet more colorful diversity, you might travel to the lowest point on Earth where there is still dry land and visit the swallow-holes, a geological phenomenon, near Ein-Gedi (middle left). Located between the West Bank and Israel as well as to the east of Jordan, the Dead Sea is 1,378 feet below sea level and the deepest salt lake in the world. For different yet spectacular panoramic views, try an intimate stay on the Indonesian island of Bali (middle right). At Naukluft National Park, more multi-colored landscapes await to be seen before you die. Looking down from the top of a dune at the Sossusvlei landscape, the bright red clay near the desert of Namibia (middle right), reminds us why we want to prevent both lack of water and erosion. Yet another piece of eye candy that nature wants you to see and appreciate is the terraced rice fields (bottom right), the lace of mountains and valleys in Yunnan Province, China.
Surreal Nature
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The surreal colors are unusual yet quite spectacular along the coast of Sicily (top left). The island area near Favignana is famous for its volcanic rock caves and scuba diving. Although tonnara, an ancient Arab fishing technique, is still practiced in the area, whales come near enough to be watched off the coast. Your sense of sight will always appreciate the natural adventure. You can observe more surreal beauty in the Yorkshire Dales. Located in northern England, the Barn Nr Austwick (top right) is a rural setting that was originally cut out by glaciers into ‘U’ and ‘V’ shaped valleys. The countryside is dotted with ancient remains of dry stone walls and the scenic green pastureland is vivid even without the photographer tinting the landscape with reds. Treat your sense of adventure with caving, since this is one of the largest limestone cave systems and therefore hotspots for caving in the United Kingdom.
Scenic Seascapes And Waters To Behold
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Do you like to hike by the water? Then you probably have gotten wet and found out you won’t melt in the rain. In fact, you may encounter lovely sights that you would otherwise miss, more colorful sights that you should see before you die. Along the rocky terrain of a Korean coastline (top left), a pine forest sits next to a white lighthouse up on the rocky cliff as dark stormy clouds push the deep blue waves to crash into white foam. Or perhaps try the rocky shore on the Indonesia coast where it is not packed with tourists. Off the beaten path near Echo Beach (top right), be sure to take in a picturesque sunset in Canggu, Bali. Back in Korea, near the Juwang Mountains (middle left), the trees growing in the lake against a backdrop of wooded mountains make all these rich and vivid shades of living green a treasure to renew your spirit.
In the heart of Chilean Patagonia is one of the most beautiful biosphere reserves in Chile (middle right). Here among the mountain range, the “Blue River” spills over into a powerful pounding waterfall. The bottom left photo was taken from the summit of Mount Rinjani, the second highest volcano in Indonesia. Prepare for a hike to the crater lake of Danau Segara Anak (Child of the Sea) where your senses will be stimulated by this view you should see before death claims you. In the bottom right picture, the beautiful Hawaiian island of Kauai waits to stun you with a rocky seascape in this sunny paradise. Although it appears as if carved by man, “Kong Mountain” is said to resemble the outline of King Kong while he sleeps on the ocean.
Majestic Mountains
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Don’t forget the mountains in your adventure to fulfill the natural and uninhabited visual treasury the Earth keeps for us. When you have walked away, after having witnessed them in person, your entire outlook on life can be changed. For a certainty, the beauty will leave a lasting impression and a burning desire to help save the planet.
In the Sierra Nevada there is a breathtaking spot that gets its name from an unfortunate incident involving a group of convicts that escaped from their Carson City prison in 1871. Despite its infamous name, Convict Lake (top left) is a pristine landscape of clear cold water that mirrors Mount Morrison. Not even a mile’s hike from a Mount Rainier visitor center in Washington, the snow-capped Tatoosh Range (top right) looms large and imposing across from colorful wildflowers that carpet the steep slopes. The scenic alpine environment flourishes within the Tatoosh wilderness and Mount Rainer National Park. The clean air at Mount Rainier, 14,411 feet high, will refresh your body while the beauty energizes your mind. A scintillating adventure that is also rugged is calling to you from the Mediterranean Sea. This state of wonder can be found at Sardinia, a mountainous island in Italy (bottom left). More translucent water and bewitching mountains in Austria are waiting for you to commit them to memory. Formed by the Bodental glacier, “The “Meerauge”, or “Sea Eye” (bottom right) is a pond situated in southern Carinthia with a turquoise coloring caused by algae.
Take A Walk
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You can find magic and intensely hued landscape that are capable of revitalizing your heart and your mind by simply taking a walk. If you backpack through eastern Sierra, the Earth sings with color near Mono Lake (top left). This ecosystem and nesting habitat for birds is one more reason to want to preserve nature. Or try sightseeing through the coastal beauty in Olympic National Park. Scenes at Ruby Beach (top right) include tremendous amounts of driftwood and sea stacks dot the waters south of Forks. Across the world, amazing Indonesia boasts its volcanic holes filled with turquoise waters such as at Chocolate Lake (middle left). Off the coast of western Australia, some nature lovers at Perth got it right. If you can’t take the beach home with you, make your home at the beach (middle right).
In New York, plan to make your own trail since it’s required to get a view of the 70 foot cascading waterfall at Johnson Falls (lower left). Off the Oregon coast, see rocks smoothed by the rush of running water over eons of time. The flowing stream foams white and fresh air fills your lungs as the sunset fills the cauldron (bottom left). During the fall, make a trip out into the woods to enjoy the gorgeous fall colors such as at Cedar Creek Grist Mill in Washington (bottom middle). There is no easy way but to hike through magical meadows and enchanting forests to reach the plateau of Enchantments in the Alpine Lakes Wilderness. The journey to the basin is worth it and the view well-deserved, when you stare at the breathtaking snowy mountaintops mirrored in the crystal water reflection (bottom right).
Don’t miss these unsophisticated natural places where the sophisticated scenes from nature rule. Repair the wear and tear that the city takes out on you while these scenes saturated in color exhilarate you with sights you’ll be glad you saw before you died. You will draw strength to continue in the struggle to do the right thing and to preserve our world.



