Favorite wilderness/rural area in the world ?

[steve2470]

Mine would have to be Denali National Park in Alaska:

[PDJane]

1. Banff National Park.

[kestrel91316]

2. Snake Valley and the Snake Range, NV and Great Basin National Park.

The Colorado Rockies' high country a close second.

[eissa]

3. Yosemite

link:

Pictures really don't do it justice, it truly is an amazing place (Summer excluded.)

We just got back from hiking around Point Lobos State Reserve in Monterey, CA and trekking through the cypress groves on the edge of a cliff overlooking the glorious Pacific was just magical.

[kwassa]

94. I love both Yosemite and Point Lobos

[dhill926]

106. + infinity......

have seen many of these photos. Very nice.....

[Cleita]

4. I won't say.

It can only be accessed by a trail you have to hike and I'm not telling. I don't want everyone going there and especially commercial interests like logging companies who not only will harvest trees but leave roads behind for every recreation vehicle to make their way into it.

[dballance]

11. So why did you bother posting?

You didn't even take the time to describe it so the rest of might still enjoy it along with you.

[Shankapotomus]

56. Take a picture

and post it without naming the place.

[Cleita]

66. It's a long way from where I am here.

It will be awhile before I can get there again and take pictures.

[nolabear]

79. The bayous of MS and LA.

You can't get there on foot, but they are a whole 'nother world.

[Cleita]

81. Ssssh. Don't tell them how to.

If there is any signs there might be oil or other desirable resource there, keep that quiet too.

[broiles]

5. The Karakorum Hwy. from China to Pakistan.

[hunter]

6. Mojave Desert.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mojave_desert

[ProgressiveProfessor]

25. I am a desert guy myself at this point in my life

[Le Taz Hot]

52. I LOVE the Mojave!

The desert has it's own magnificent beauty. Most don't see it but I do.

Btw, I just noticed your sig. line. I was a huge Melanie fan and still do a couple of her songs, including that one.

[cali]

7. The Northeast Kingdom

which is where I live.

https://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=the+northeast+kingdom&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.r_cp.r_qf.&biw=1280&bih=553&um=1&ie=UTF-8&tbm=isch&source=og&sa=N&tab=wi&ei=FHo2UPqlC4W-6QG9v4GoBw

[DevonRex]

8. Glacier. They have grizzlies. Don't go there.

Lots of grizzlies. Grrr. And Colorado. We have bears and mountain lions. Lots and lots of mountain lions. So don't hike there in the summer. They're really scary. You can come ski though. I hate skiing.

[rustydog]

17. Actually, go there, the Glaciers will be gone by 2030...

Montana will have to change the name to just: national park?

[hedgehog]

9. My back60 in Upstate New York

[Shankapotomus]

57. What's "back60"?

60 acres? Catskills or Adirondocks?

[hedgehog]

64. 60 acres of former dairy farm in the Lake Ontario snow belt.

The farmer planted 40 acres of Red pine for Christmas trees back in the 50's.......and never harvested them! Now it's a mixed woods. We've been planting oaks, hickory and black walnut for 25 years now. The property runs about 1/2 mile back over two ridges and down to a creek. We've got deer, rabbits, foxes, coyote, turkey, grouse, chickedees, cat birds, crows, owls, orioles, cardinals and wood peckers. It's my peice of Heaven.

[cilla4progress]

102. Sounds lovely!

My back 1000s is national forest in central Washington state! Glacier Peak Wilderness is just up the road!

It'll do!

[petronius]

10. I haven't been to nearly enough to have an informed opinion,

but I have a deep love for the Inyo and Sierra National Forests - so that's my vote!

....... ......

[Scuba]

12. Most any reef. Twenty feet below sea level is a wilderness relatively few bother to see...

... but a cheap mask and snorkel is all you must have to enjoy floating over an ever-changing menagerie of exotic plants and animals.

[NCTraveler]

105. Amazing sights are available with just a mask and snorkel.

And not just reefs alone. Around Tampa I will jump in at any old grass flat and see beautiful creatures.

[cynatnite]

13. I've only been to a few, but I loved Yellowstone and Glacier National Park. n/t

[FirstLight]

14. I have never traveled really, but

I love my little Mountain Town...







edit: it's Lake Tahoe, BTW

[steve2470]

18. gorgeous pics, yes Lake Tahoe is very lovely nt

[Beaverhausen]

80. I was just there for the first time. It is wonderful

those are really great pictures.

[FirstLight]

110. there's tons of amazing photos of Tahoe

what's even more amazing is when you are driving to work or school and it just takes your breath away, the mountains, the trees, the sky & water... I have lived here 20 yrs and have yet to be 'ho-hum' about my surroundings

[TwilightGardener]

15. Yellowstone/Tetons, and the badlands of South Dakota.

[UnrepentantLiberal]

89. When I drove from Seattle to New Jersey,

dropping down into the Badlands when I left Montana and entered North Dakota was an awesome unexpected experience.

[Tikki]

16. Mt. Tamalpias (Mt. Tam) Steep Ravine, Marin County CA

Yes, that is San Francisco off in the distance...


Tikki

[eissa]

24. That is gorgeous

thanks for the tip, I definitely have this on my list to check out next time I'm in the area.

[Tikki]

28. Please go on the internets and check out more about the area and the Parks...

It is a hikers' paradise.
It is like a wonderland and there are diverse settings for all hiking and camping styles.

Tikki
ps reserve early at State/County/Fed camping sites...some are wilderness sites and
you may have to backpack in a little bit.

[Blue_In_AK]

34. I love mt. Tam

I spent many happy hours tripping up there back in my wayward youth.

[cilla4progress]

103. So many beautiful places in this country!

This is where my patriotism stems from (and sadly, for me, the only place).

Beautiful!

[Tikki]

111. Most Californians fight like mad to keep developers out of our pristine beautiful...

nature. This fight is often the one thing that will bring Californians to unite.
There definitely is a faction that would like to put a fast food restaurant at the end
of every mountain trail and oil rigs dotting the whole Coast.

The environmental issues often take a back page in the U. S. Until...shudder to think.

Tikki

[Brother Buzz]

114. Until the huge earth slide burried it, Mother Nature treated you at the bottom

If you zagged instead of zigged at the bottom of Steep Ravine trail, you could have visited a hot spring on the beach at low tide. Shovels were always present to build your dam so you could soak in the hot water until the tide returned. Unfortunately, it was buried under a mountain of earth in the early seventies. Apparently some warm water is still weeping out through the earth, but not near as warm as it used to be. Times have been better.

[Fumesucker]

19. Carlos Rosario reef, Culebra Island, Puerto Rico..

A little island about 20 miles off the east end of Puerto Rico, best skin diving I've ever seen, right off the totally undeveloped beach.

[fishwax]

20. yellowstone

Denali is on my list of wilderness places I'd most like to visit, though.

[closeupready]

21. Fishing in Lake of the Woods, Canada.

Just about any highway in Arizona - breathtaking views.

[frogmarch]

22. Black Hills of So Dak

The Black Hills will always be home to me.

[belcffub]

23. my cabin

Last edited Mon Aug 27, 2012, 12:36 PM - Edit history (1)

could spend the rest of my life peacefully sitting on that porch


just finished building my barn last year


and am working on my guest cabin now


edited to add

[B Calm]

70. Nice size cabin! Where is it located?

[belcffub]

74. south western NY

not far from chautauqua lake... cabin is just under 1000 square feet... I have a youtube channel that went over most of the build of that and all the out buildings... 5 years ago there was nothing there... makes me tired just thinking of all the work involved...

[Alduin]

26. Voyageurs National Park in northern Minnesota.

[glacierbay]

27. Donner Lake

along the I-80 through the Donner Pass in Ca.

[distantearlywarning]

29. Milford Sound, New Zealand

I have traveled many places in the world, and that area was hands down the most breathtakingly beautiful and unusual natural place I have ever visited.

[steve2470]

30. kick for overnight crowd nt

[neverforget]

31. All of them but mine is the Absaroka-Beartooth Wilderness

[Blue_In_AK]

32. Good choice, Steve

We have so much beautiful country up here, but Denali is exceptional.

[steve2470]

36. Thanks !

Despite my criticism of Barrow in another thread, I even enjoyed my time there. The Arctic is something to behold and the flight from Fairbanks to Barrow is interesting. Alaska has an extreme overabundance of natural beauty in all forms !

[Blue_In_AK]

38. I don't know if you've ever visited my website

http://www.northernvisions.smugmug.com , but if you go there and go to the landscapes gallery, I have a couple of albums of Denali shots you might enjoy.

I haven't been to Barrow, but that's where my brother met his wife and my dad worked there for a while back in the '80's at the Naval Arctic Research Lab.

[steve2470]

39. I have visited it, yes

I will go back and enjoy the Denali beauty, thank you

[B Calm]

33. The Land of Sky Blue Water

Northern Minnesota

[Mister Ed]

40. Aye. The Boundary Waters Wilderness.

[snappyturtle]

101. Thanks Mr. Ed.... mine too! Your moonlit shot reminds me of a

Gunflint Trail trip in the mid 80's. The moon just seems closer to the Earth there.

[Fla_Democrat]

35. Bradwell Bay Wilderness area.

[Egalitarian Thug]

37. I'll never tell. As soon as you all find out about it, you'll come and ruin it. n/t

[Oilwellian]

41. Snorkeling in the Caribbean

When you come upon the Jewel Fish, you'll feel it's a treat from the Gods.

[Le Taz Hot]

53. I went snorkeling in Jamaica once.

I'd never seen coral reefs up close and personal and when I dipped my face in the water for the first time I literally gasped. I'd never seen anything so beautiful.

[Oilwellian]

71. I lived in St. Croix when I was a kid

and lived in a mask and fins. I know exactly what you mean by that first "gasp."

[loli phabay]

42. gotta be the empty corner or borneo, both are awesome in their own way.

[XemaSab]

43. Too many to name

[William769]

44. I can't be impartial, this is where I grew up and it's still beautiful to me!

Fern Lake, Middlesboro Kentucky (partly nestled in the Cumberland Gap National Historical Park).

[Sea-Dog]

45. that's a hard one.

[raouldukelives]

46. So many great spots but I'll always have a special place for Redwoods

Mendocino Forest. Montgomery Woods is a nice visit. Redwoods, thick fog, the roar & smell of the Pacific. a cup of hot coffee and a good book is heaven on earth.

[Blue_In_AK]

47. Of course, I love Alaska,

but I also really enjoyed Costa Rica when we visited my daughter and her family down there a couple of years ago. She was lucky enough to be able to take a Sabbatical and spend 8 months living on the beach in an open-air house in Montezuma on the Nikoya Peninsula. It was wonderful to spend time there with no TV, radio, newspapers ... just the beach and the palm trees, sparkling Pacific Ocean and warm sea breezes. A far cry from what I'm used to, for sure.

[blueamy66]

48. Prescott, AZ

Whiskey Row, my parents' little cabin, great memories, a stream, big trees

I still remember my Mom trying to use the Weed Eater to cut down the foliage around the cabin. We all laughed until we peed!!!!

[rad51]

49. Emerald Lake in Colorado.

[Ghost in the Machine]

50. My own little piece of this world.. my 15 acres I live on :-)

I live in the sticks in East Tennessee, it is some beautiful country out here. I'm about halfway between Chattanooga and Knoxville. I've got it all... a ridge, plenty of woods, a small meadow area and lots of deer, turkey, rabbits, squirrels, quail, dove, foxes, chipmunks, skunks, possums, etc. I wish I had a pond or creek, but will have to settle for the "wet weather" creek I have.. for now, anyways. I have a spot I eventually want to dig a small pond in, hopefully I'll get to do it one of these years.

I wouldn't trade it for the world!

Peace,

Ghost

[HereSince1628]

82. I feel the same way about my little piece of earth...although I'm partial to Karelia

which is northwestern Russia between Finland and the White Sea.

There is nothing like walking into your own woods knowing that most of the time the resident birds go to alarm calls it's personally about you.

[Le Taz Hot]

51. "My" beloved Sierra Nevada Mountains.

Virtually anywhere. The second would be the Pacific Ocean on California's Central Coast. After I'm gone my husband has been instructed to scatter half my ashes under one of the Giant Sequoias and the other half in the Pacific Ocean. Both places have given me unbelievable times of pure bliss and I silently thank Mother Nature for her bounty.

[catchnrelease]

90. Eastern Sierra for me

Anywhere along the East side is heaven to me. My instructions are to be scattered up by Lee Vining Creek, so I can wash down into Mono Lake, lol. (My daughter and her family live on the Central Coast, and it IS fantastic there too)

[trouble.smith]

54. Moab Utah, Acadia National Park, Point Reyes National Seashore

in no particular order.

[a la izquierda]

55. Erongaricuaro forest, Michoacan, MX

Silent, gorgeous, and no people around except for the P'urh'epecha in town, and the folks who own a massive bioreserve/"green" campground (only solar electricity and no running water).

It's as middle-of-nowhere as I've ever been, and totally amazing.

In the US, gotta be Talimena State Park, Talihina, OK. Stunning.

[aint_no_life_nowhere]

58. The great underground wilderness of Jewel Cave, South Dakota

with its 157 miles of mapped passageways and possibly at least ten times that amount waiting to be explored, according to the amount of wind volume flowing from its entrance. I visited Jewel Cave when I was a kid in the 1960s and only a few miles had been discovered at the time.



Here's a partial map.

[hobbit709]

59. Mine

either Padre Island about 25 miles past the sign that says 4-Wheel Drive only
<a href="http://www.tripadvisor.com/LocationPhotos-g60927-d106383-Padre_Island_National_Seashore-Corpus_Christi_Texas.html"><img alt="Photos of Padre Island National Seashore, Corpus Christi" src=""/></a><br/>This photo of <a href="http://www.tripadvisor.com/Attraction_Review-g60927-d106383-Reviews-Padre_Island_National_Seashore-Corpus_Christi_Texas.html">Padre Island National Seashore</a> is courtesy of TripAdvisor
or Big Bend

[GoCubsGo]

73. Big Bend is one of the most underrated national parks in the system.

A most awesome place! So many people miss out by not visiting.

[catbyte]

60. Au Au Channel between Maui & Lanai during Humpback Whale season

[steve2470]

61. kick for today's crowd :)

I really love the photos in this thread and the submissions !

[Odin2005]

62. Wilderness: Redwood National Park.

Rural: English countryside.

[Fawke Em]

63. The Great Smoky Mountains National Park

School children chided FDR into preserving it!

[notundecided]

65. North Absaroka Wilderness, WY

Maybe the most wildest country in the lower 48. Contains all wildlife since Lewis and Clark days: wolves, grizzlies, mountain lions, elk and moose. Also has some great cutthrout fishing.






http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_AzrN5fZ-cDk/S5RIIHJWP_I/AAAAAAAAADo/Kjts9oUBJ5A/s640/sunlight+basin.jpeg

[steve2470]

68. your pic on my photobucket account:

[notundecided]

75. Are you from there?

[steve2470]

87. nope just think it's beautiful nt

[notundecided]

95. It's pretty neat country

[Lebam in LA]

67. Zaca lake, CA

[greendog]

69. Canyonlands National Park

[liberal N proud]

76. Swiss Alps

Followed by Yellowstone, then anywhere in the west.

[Texasgal]

77. Big Bend National Park

LOVE IT!

http://www.google.com/imgres?q=big+bend&hl=en&sa=X&rlz=1C1VEAD_enUS447US455&biw=1680&bih=959&tbm=isch&prmd=imvns&tbnid=mOXXuDoWPOdIrM:&imgrefurl=http://www.only4wonders.com/big-bend-national-park/&docid=6Pho6FbwhrRRVM&imgurl=&w=444&h=354&ei=ShQ4UOKDLeS1ygG4zoHgAQ&zoom=1&iact=hc&vpx=942&vpy=186&dur=574&hovh=197&hovw=247&tx=164&ty=107&sig=115213272657449783136&page=1&tbnh=126&tbnw=162&start=0&ndsp=39&ved=1t:429,r:4,s:0,i:151

[Beaverhausen]

78. Sequoia/Kings Canyon here in the US; The Red Center of Australia

I haven't been to that many places, but both of those are magical places.

[Arctic Dave]

83. I have yet to visit a park or wilderness that wasn't a favorite.

Desert, mountains, oceans, tundra, rainforest, tropics. Love them all.

[UnrepentantLiberal]

84. Olympic Rain Forest in Washington State

[randr]

85. West Elk Wilderness--Colorado

Virtually empty of use, my personal mushroom garden.

[WillyT]

86. Desolation Wilderness Area...

Ralston Lake/Mount Ralston


Images: http://tinyurl.com/8zr8cq6

[Nay]

88. Split: Monument Valley and Vancouver Island. I can't choose.

[Motown_Johnny]

91. .

[UnrepentantLiberal]

92. Cottonwood Lakes California

High elevation. Brutal switchbacks. Golden Trout.

[catchnrelease]

96. It's awesome there

We'd never be able to make it up those switchbacks now, but it is an amazing place for sure.

[kwassa]

93. Olympic Peninsula beaches ... and many others already listed here.

We were walking on these vast beaches for hours and hours on a sunny day in August, and saw no other human beings.






not a picture of us, by the way ...

[MichaelMcGuire]

97. Skye, Argyll, Glen Coe, the Highlands in general.

[postulater]

104. I would go to Scotland ten times before any other place in the world

The entire highlands is like a national park and should be considered a World Treasure.

Glencoe is magical. I have McDonald background so it is particularly so. (sad face).

Thanks for the photo.

I am suddenly thirsty. Where's the Talisker?

[steve2470]

98. last kick nt

[mainer]

99. Na Pali Coast, Kauai

http://www.napali.com/na_pali_coast/

Went backpacking there many years ago. Breathtaking scenery, mellow folks on the trail, lots of cool waterfalls where no one cares if you cavort nude.

But the mosquitoes are a bother.

[Arugula Latte]

107. I've only seen the Na Pali coast from the ocean

(well, besides what you can see from Hanalei and the like) but I think that is the most spectacular scenery I've ever seen.

[ellisonz]

100. Big Sur, California

[dhill926]

108. bookmarked and kicked.....

what a great thread!

[steve2470]

109. thanks ! nt

[UnrepentantLiberal]

115. Wonderful thread

I've enjoyed every post and picture. I nominate it as my favorite DU thread.

[steve2470]

116. thanks :) nt

[stranger81]

112. Point Reyes National Seashore

an hour or two north of San Francisco, and the Isle of Skye off the west coast of Scotland.

[NashvilleLefty]

113. Virgin Falls Pocket Wilderness

The falls are halfway up Chestnut Mountain on the Highland Rim of Tennessee. The water comes out of a cave and runs down a short stream, then falls down 200 feet and disappears into another cave. There is a conical depression in front of it that works like an amphitheater. It's a 4-mile strenuous hike from the parking lot, and there are several waterfalls and beautiful scenery on the loop.

[UnrepentantLiberal]

117. Crater Lake Oregon

This picture isn't enhanced. The water really is that blue. You have to stand on the rim and look down at the lake to truly appreciate it.