Great Barrier Reef Australia
One of the world’s most beautiful and largest coral reefs is home to innumerable species of marine life. Australia’s Great Barrier Reef exhibits breathtaking beauty. The Great Barrier Reef comprises over 3000 individual reef systems, coral cays, and hundreds of stunning tropical islands awash with unparalleled beaches. Without a doubt, it is one of the most colorful places in nature.
Not surpisingly, the Great Barrier Reef is one of the seven wonders of the natural world. When viewed from afar, you can understand this bestowment as it is the only living thing on earth visible from space. Its intense turquoise waters are like no other on earth. Underwater is even more spectacular, with varieties of life and color in constant motion.
Visitors to the Great Barrier Reef can marvel up close at this incredible ecosystem by snorkeling, scuba diving, aircraft or helicopter tours, glass-bottomed boats, and more.
The Painted Desert in Arizona
This picturesque area of rock badlands covers more than 93,500 acres. It’s a desolate place featuring rocks in every hue. The intense color of the southwest sky dancing against the natural landscape adds to the enchantment of this unique desert. Furthermore, the Painted Desert stretches from the Grand Canyon National Park eastward to the Petrified Forest National Park in Arizona. A large portion is located within the Navajo Nation.
The desert’s striking geologic formations and features highlight volcanic eruptions, earthquakes, and floods that have taken place through millennia. While the setting sun reflects and enhances the intensity of the rocks and its character as a naturally colorful place., All these elements of nature combine to create the Painted Desert. Stacked clay and sandstone look like a giant had created these elegant, colorful, and uniform layers that make it unique and visually inspiring.
Panjin Red Beach – China
Located in the biggest wetland and reed marsh in the world. Panjin Red Beach’s intense red color comes from a type of seaweed that flourishes in highly alkaline soil. The seaweed growth begins in April and May and changes to its deep red color in fall. There is no actual sand here. The complementary colors of red against green make this one of the most colorful natural places in the world.
This is also home to the rare, red-crowned crane, a beautiful bird that is appreciated and honored by the Chinese as a symbol of luck and longevity.
The Danakil Depression Ethiopia
Found in the lowest place on the African continent, the Danakil Depression, has a complex geological history. It developed as a result of Africa and Asia moving apart, causing rifting and volcanic activity. This lonely area is flush with an incredible 25% of Africa’s active volcanoes. All of its diverse geologic activity has played a part in the formation of this depression.
Heat, minerals, gases, and water combine to make this desolate place one of the most colorful places in nature.
Colorado’s other “Gold Rush” Fall Aspen Trees
In the fall, the people of Colorado rush to the mountains to view the vibrant, gold, quaking aspen (Populus tremuloides), a beautiful tree in the wild. Aspen trees have the most extensive native range of any tree on the North American continent. Their name derives from their leaves which are flat and delicate, so they tremble in even slight breezes making a quaking sound. Colorado Mountains and hillsides are flush with their bright, gold color interspersed with the occasional red and orange in the autumn. They account for about 20% of the forests in the state.
The aspens roll in nature is as a “succession” tree. In other words, it grows and spreads quickly in eroded or burned-out areas in the wild, providing cover for seedlings of forest trees like pine, fir, and spruce. As the forest trees get bigger, the aspens die out. Aspen can grow from seeds or suckers, making them very plentiful.
Northern Lights in Tromso Norway
Tromsø is the largest city in Northern Norway. The city is situated in the middle of the auroral oval, the area with the highest probability of seeing the northern lights. The NorwayLights app provides the best prediction for when to see the northern lights in the area.
What is the aurora borealis?
The aurora appears as colored lights in the sky produced when high-energy electrons hit atoms and molecules in the upper atmosphere. This is truly a unique example of color found in nature.
Ancient Chinese Culture believed that the red aurora light was caused by a fire breathing dragon.
Vatnajokull Glacier in Iceland
This is Europe’s largest glacier. At over 8100 km2, it covers more than 8% of the country. The average thickness of the ice is 400 m, with a maximum thickness of 1000 m.
Vatnajokull is classified as an ice cap glacier. As with many other glaciers in Iceland, there are several volcanoes under the ice cap.
The Vatnajokull National Park was established in 2008. It covers 14% of Iceland, making it one of Europe’s largest national parks. Its greatly varying landscape makes it unique in the world. The blue ice caves that form there in winter are spectacular.
Yuanyang Rice Terraces
These masterpieces are testaments to man’s ingenuity. They were built by the Hani people generations ago on the Southern Ailao Mountain.
The ancestors of the Hani people came to this steep mountain area 2,500 years ago. At the same time, struggling against the difficult terrain, they successfully built these terraces, where they grew rice for a living. This style of agriculture of developing fertile land on rugged mountain slopes did not expand to other parts of China and Southeast Asia until the 14th century.
Their creativity created artistic beauty. During the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644), the emperor granted “Skillful Sculptor” to the Hani People. Presently it is known as ‘land sculpture,’ and UNESCO acknowledges them as a World Cultural and Natural Heritage Site because of their interesting lines suggesting movement and the intensity of natures color in this natural and man-made environment.
Pamukkale (Hierapolis), Turkey
In 2014 my friend Ann and I while living in Kuwait decided to take a trip to Turkey. A favorite stop was Pamukkale.
Pamukkale is Turkey’s most famous mineral-bath spa. It has been a spa since the Romans built the “spa city” of Hierapolis around a sacred hot spring. Its incredible natural beauty is enhanced by Roman ruins dotting the area, including an amazing coliseum. Hot calcium-laden waters created these natural, soft colored, terraced pools from the earth as they cascade over cliffs. Once they cool, they form dramatic travertines of hard, brilliantly white calcium pools. Amazingly they appear to be manufactured but are sculpted by natural sources.
Lake Natron Tanzania
Lake Natron is an amazing and confounding attraction of complementing colors found in the natural world. It has high pH levels, chemical makeup, and heavy evaporation. Because of this, the waters of Lake Natron look dark red in color. Since it is made up of very saline water, and the water temperature is hot, there aren’t many animals in or around Lake Natron. Furthermore, when birds accidentally crash or land in the lake, they often die, and their bodies calcify rather than decompose. However, surprisingly, one species actually makes life among all these threats of death, these being lesser flamingos. Once every three or four years, when conditions are right, the lake is covered with pink birds as they stop here to breed.
by Danette Ulrich
