Toubkal is a mountain peak in southwestern Morocco, located in the Toubkal National Park. At 4,167 metres, it is the highest peak in the Atlas Mountains, Anti Atlas, North Africa and the Arab World. The Toubkal Massif, enclosing the High Atlas’s highest peaks, is the target destination of nearly everyone who goes trekking in Morocco. Mountain villages offer a stark contrast to the previous roadside towns, with Berber houses, stacked one on top of another in apparently organic growth, appearing to sprout from the rocks. The local population is immediately distinct from their city compatriots; the women dress in brilliant attire even when working in the fields.

credit: Coemgenus1985

Cwm Pennant is a little known valley firmly on the unfashionable side of Snowdonia. The valley was home to slate workings in the late 19th century employing up to 200 workers. The slate was quarried, brought to be dressed and then shipped off in trams down the valley to its destination. The valley is mainly used for farming nowadays with farming stock indiginous to the area – Welsh Black cattle and Welsh Mountain, Welsh Mule and Lleyn sheep

credit: ARG_Flickr

Death Valley National Park comprises more than 3.3 million acres of spectacular desert scenery, rare desert wildlife, complex geology, undisturbed wilderness and sites of historical interest. Death Valley is unique because it contains the lowest, hottest, driest location in North America. Telescope Peak, the highest peak in the Park and in the Panamint Mountains, rises 11,049 feet above sea level and lies only 15 miles from the lowest point in the United States in the Badwater Basin salt pan, 282 feet below sea level. The highest temperatures in the United States are regularly recorded here, as are winter snows and near-zero nighttime temperatures. Devil’s Golf Course is actually not a golf course at all, but rather an expansive salt field caused by evaporated bodies of water. One can actually see the crystallization process at work. Also do not miss Mushroom Rock, Zabriskie Point, Dante’s View and Harmony Borax Works.

Ubehebe Crater

Zabriskie Point

Hexagonal salt formations at Badwater Basin

Badwater Basin elevation sign and scener

Joshua tree Harsh desert landscape

Devil’s Golf Course

Natural Bridge in Natural Bridge Canyon

Dry Waterfall in Natural Bridge Canyon

Sailing Stones at the Racetrack Playa

Sailing Stones at the Racetrack Playa

Mesquite Flat Sand Dunes

A twenty-mule team wagon

McKellips Daughters’ Grave

credit: Mike Baird

Monument Valley is the most famous example of the classic American West landscape, located on the border of Arizona and Utah. Crimson mesas and surreal sandstone towers rise hundreds of feet into the air, some as tall as 1,000 feet. Valley’s rock formations are noteworthy mainly because they resemble animals or other familiar images (e.g., Bear, Rabbit, Stagecoach). Monument Valley is a Navajo Nation Tribal park and charges a fee of $5 per person for access to the loop road through the valley. The area is entirely within the Navajo Indian Reservation near the small Indian town of Goulding, established in 1923 as a trading post.

credit: Moyan Brenn