Best piece of nature youve ever seen/been in the middle of

mohawk

Gonna jump the Grand Canyon bandwagon. It literally blows your mind.

NachoBusiness

Santa Ponsa.

percy212

LadyFenghuang wrote: »

The Dublin mountains.

The Hag's Nipple in mullingar.

What's this?

LadyFenghuang

percy212 wrote: »

What's this?

:-) It's a nickname for a place in Fore westmeath. Also there is the Cat's stone near it.

df1985

Grand canyon probably for me too.

worthy mentions: Yosemite, halong bay. I climbed mt Fuji in Japan in terrible conditions but the clouds cleared briefly at the top, I didn't realise how high I was until that point because I saw nothing but mist and fog on the way up. Some of the scenery skiing in the french alps.

In terms of animals, I hugged and cuddled a panda at the conservation centre in Chengdu in china. They are as affectionate as puppies. Adorable. I'm a 29 year old guy and I had a bigger smile on my face and was more excited than anyone else there , I look slightly strange I'm smiling so much in the pictures.

LadyFenghuang

Loughcrew hill was called the hag's hill or mounatin and all around that place from loughcrew to fore has nicknames like that.

The hags nipple. I have sat on the hag's nipple!

LadyFenghuang

df1985 wrote: »

Grand canyon probably for me too.

worthy mentions: Yosemite, halong bay. I climbed mt Fuji in Japan in terrible conditions but the clouds cleared briefly at the top, I didn't realise how high I was until that point because I saw nothing but mist and fog on the way up. Some of the scenery skiing in the french alps.

In terms of animals, I hugged and cuddled a panda at the conservation centre in Chengdu in china. They are as affectionate as puppies. Adorable.

I have held lizards and snakes. :-) You can feel the pulse right through the entire body of a snake.

I have held odd things. I sometimes need a minute to screw up courage!

the evasion_kid

The great barrier reef

View of Snow capped mountains from the middle of the great salt lake

CruelCoin

Milford Sounds

http://mstecker.com/images/NewZealand/NZMS/MS/a23ms4a-3.jpg

LadyFenghuang

CruelCoin wrote: »

Milford Sounds

Wow.

My brother has some great pics of his travels actually. He is more widely traveled then I. He went off in his twenties. And he is an AMAZING photographer.

endacl

Nobber.

Was in Iceland several times and it is such an amazing place for people who love the great outdoors. To this day the very first ride from the airport into Reykjavik sticks in my mind. Totally surreal, was just like landing on the moon.

As a city-scape, but also the surrounding countryside, Bergen in Norway is up there with Iceland as my favourite place in Europe. Especially Mount Floyen, the main mountain overlooking the city, and the fjords.

Spent a summer and a winter in a Siberian forest, east of the Urals in Russia. Stayed with a family of Jewish cops (which is a whole other story I could write a book about!) which was both ugly, beautiful, and downright bizarre all at the same time.

Baden-Baden and The Black Forest is also incredible, all the more so for me by virtue of the fact that most of the Irish forests were destroyed and never replaced, so most Irish kids will never see anything like that in their lives even though it used to surround us.

Can't think of much else in Europe that beats Ireland on a good day, tbh. Towns and cities yes, we are way behind, but for natural scenery Ireland is definitely up there. Maybe some of the Scottish islands, Skye and so on, but most Irish people would just see that as similar to our own far west, which it is, just better preserved and maintained.

Just a little Samba

Driving along the Colombia River Gorge highway at sunset is pretty spectacular.

The scenes while driving through Waynanad District of Kerala in South India, especially from the Edakkal caves are ridiculous.

Pretty much the entire west coast of Ireland is astoundingly pretty.

We live on a beautiful little blue/green rock lads.

Tragamin2k2

canada

diomed

Candie wrote: »

Absolutely.
Grand Canyon, no competitors. The scale and grandeur of the thing, indescribable.

But smaller than the Copper Canyon, Mexico.

diomed

The sixth highest waterfall in Zambia, Victoria Falls.
(may also be in Zimbabwe)

metaoblivia

I'm in Lake Tahoe at the moment and have hiked to several of the other, smaller but more remote alpine lakes in the Desolation Wilderness and have been blown away by their beauty. Crystal clear water, trees & wild flowers lining the shores, mountains still dusted with snow rising in the background. It's breathtaking.

stoneill

Candie wrote: »

Absolutely.

Grand Canyon, no competitors. The scale and grandeur of the thing, indescribable.

Columbia gorge - if you can imagine what the grand canyon full of water would look like. The scenic drive, Multnomah falls, the view from Vista peak - absolutely fantastic.
Milford sound and Fox Glacier South Island NZ.
Loughcrew near Castlebaldwin, if you ever get the chance.

marklazarcovic

walking by a garden one morning about 8am, seen a little bird dancing in front of its reflection on a car door mirror..stood watching for a good 2 mins.. kinda epic

Fratton Fred

I saw a nurse shark attacking a female grouper when diving off Tobago. This in itself was unusual because nurse sharks don't usually go for fish. What made it more fascinating, was that the grouper's mate was trying to save it by attacking the shark.

Watching a giant green sea turtle majestically swimming along was amazing, as was seeing a pregnant male sea horse.

For scenary, descending in to the blue hole in Gozo and swimming through the Azure window was impressive, as was Reqqa Point.

Chocolate fiend

A remote beach in Tasmania, it was just stunning, hard to explain and it was nothing like you expect a Tasmanian beach to be, it was just perfection. It's my go-to place in my brain when I feel stressed.

Aglomerado

Specialun wrote: »

Thought lake garda was in templemore

It is, just down the road from Lake Nurse.

spodoinkle

Scuba diving off east coast of Austraila, some turtles swam past, pretty cool

Menas

The Grand canyon really took my breath away.
Scuba diving off Anguilla was magic too.
As was visiting a volcano in malaysia.
Honorable mention to the Niagara falls.
And those thermal pools - was in one in Finland.

But ultimately I want to go to the artic...that would be amazing.

Another deer story. Again in Killarney.

On Stephens Day in snow and ice a few years back I was again wandering around the remote reaches of Killarney National Park, as I do, when I found a young deer that was caught in wire. It had tried to jump a fence and got a hind leg caught in strands so the more it pulled away the tighter the wire wound around. Had to spend a good hour near it, because obviously as I approached it got frightened. Took an age to sooth it, and maybe it was tired or calmed because eventually it stopped struggling and I was able to hold it and unwind the wire cutting into it's bone.

The remarkable thing was that after it was free it stayed around for a few minutes before limping away. I'm pragmatic about animals - given its injuries it may not have made it through winter afterwards - but it almost seemed...grateful...

MonkeyTennis

Cesky Raj in The Czech Republic It looks likes something from the peruvian jungle

Amazing


http://www.treking.cz/regiony/cesky-raj-skalni-mesta6.jpg

Gyalist

Fratton Fred wrote: »

I saw a nurse shark attacking a female grouper when diving off Tobago. This in itself was unusual because nurse sharks don't usually go for fish. What made it more fascinating, was that the grouper's mate was trying to save it by attacking the shark.

Watching a giant green sea turtle majestically swimming along was amazing, as was seeing a pregnant male sea horse.

For scenary, descending in to the blue hole in Gozo and swimming through the Azure window was impressive, as was Reqqa Point.

Nesting season in Tobago for leatherback, hawksbill and green sea turtles is just simply amazing.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oUh2ldc5qQo

Kaieteur Falls is probably the most breathtaking place that I've been.

jester77

Kauai island is the one that stands out to me. Was just stunning.

Andrewf20

I think these photos top it for me - Torres del Paine in Patagonia. The scale beggars belief. Also the summit of Cotopaxi in Ecuador. It half destroyed us getting to the top but getting down was much harder after climbing through the night, with limited food due to limited appetite with the altitude. Also, the view of Macchapucharre in Nepal from the Annapurna Sancturary trail below - its probably 14,000ft straight up. Apparently no one have ever set foot on its summit due to respect for the Gods - its a sacred mountain.

Other contenders would be Skaftafell glacier in Iceland, the Grand Canyon, and Glacier national park, Montana (as featured at the very start of The Shining).

mud

Barley Lake in West Cork. It's between Glengariff and Kenmare and involves a corkscrew mountain road and a bit of walking but it is worth it.

I gave half an hour watching a rabbit digging a hole not too long ago. So funny to see it kicking up mounds of earth with its back legs.

I also spent time yesterday watching an egret fishing. Nice!

I've seen tiny birds having the absolute craic giving themselves a bath in a pile of sand outside my ma's gaff.

I saw a spectacular meteor shower on a cold, clear night. I texted some friends who I thought would appreciate the heads up and to this day they still thank me for that.

I've dived through a waterfall into a lagoon.

Pretty much anything to do with the ocean blows my mind.

griffin100

Driving along the coast road from Belmullet to Blacksod one day and I see something splashing in the shallow water on the shore. Stop van and go to investigate, turns out to be a young common dolphin caught in shallow water. Me and the mate support it using a blanket and walk it out into deeper water but it keeps coming back in. We ended up sticking it in the back of the van and driving it to Blacksod where we released it into deeper water where it happily swam off.

I spent a few years working as a marine biologist and did some work with dolphins and particularly seals. Seen some interesting things. Saw a bottle nose dolphin kill a harbour porpoise in Scotland; seen some huge sunfish off the Mayo Coast; basking sharks up close; large turtles again off the Mayo Coast; spent some time camped on offshore islands counting seal pups as they were born. Happy days!!

IH784man

Either the first time I've seen a ewe lambing or a cow calving.

demanufactured

Connemara

mud

mud wrote: »

Barley Lake in West Cork. It's between Glengariff and Kenmare and involves a corkscrew mountain road and a bit of walking but it is worth it.

If you like remote, walk a few miles in the mountain above and behind/west of Barley Lake. No houses, roads, telephone poles, hardly even a fence.

mud

Deleted User wrote: »

If you like remote, walk a few miles in the mountain above and behind/west of Barley Lake. No houses, roads, telephone poles, hardly even a fence.

I've spent many happy hours wandering that area. It makes me very peaceful

mud

mud wrote: »

I've spent many happy hours wandering that area. It makes me very peaceful

It's not dissimilar to the area on the other side of the Kenmare Bay behind Sneem, between Cnoc Breasil and Coomcallee. Raised, remote, a real navigators challenge. Very different from your standard ridge type mountain range, where you're looking down on one side or the other.