Australia
Mount Augustus
Twice the mass of Uluru with a fraction of the visitors — the world's largest monocline.
Twice the mass of Uluru. A fraction of the visitors. Mount Augustus rises 1,106 metres from the surrounding plain — the world's largest monocline, a single tilted rock slab that most Australians have never heard of and most tourists will never see.
Mount Augustus (Burringurrah) in Western Australia's Gascoyne region is the world's largest monocline — a single exposed rock formation roughly 2.5 times the mass of Uluru. The rock is 1,650 million years old, composed of sandstone over a granite core. Wadjari people know it as Burringurrah — their Dreaming story describes a boy speared for breaking law, his body transformed into the rock. Walking trails circle the base (a two-day trek) and ascend to the summit, passing through mulga woodland and spinifex grassland. The nearest town, Meekatharra, is 320 kilometres away. Visitor numbers are measured in hundreds per year, not thousands per day.
Solo
The anti-Uluru — twice the mass, none of the crowds, and a summit walk where you may be the only person on the rock.
Couple
Camping at the base of the world's largest monocline, watching it shift through sunset colours with no one else watching.
- The world's largest monocline — twice the mass of Uluru — but visited by fewer people in a year than Uluru sees in a day.
- The rock rises 1,106 metres above the surrounding plain, changing colour through orange, red, and purple at sunset.
- Wadjari people know it as Burringurrah — a boy who was speared and turned to stone by the spirits.
- Walking trails circle the base — a full circuit takes two days through mulga woodland.
Station stay cooking at Mount Augustus Tourist Park — hearty outback meals under a sky without competition.
Pack provisions for the summit trail — the 12-kilometre climb earns you 360 degrees of empty red horizon.
Ziz Gorge
Morocco
A date-palm river canyon slicing through red rock, the route legionnaires once feared.
Rishiri Island
Japan
A solitary volcanic cone rising from the Sea of Japan like a misplaced Fuji.
Mauna Kea
United States
Snow-capped in winter and home to the world's most powerful telescopes above the cloud line.
Silali Volcano
Kenya
The Rift's largest caldera holds hot springs, steam vents, and memories of a lake that vanished.
Great Ocean Road
Australia
Limestone apostles crumble into furious surf while the road clings to cliffs above.
El Questro
Australia
A million-acre wilderness station where thermal springs hide in palm-choked gorges and nobody is around.
Tarkine
Australia
Australia's largest temperate rainforest — Gondwanan species that predate the extinction of the dinosaurs.
Painted Desert
Australia
Ochre hills striped crimson and white, erupting from a flat plain the outback kept secret.