Canada
Mount Robson
The Rockies' highest wall rises nearly three vertical kilometres above its own visitor centre.
The mountain fills the windscreen long before the park sign. Cloud tears off the summit that climbers wait whole trips to see.
Robson's south face is among the great single mountain views on any road, and the Berg Lake Trail walks into its glacier amphitheatre for those with permits and legs. The visitor centre café is the only table; Valemount holds the rest. The summit shows itself on its own schedule.
Solo
The face, the café and the valley trail make a clean solo waypoint.
Friends
Berg Lake permits split among a fit group turn the view into a journey.
- The Rockies' highest peak rises nearly three kilometres above the road.
- Berg Lake's glacier amphitheatre rewards permits and legs.
- The summit appears on its own schedule; patience is the price.
The visitor-centre café serves breakfast and lunch beneath the face itself.
Valemount answers with a Swiss bakery's true sourdough starter and the Caribou Grill's steaks and game.
Stuðlagil Canyon
Iceland
A glacial river surging through geometric towers of perfectly hexagonal basalt.
Hushe Valley
Pakistan
Masherbrum's 7,800-metre pyramid guards a valley where glaciers grind audibly through the night silence.
Mount Ararat
Turkey
Turkey's highest peak rises alone from the plain, perpetually snow-capped and steeped in flood mythology.
Churchill River
Canada
A voyageur highway of lakes and granite still runs its canoe routes through the boreal north.
Dempster Highway
Canada
Canada's only all-season Arctic road runs 740 unpaved kilometres to the Mackenzie Delta.
Port Renfrew
Canada
Giant trees and giant surf bracket a fishing town at the west coast road's end.
Île d'Anticosti
Canada
Waterfalls, canyons and fossil-rich shores spread across a Gulf island with one village and few humans.