United States
Waimea Canyon
Rust-red volcanic walls dropping thirty-six hundred feet through the emerald heart of Kauai.
Layers of rust-red and emerald-green drop away from the rim in vertical bands, waterfalls threading through volcanic rock into a canyon so deep the bottom disappears into its own microclimate. Mist rolls in from the ridgeline, parts briefly to reveal the full 3,600-foot plunge, then closes again. Waimea Canyon on Kauai is often called the Grand Canyon of the Pacific, but the comparison undersells the colour.
Waimea Canyon is 14 miles long and 3,600 feet deep, carved by water and the collapse of the Wai'ale'ale shield volcano into the island's volcanic interior. The rim drive climbs to 3,200 feet with pull-offs at major viewpoints, making most of the canyon's drama accessible from a standard vehicle. Koke'e State Park at the upper rim sustains a cloud forest of native 'ōhi'a lehua trees at temperatures 20°F cooler than the beach below. The Pihea Trail connects the canyon rim to the Alaka'i Swamp — the world's highest tropical swamp — through a boardwalk section where Hawaiian honeycreepers endemic to Kauai are consistently spotted. The contrast between Kauai's tropical coastline and this alpine-feeling interior is one of the most striking landscape transitions in Hawai'i.
Couple
Sunrise at the canyon rim turns the volcanic walls from shadow to copper to green in a sequence that takes ten minutes and stays with you permanently. The cloud forest trails above the canyon offer cool-air walking that feels nothing like the beach resorts below.
Family
The rim drive viewpoints deliver the canyon's full drama without requiring a single step of hiking. For families with older children, the trails into Koke'e's cloud forest reveal a side of Hawai'i — mossy, cool, birdwatching territory — that most visitors never discover.
- The canyon is 14 miles long and 3,600 feet deep, carved by the Ko'olau Ditch from the collapsed interior of the Wai'ale'ale shield volcano — the full depth is visible from the paved road.
- Koke'e State Park at the canyon's upper rim sustains a cloud forest at 4,000 feet with native 'ōhi'a lehua trees and Hawaiian honeycreepers, at temperatures 20°F below the beach.
- The Pihea Trail connects the canyon rim to the Alaka'i Swamp — the world's highest tropical swamp — through a boardwalk section where birds endemic to Kauai are consistently spotted.
- The rim drive crests at 3,200 feet with pull-offs at the major viewpoints — most of the canyon's drama is accessible from a standard vehicle without leaving the road.
Taro chips and poke from a roadside stand on the climb to the canyon rim.
Shave ice with tropical syrups from a Waimea town truck, cold enough to sting your temples.
Kauai-raised beef burgers at a ranch restaurant overlooking the canyon.
Pedra de Lume
Cape Verde
Float in a salt lake inside an extinct volcano, crater walls rising on every side.
Vale do Paúl
Cape Verde
Sugarcane terraces spill down a volcanic crater into the greenest valley in the archipelago.
Monastery of St. Anthony
Egypt
Earth's oldest inhabited monastery, wedged into a Red Sea mountain canyon since the fourth century.
Hoang Su Phi
Vietnam
Rice terraces so vertiginous they look like topographical maps carved directly into the sky.
Lander
United States
A river vanishes underground and resurfaces a quarter-mile later in a pool of giant trout.
Craters of the Moon
United States
A lava field so alien that NASA trained Apollo astronauts on these flows for moon missions.
New Orleans
United States
Jazz spilling from doorways at 2 a.m. while beignet sugar dusts your collar.
Savannah
United States
Spanish moss dripping into squares where horse hooves echo on cobblestones after dark.