1.Torres Del Paine (Patagonia,Chile)
Yes, they are torres-towers-but no human-
made tower has the awe-inspiring grandeur
of the vast, soaring granite monoliths at the
heart of the Torres del Paine massif. Yet this
great easterly spur of the Andes, protected
by a 935-square-mile (2,422 sq km) national
park, offers far more than skyscraping
spires and pinnacles. Trails wend through
pine-scented forest, past emerald lakes, and
across windswept plains to the fringes of
the Grey, Dickson, and other glaciers of the
Southern Patagonian Ice Field.
Day hikes on good, marked trails offer views of the
Paine's celebrated pinnacles. Hikers can follow the
famous “W” trail through the mountains in five days,
staying at refugios, or make a full circuit of the mas-
sif in eight or nine days.
When the sun sets in the Masai Mara National
2. Masai Mara National Reserve. ( Southwestern Kenya)
Reserve, Africa's vast skies fill with stars as
the tree-dotted grasslands and low escarp-
ments of the savanna below are bathed in
a gentle golden glow. Shadows gather and
the dry, searing heat of the day gives way to
the balmy stillness of twilight, a cooling calm
before the storm of evening activity erupts
among many of the thousands of crea-
tures-lions, leopards, elephants, rhinoceros,
hyenas, and more-that call this corner of
southwestern Kenya home.
Visit the Masai Mara in August, when 1.2 million
wildebeests, 750,000 zebras, and other animals
driven north by drought arrive in the region during
the "Great Migration” from the Serengeti plains of
neighboring Tanzania.
The landscapes of Chiang Mai are as varied as
3. Chiang Mai Province ( Northern Thailand )
the many peoples that have long been drawn
to this area of Thailand, one of Southeast
Asia's most important historical crossroads.
Paddy fields fill the lowlands and sinuous
hillside terraces with a vivid patchwork of
jade and emerald. Encroaching on all sides is
the darker, denser green of jungle, laced with
slow-flowing rivers and shadowed by moun-
tains like Doi Inthanon (8,415 ft/2,565 m) and
Doi Chiang Dao (7,136 ft/2,175 m), two of the
country's highest peaks.
The region's capital, Chiang Mai, has a moated old
town that has retained its charm and is a base for
excursions to out-of-the-way tribal villages and for
cycling, hiking, elephant trekking, bird-watching,
and rafting trips in the surrounding backcountry.
Big is beautiful when it comes to coast redwoods
4. Redwood National Park ( Northern California )
(Sequoia sempervirens), and they don't come much
bigger than in Redwood National Park, which pro-
tects a precious relic forest-some 45 percent of all
surviving coast redwood habitat-whose 350-foot-
tall, 2,000-year-old trees are among the world's
oldest and tallest living organisms.
The 32-mile Avenue of the Giants (Route 254) gives access
to the region's finest forest and the world's largest surviv-
ing stand of virgin redwoods.
The sun sets, shadows lengthen, and on the horizon the
5. Saguro National Park ( Southern Arizona )
Tucson and Rincon Mountains glow orange-pink in the
gathering dusk. One of the iconic images of the American
West then slowly emerges as hundreds of saguaro cacti-
North America's largest cactus-take on their unmistak-
able silhouettes against the darkening sky.
the explorer gaurav
The explorer gaurav blog
12explorer
12explorer blog
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