All too few of us ever get to see much beyond our daily commute and what life brings past the windows at our work place. That’s just how it goes, unfortunately. And that’s one of the reasons we get so camera-happy on vacation – it’s all so new and different, and we want to remember it all.
So when we get to see the really odd, weird, and rare stuff out there in the world, it’s a treat. That’s why we’re glad so many people take their cameras everywhere with them – to get pics of rare views like these!
South Dakota the beautiful.
Obviously we’re all much more accustomed to seeing Mt. Rushmore from ground level, where the four faces look mighty and impressive.
From the air, however, those faces are dwarfed by the landscape of the Black Hills, appearing to be almost insignificant.
Fossils aren’t a rare thing, but the location of these makes them fairly special.
A climber took this pic of a fossil cluster at an elevation of 10,700 feet above sea level. Just goes to show you how much land forms have changed over millions of years considering these appear to be some form of sea life.
Deep, dark, and fascinating.
The longest underwater cave system in the world stretches for 216 miles (347 km) underneath Mexico, but it’s more than just a cave – it’s also an archaeological site that includes locations important to the Mayan culture .
Mayans believed that caves were portals to the underworld and among other things, scientists have found altars down there.
You don’t see them, but they see you.
Just to give a further idea of how much surveillance we’re surrounded by every day, here are some CCTV cameras that have been camouflaged to blend in to the forest.
Maybe just assume you’re always being watched.
The effects of light pollution.
Just think of how many people, all packed into cities, have never seen the night sky as it should be. One photographer wanted to show how massively light pollution drowns out the stars: the top image shows a single exposure from their city of two million people.
The bottom image, in which the night sky and the Milky Way are revealed in all its glory, required 120 exposures to be stacked on top of each other.
If there weren’t pictures to prove it, you might not believe it.
Traditional predator-prey enemies, this cow and leopard are basically family.
The leopard was orphaned and took to the cow as a sort of surrogate mother – the cow didn’t seem to mind much either and the two became unlikely, but strongly bonded friends.
Found the Lucky Charms.
Rainbows aren’t exactly rare, are they? You get them with just about every storm, right?
But do they ever show up as big and bold as this rainbow, spotted in Iceland? Yeah, you might expect it to be Ireland, but it’s Iceland. Iceland is just sort of a magical place.
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Rivers of sand.
To be fair, these rivers in Bolivia do run wet when they can. But in the dry season, not enough rain falls to fill them, so they end up dry beds.
In this image, taken by an astronaut , wind has kicked up the dust from the dry rivers, creating that wispy effect and spreading sand all over the place.
Not-so-icy land.
Between 1930 and 1992, Iceland’s Hoffelsjökull glacier retreated more than 2.6 km. That’s right, the gray soil in this pic was under a thick sheet of ice and snow less than a century ago.
Now, the area is more of a lake than a glacier.
You can almost hear the screams.
The lights on the midway at any fairgrounds can be a bit disorienting, and it’s easy to see why with this long exposure of rides in action. The whirling, twirling lights sure make a pretty sight!
Just think, until after WWII, this was a private library.
In what should have been a public space, no less! The mayor of Munich, Germany had the run of this space, which has since been transformed into a public legal library , known somewhat informally as the “Palace of Books.”
Quite the crop!
Have China’s terraced farms ever looked so magical? They’re pretty amazing in their own right, but when farmers place torches along their terraced fields like this, often to celebrate an event like the Red Clothes Festival , they’re downright otherworldly.
A noticeable disparity.
The break between an affluent area and a lower class neighborhood is sudden and stark in South Africa, and it couldn’t be much clearer than it appears in this overhead shot.
Looks nice even when it’s not midnight.
You hear lots of stories about how nice a desert oasis is, but how often do you see pictures of an actual oasis? This town, Huacachina , grew up around a desert oasis in Peru.
A real beauty, eh?
How wonderfully Canadian that this tree, the second-tallest in a tree-heavy nation, has its own wonderfully Canadian name: Big Lonely Doug .
It’s in a very remote location on Vancouver Island, so few people have ever visited it and there are very few trees anywhere near its size around it, hence why Doug is lonely. The big comes from the tree being 66 meters tall – or about 215 feet.
Same, owl. Same.
It’s definitely an odd look, but it’s natural. Not all owls keep to the trees, apparently. These are burrowing owls and, yes, they build tunnels instead of nests.
Just to be consistently different, they also tend to be active during the day rather than at night.
Never seen Lady Liberty from this angle.
We’ve all seen the Statue of Liberty before – it’s one of the most photographed sites in America. But how many have seen it from this angle?
Very few, because it’s looking down from her torch, a spot that’s been closed to the public for more than a century after an explosion damaged it in WWI.
A steady hand to go with a wonderful mind.
Of course Galileo is remembered as a scientist, but he wasn’t without a little bit of artistic talent, too. These are his original drawings of his observations of the Moon through his telescope back in 1609.
I wonder how these taste…
Oddly enough, the fruit of the jabuticaba tree doesn’t grow out on the branches like you’d expect it to – it grows right on the bark.
Apparently the fruit is similar to grapes – the jabuticaba is known as the Brazilian grape tree – but it ripens too fast to be sold anywhere but where it grows.
Okay, that’s a safe nest.
Where some owls burrow into the ground, this woodpecker has decided to burrow into a cactus to make its nest. You have to admit, that’s a pretty safe spot even if it’s unusual, so it’s clever work by the bird.
