Taxonomy term

For Northern Arizona’s Havasupai tribe, whose name means “People of the Blue-Green Water,” a deep connection with the land has been the culture’s cornerstone for hundreds of years. It is easy to see why when you journey to their magnificent homeland below the Grand Canyon’s rim. There you are treated to all the majestic grandeur you expect in the Grand Canyon, plus a robust stream with the most vibrantly turquoise water this side of the tropics. The stream — Havasu Creek — rushes from one deep emerald pool to the next over a series of small travertine dams and plunges over five spectacular waterfalls as it tumbles pell-mell toward the Colorado River. The shape of each waterfall is slowly modified by the addition of new travertine rock that precipitates out of the very water that tumbles over its lip. More dramatic resculpting is done by the frequent flash floods that roar down Havasu Creek, most recently in 2008.

Few visitors to Colorado Springs, Colo., realize that the spectacular scenery on display at famous sites like Pikes Peak, Garden of the Gods, and the campus of the U.S. Air Force Academy is largely the result of varied geologic processes spanning more than a billion years. Pioneering 19th-century geologist Ferdinand Vandeveer Hayden summed it up best when he said:  “I do not know of any portion of the West where there is so much variety displayed in the geology as within a space of 10 miles square around Colorado [Springs].” In fact, the city holds the rare distinction of hosting rocks from every geologic time period save one. The presence of this unusually complete rock history means that while enjoying Colorado Springs’ premier attractions, you can also take a tour of the geologic timescale.

Just one breathtaking hour’s drive from Cairns, the gateway to the Great Barrier Reef on the coast of Queensland, in northeastern Australia, the scenic Atherton Tablelands, with their young volcanoes, dramatic waterfalls and lush rainforest, rise a thousand meters above the humid coastal plain. On a leisurely day trip you can circumnavigate this nearly flat plateau, soaking up the scenery formed by some of the continent’s youngest volcanoes, ambling through threatened rainforest ecosystems, and sampling exotic tropical produce.