I love America!

Bet that got a couple of noses twitching; and notice I live in another hemisphere...
Political, social and cultural idiocies aside, North America is a place of mindboggling geographic diversity and beauty.
Hellooo Arizona and Hawaii!
And Mexican food and good music and I can't imagine life without Solanums...
Ok, you could be geographically pedantic about at least a couple of those things. But. Damn your place is good lookin!
(Ok, I'm a bit excited after seeing too many amazing photos).

Leila wrote:
North America is a place of mindboggling geographic diversity and beauty.

That is cool to hear.  A little surprising, especially from someone from NZ.  My girlfriend and I, along with quite a few friends feel the same way about NZ.  We all either want to visit for an extended time or live there.  I guess Peter Jackson is somewhat to blame.
We have worked seasonally and have traveled in the off seasons.  We drove our truck al l over the US and through Canada to Alaska and back.  We've never made it to Mexico but have hugged the border and been through many parts of the US that were Mexico.  Driving allowed for a more gradual change in landscape.  Luckily we often had no time schedule and were able to stay off the interstates.  We were able to go through more small towns and see the regional differences, more than driving through the endless homogenized corporate crap that litters our highways.  Have you been to the States.

misfit, I missed what might look like the irony of a New Zealander gushing about someone elses cool-looking country!
Yip, mine's amazing, but after looking at a friend's States-road-trip-photos I was a bit...impressed...
I haven't been to the U.S.: refused while Bush was in charge, then life got in the way. One day, on my way to eat my way down Central/South America!

I do think traveling and experiencing the beauty of a landscape and a different cultures(even if the are your fellow countrymen) first hand is one of the most valuable experiences.

But the grass is always greener...

I *love* the natural beauty of North America, but can't stand many human attitudes here.  Luckily there are a lot of diverse personalities, just like anywhere else (despite what the media would have us believe).

All things considered I do Love America!
We moved here NM from Canada 26 years ago. 

We still live in the same house; don't move much but like to travel

The USA is the most climatologically diverse nation in the world, probably because it spans such a large range of latitudes and has an east coast and a west coast. No matter what climate you want (so long as it's not super tropical, you can find it in the USA. The people are problematic (both as individuals and as a society) but really it's that way everywhere.

IN THE US WE HAVE ALOT BUT VERY FEW THINGS COMPARE TO THOSE BREATHTAKING GREEN MOUNTAINS,.it seems to me & WISH I HAD THOSE IN MY BACKYARD, NO, ABSOLUTELY ANYWHERE. HOWEVER THE GRAND CANYON IS PRETTY  DARNED MAGNIFICENT AND THE OCEANSIDE IS MAGNIFICENT ANYWHERE, CUZ ALL YOU NEED IS WATER. YOU ARE SURROUNDED BY OCEAN AND BEAUTIFUL GREEN. TALKING ABOUT IT, I ALMOST SMELL IT. LUCKY

Of course I KNOW my country's the most beautiful place in the world!
But sometimes it's good to have a bit of a wakeup about others.
Being reminded that the U.S. is an amazing continent geographically was quite nice, since my first thought when U.S. anything comes up is usually "nooooooooo!"

I dig America too..but appreciate all earthly beauty..Each place has it's charm..

Here's Colorado for instance.. One of the most beautiful places in the USA, for me anyway.


A photo I shot last summer on a roadtrip, in the Rio Grande National Forest..

Unmistakable beauty, I say..

You're welcome to check my album, here: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=195906&id=501406548

Peace with all -

Another from my mobile phone.

Emerson White wrote:
The people are problematic (both as individuals and as a society) but really it's that way everywhere.

I have to disagree. I think it's much worse here.

I think that Paul will probably remove that political dig, you should try and do it before he does, maybe the rest of the post can stay if you do.

If you think that the rest of the world isn't filled with the same kind of people then I say that you aren't paying attention to the rest of the world.

I took down the dig. I didn't know politics were off limits. And I'm not saying the rest of the world isn't full of the same sorts of people. Just that their counterparts (voices of reason) seem to be more audible than the progressives on this side of the Atlantic.

Even if the political scene is more reasonable (I would argue that, if that were the case, it would be reasonable for irrational reasons) the people still do nasty things to each other. They still trespass and vandalize, they still take each others water, they still shade out each others gardens with big hedges, They still make loud noises at inconvenient times and let their dogs out to bark all night, they still have unreasonable home owners associations that regulate the length of grass and type of siding to be used. etc.

Well, ultimately I was referring to the political climate, not the nature of man. I won't argue whether they're rational for irrational reasons, as I tend to agree with your assertion.

M. Edwards wrote:
I have to disagree. I think it's much worse here.

It certainly is much worse here. Europeans for instance as far as I know (have many friends overseas) enjoy a much more 'stable' life, sans the overbearing government interferences and turmoil that we are made aware of daily in America. Switzerland for example,  one of the most 'liveable' places IN EU(as thorough census suggests) for it's residents, on account of it's natural resources, healthcare, and overall state of being..

That's a can of worms though, the topic is beauty in America.. I believe the US has a mass wealth of natural beauty, and depleting natural resources courtesy our overbearing leaders and lobbyists who press and struggle for fracking, oil drilling, and coal collection..


We've got to move away from this standardized mentality, and now.

Peace -

That's what I was referring to in my original post which I removed due to it's overtly political nature. There's many pertinent items for reference.. like the E.U. currently voting to widen the scale of their bans on GM crops while stateside Monsanto is basically being given the keys to the kingdom.

Now that's more the reactions I expected!
Our gorgeous country's government tried unsuccessfully  to pass legislation that would allow our national parks to be mined.
Idiots are idiots all over the world.

M. Edwards wrote:
That's what I was referring to in my original post which I removed due to it's overtly political nature. There's many pertinent items for reference.. like the E.U. currently voting to widen the scale of their bans on GM crops while stateside Monsanto is basically being given the keys to the kingdom.

It was my impression that the EU (or at least the member nations) was softening its stance on GMOs.

From my reading it seems mostly to be voices from the UK lobbying for deregulation, though I don't claim to be an expert. There's an article here:

http://ictsd.org/i/news/bridgesweekly/104887/

referring to the legislation I referenced.

Well farmers in all countries have been lobbying for GMOs, but the govt.s of the UK, France, and Germany have all softened their tones on the matter considerably in the last 5 years.

Edit: Found a link with the same general gist as me. http://www.time.com/time/business/article/0,8599,1970471,00.html

Good call taking our digression to a private channel, Professor. I'd wanted to post some photos of mine referring back to the original focus of the thread (America's natural beauty). I had some tech issues earlier but got some help in the "tinkering with this site" forum. The first few are shots I snapped this last Monday in King's Canyon/Sequoia Natl. Parks. It's fee-free week honoring Earth Day and the parks are only an hour's drive east of here.

Yikes, yikes, yikes. All upside down and messed up. I can't figure this out.. when I view them in Paint or Picassa they're all as they should be. When I upload them they go cuckoo.

One more go..

Holy cow, I got it to work. Okay.. so those above were taken in the oak woodland/chaparral around the southern foothills, as was the shot below.

These are from Muir Woods last December.. coastal redwoods.

And these are from Point Reyes on the same trip.. California is really a special place. It's too bad about all the people here.