The Editors of LIFE - LIFE Paradise Found: 100 Places — Beautiful Beyond Belief

PARADISE FOUND

Richard Du Toit/Minden/Corbis

Okavango Delta, Botswana

Yva Momatiuk/John Eastcott/Minden

Pryor Mountain Wild Horse Range, Montana

CONTENTS

Conrad Piepenburg/Laif/Redux

Point Reyes, California

INTRODUCTION

Pleasures and Treasures off the Beaten Path

KAREN BLEIER/AFP/GETTY

PHOTO OP A gaggle of photographers gather to await the sunrise in Wyomings Grand Teton National Park.

There is a strong fashion in popular books today that can be understood as: Try this, not that. Paradise Found can be considered an entry in the Global Travel section.

Oh, certainly we feature sites and attractions that are well known, your Jackson Holes and St. Moritzes. But they are fewer and farther between than in some of our earlier books. As the title of this volume implies, we wanted to discover new places and share them with you. The world is a very big place, and in many, many parts it is astonishingly beautiful. We wanted, this time, to take the road less traveled, and surprise you with each turn of the page.

That said, right away we present a site familiar to any who have visited the Hawaiian island of Kauai, Waimea Canyon. Many of you, we realize, have not been fortunate enough to make that distant journey. Youve gone on a family trip to the rim of Arizonas Grand Canyon, perhaps, but haven't visited Waimea or the Copper Canyon in Mexico or Antelope Canyon, also in Arizona, or the Gorges du Verdon in France. You may never go. But we want to show you these places nonetheless, since enjoying the sites as an armchair traveler is the next best thing to going. We have summoned the best nature photography from many fine shooters known to us here at LIFE. This isnt a book of calendar art. The beauty reflected herein is really and truly out there, in both senses of the phrase.

We certainly hope that, too, we can inspire some of you to get out of that armchair, or to put some of these ideas in your back pocket for the next time you find yourself in this region or that one. You may never climb Mount Logan, even if you find yourself in the Yukon, but when you are next in the Midwest, plan a trip to Michigans Sleeping Bear Dunes. Youve been to Boston, but have you ever driven the half hour out to Concord to think things over on the shores of Thoreaus Walden? Next time youre playing golf in Ireland, take an afternoon off for a side trip to Skellig Michael. Australia isnt all about Adams Rock and the Great Barrier Reef. When you head out on that once-in-a-lifetime trip Down Under, make a longer list. And then again, if small Iceland offers as much as we claimand it doesmaybe Iceland needs to be the next vacation.

So this book works in many ways, but our overarching goal is that it serve as a source of surprises, constant and beautiful surprises. And whether you are in your armchair or gazing into the canyon itself, theres a final crucial advantage to seeking out secret little bits of paradise: Youll have them all to yourself.

MICHELE FALZONE/JAI/CORBIS

LANDSCAPE MASTERPIECE The wait and the cold are well worth it, as sunrise gilds the skies.

AMERICA

JERRY AND MARCY MONKMAN/AURORA

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LANIKAI BEACH

Oahu, Hawaii

DAVID SCHRICHTE/PHOTO RESOURCE HAWAII

Located on the windward, southeast, side of Oahu, this tiny half-mile beach draws locals, tourists and photographers to its turquoise waters, fine white sand and stunning views of the two islands that serve as bird sanctuaries just offshore. Lanikai means heavenly sea in the Hawaiian language, and with a reef near shore to keep the water warm and the waves child-friendly, it is easy to see why. Erosion has cut the length of the beach in half in recent years, so those considering a visit should plan one soon.

WAIMEA CANYON

Kauai, Hawaii

KERRICK JAMES/CORBIS

Given its astonishing size at 14 miles long, one mile wide and 3,600 feet deep, it is not surprising that this geological wonder is known as the Grand Canyon of the Pacific. Formed by an unusual combination of erosion (a result of the extremely high rainfall levels on Mount Waialeale that feed into the Waimea River) and the catastrophic collapse 4 million years ago of the volcano that created Kauai, the canyon has become popular with tourists drawn by its miles of hiking trails as well as its eye-catching views of the island of Nihau, just west of Kauai.

GIRDWOOD

Alaska

CARY ANDERSON/ASTOCK/CORBIS

Girdwood is best known as the site of the popular Alyeska ski resort, nestled in a valley of the Chugach Mountains near Anchorage at the eastern end of the Turnagain Arm of Cook Inlet. But from late August to early April, the extraordinary skiing competes for pride of place with the magical northern lights, a.k.a. aurora borealis, an astonishing visual display produced by the collision of charged particles and atoms in the upper atmosphere and viewable only in latitudes near the Arctic Circle. The result, as with this example above the Knik River some 60 miles north of Girdwood, is a dazzling array of colors that seem to dance before the enchanted viewers eyes.

GIFFORD PINCHOT NATIONAL FOREST

Washington State

FRANK HUSTER/AURORA

An intrepid visitor rappels down the main Summit Creek waterfall in Gifford Pinchot National Forest, one of the nations oldest. Originally designated the Columbia National Forest in 1908, it was renamed in 1949 in honor of Pinchot, the first chief of the U.S. Forest Service and a leading conservationist. The forest now covers 1,312,000 acres and includes the 110,000-acre Mount St. Helens National Volcanic Monument. Whether camping, hiking, hunting, fishing or simply enjoying the breathtaking views of lakes, waterfalls, mountain peaks and even lava beds, delights abound around every bend of the trail at Gifford Pinchot.

POINT REYES

California

CONRAD PIEPENBURG/LAIF/REDUX