Piedras Blancas Elephant Seal Rookery.

Piedras Blancas Elephant Seal Rookery. FAMILY A large colony of elephant seals (at last count 22,000) gathers every year at Piedras Blancas Elephant Seal Rookery, on the beaches near Piedras Blancas Lighthouse. The huge males with their pendulous, trunklike noses typically start appearing onshore in late November, and the females begin to arrive in December to give birth—most babies are born in the last two weeks of January. 

The newborn pups spend about four weeks nursing before their mothers head out to sea, leaving them on their own; the “weaners” leave the rookery when they are about 3½ months old. The seals return in the spring and summer months to molt or rest, but not en masse as in winter. You can watch them from a boardwalk along the bluffs just a few feet above the beach; do not attempt to approach them as they are wild animals. The nonprofit Friends of the Elephant Seal runs a small visitor center and gift shop (250 San Simeon Avenue) in San Simeon. 

Alaska Highway - A wilderness road trip through Canada and Alaska

RUNNING THROUGH SOME OF the most rugged terrains on the planet, the Alaska Highway is an epic 1,387-mile (2,232 km) journey through boreal forest, remote mountain ranges, and alluvial landscapes carved by rivers and ancient glaciers. Constructed during World War II as a strategic link between Alaska and the lower 48 states, the route stretches from Dawson Creek in northeastern British Columbia through Yukon to Delta Junction near Fairbanks, Alaska. 

Once gravel, the entire length of the highway is now paved, though stretches can still be potholed and rough. The major obstacle to driving the highway is extreme northern weather—it can snow even at the height of summer this far north. Grizzlies, moose, and other critters are also apt to wander across the road. Drivers should expect a general lack of amenities. 

Many businesses are seasonal, and even during the best weather, traffic is extremely light along much of the highway. The weeklong journey on the Alaska Highway offers one of the world’s most rewarding wilderness road trips. Along the way are Muncho Lake, historic Whitehorse in Yukon, and vast Kluane National Park and Preserve. The best online resource for driving the highway is The Milepost.

Lake Nakuru National Park, Kenya

Lake Nakuru National Park encompasses the alkaline lake of the same name and is frequently visited by hundreds of thousands (sometimes more than a million) of greater and lesser flamingos, providing an amazing bird spectacle. More than 400 bird species in all have been recorded. Located 100 miles (160 km) northwest of Nairobi on a fair road, the park covers 73-square-miles (188-km2) — most of which is the lake itself. Nakuru has been declared a black rhino sanctuary and has a fair number of these endangered animals. 

A small population of white rhinos has been reintroduced from South Africa. Other wildlife includes lion, leopard, Rothschild’s giraffe (introduced), waterbuck, reedbuck, hippo, baboon, pelican, and cormorant. The lake is an important stopover for thousands of migratory wading birds that head to and from Europe each year. Lake Bogoria National Reserve, located north of Nakuru, has numerous hot springs and geysers along the lakeshore. 

Thousands of flamingos frequent this alkaline lake, as do greater kudu on the steep slopes of the lake’s eastern and southern shores. Lake Baringo, a freshwater lake located 20 miles (32 km) north of Lake Bogoria, is a haven for a colorful and mixed variety of birdlife (over 400 species recorded). There is a sporting center for waterskiing, fishing, and boating — beware of the hippos and crocodiles!

Salar de Uyuni - Bolivia

Bolivia’s Salar de Uyuni defies adequate description, although calling it a blinding, surreal expanse of endless pure-white flatness that must be seen to be believed comes very close. This eerily silent and awe-inspiring Salar (salt flat) is one of the most otherworldly environments on earth, and all that remains of an enormous inland sea that evaporated thousands of years ago. 

Covering an area of about 4,250 sq miles (11,000 sq km), these sun-baked plains hold enormous quantities of salt – 10 billion tons, in fact – and are home to some of the most fantastic wildlife in South America. And for those intrepid travelers who want the full experience, there’s even a hotel here built entirely from blocks of salt. This extraordinary wilderness draws trekkers who are in search of solitude and adventure. 

Most require a 4WD to complete the journey across the flats, which measure 93 miles (150 km), but which often seem ten times that distance because of the daunting emptiness of the place. Sunlight reflects so brightly off the salt that you’re likely to be dazzled for much of the journey. This bright and pristine landscape is interrupted only by one or two rocky “islands” full of cacti, the occasional blood-red flamingo or long-tailed chinchilla, a haunting antique train graveyard, and weird and wonderful mirages that come and go in the distance. 

You might also see the odd miner panning the flats for salt, a centuries-old tradition that is still going strong today. The atmosphere here is considered by many scientists to be the purest on the planet, and the air is so dry and free from variation that the Salar de Uyuni is used as a calibration point for satellites far above the earth. 

Although the traditional end-to-end trekking route can be covered in one day by 4WD, the majority of visitors prefer to span it out over three or four days to make the most of the region’s wonders on their own two feet and at their own pace. Most drive to one of the several trailheads, walk as much of the distance as they wish and arrange for a pick-up a few miles from the other end. 

Watching the sunrise and set, tinting the clouds every color of the rainbow above this immense sheet of white oblivion, is a truly unforgettable experience. While neither the longest nor most arduous trek on the continent, tackling the magnificent Salar de Uyuni, one of the world’s most harsh and arid environments, surely ranks as the strangest of all.

Badlands National Park

The White River BADLANDS could be considered a pocket-sized cousin to Arizona’s Grand Canyon. What’s most impressive about the “Badlandscape” is not its scale, as at the Canyon, but rather its sheer strangeness. More than 35 million years ago this area of southwest South Dakota was a saltwater sea; later it became a marsh, into which sank the remains of such prehistoric mammals as saber-toothed cats and three-toed horses, to be covered with white volcanic ash. 

Drying as it evolved, the terrain became unable to support the deep-rooted shrubs or trees that might have preserved it, and over the last few million years erosion has slowly eaten away layers of sand, silt, ash, mud, and gravel, to reveal rippling gradations of earth tones and pastel colors. The crumbly earth is carved into all manner of shapes: pinnacles, precipices, pyramids, knobs, cones, ridges, gorges, or if you’re feeling poetic, lunar sandcastles and cathedrals. 

While the Sioux cherished these incredible contortions of nature for harboring bighorn sheep, mule, deer, and another tasty prairie fare; early French trappers didn’t share the native's enthusiasm, dubbing these white hills the Mauvaises Terres à Traverser, or “bad lands to travel across;” they have also been brutally described as “hell with the fires out.” 

The most spectacular formations can be found within the Badlands National Park, particularly its northern sector, while the poverty-stricken Pine Ridge Indian Reservation encompasses the southern stretches. Clean-cut Wall, just a few miles north of the park boundaries, is the most–visited commercial center in the region.