Real Locations that should be fantasy

[Lord Liaden]

Petra is elsewhere on this thread. Well worth the viewing.

[assault]

Warning, this is a news item, so it contains irrelevant material. The first third is relevant to this topic.

"There's a giant, blind cockroach, and it doesn't run away like normal cockroaches. There's a gigantic blind cave spider."

Beneath the plains of the Nullarbor lies an underground world formed over millions of years

[Cancer]

A couple of weeks back I took a friend to Palouse Falls.  She hadn't been there before, even though she's lived in Washington all her life; the falls are out in the middle of nowhere in east-central Washington, a side trip of more than an hour from the nearest interstate highway (the roads are good, but there's just nothing else out there). 

 

The odd thing is that the falls -- both top and bottom of them -- is well below the level of the surrounding countryside.  The picture in the box titled "Palouse Falls State Park" on the linked page kind of conveys that sunkeness of the feature: the terrain is modestly hilly, and the horizon in that picture is the level of the general area.  The viewpoint over the falls is well above even the top of the upper falls.  It's possible to get down to the river, but it sure isn't easy, and that leaves out the terrific difficulty of getting back up out of there, with all the scree that is at the base of nearly all the canyon walls.  The trails down are all closed (there have been deaths).  It might be easiest to approach it by boat from downriver -- the confluence of the Palouse River into the Snake isn't that far away -- but you'd be going through private land doing that.

 

In terms of a fantasy world ... what might be behind the main falls in the plunge pit?  Why in your fantasy cosmology should this sunken river be there in the first place, let alone why there's this 200-foot waterfall on it?  What might happen to a traveler who blundered upon the place?

[Old Man]

Mount Lico: Untouched forest at the unreachable top of an African mountain with sheer granite sides

 

Few birds, many frogs, extreme risk of infection, and "little people"

[DShomshak]

On 7/3/2024 at 11:21 PM, Cancer said:

A couple of weeks back I took a friend to Palouse Falls.  She hadn't been there before, even though she's lived in Washington all her life; the falls are out in the middle of nowhere in east-central Washington, a side trip of more than an hour from the nearest interstate highway (the roads are good, but there's just nothing else out there). 

 

The odd thing is that the falls -- both top and bottom of them -- is well below the level of the surrounding countryside.  The picture in the box titled "Palouse Falls State Park" on the linked page kind of conveys that sunkeness of the feature: the terrain is modestly hilly, and the horizon in that picture is the level of the general area.  The viewpoint over the falls is well above even the top of the upper falls.  It's possible to get down to the river, but it sure isn't easy, and that leaves out the terrific difficulty of getting back up out of there, with all the scree that is at the base of nearly all the canyon walls.  The trails down are all closed (there have been deaths).  It might be easiest to approach it by boat from downriver -- the confluence of the Palouse River into the Snake isn't that far away -- but you'd be going through private land doing that.

 

In terms of a fantasy world ... what might be behind the main falls in the plunge pit?  Why in your fantasy cosmology should this sunken river be there in the first place, let alone why there's this 200-foot waterfall on it?  What might happen to a traveler who blundered upon the place?

That turreted outcropping of rock near the falls looks pretty fantastical as well. The sort of place where fairies might dwell.

 

Dean Shomshak

[Christopher R Taylor]

Quote

A couple of weeks back I took a friend to Palouse Falls.  She hadn't been there before, even though she's lived in Washington all her life; the falls are out in the middle of nowhere in east-central Washington, a side trip of more than an hour from the nearest interstate highway (the roads are good, but there's just nothing else out there). 

Been there, its really a fascinating location.  There's a long thin ridge of rock that juts out near the falls that gives a great view but could be used in an adventure (nest or something at the end).

[Cancer]

11 hours ago, DShomshak said:

That turreted outcropping of rock near the falls looks pretty fantastical as well. The sort of place where fairies might dwell.

 

If you mean that comblike reef above and just to one side of the visible falls ... rather than the fairing dwelling there now, perhaps that is where they made their last stand against the cataclysm that formed the falls, and then were swept away.