My choice is probably not quantifiably more beautiful than any of the selections that people have posted, but it has special significance to me. We call it “Eden,” and it’s basically the remains of an unfinished subdivision on a mountain top about 10 miles from my college. The roads were all built, but none of the houses were started and the subdivision was locked up when the housing bubble popped. Since then, my friends and I go up there as a sort of spiritual/natural pilgrimage, because there is a real surreal beauty to the place that I just can’t quite capture in photographs.
Here are some pictures:
1
2
3
4
Two years ago, the website for the subdivision builders was still active, but hadn’t been updated in a while. I checked it out today and the server was down. I guess this means our private playground in the mountains is safe and nature will really start reclaiming the area (which it already has been doing for as long as we’ve been going up there).