The Desert in Maine - And Other Out-of-Place US Geography
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- Опубліковано 26 вер 2024
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Check out the Loess hills.
nj pine barrens
Commenting at 99,980 subscribers
Ever heard of half as interesting
In south Illinois the edge of the ice age glacier extent forms a sharp contrast in the geography, as well as a ridgeline next to the mississippi river. Roughly around the location of Highway 13 anywhere to the north is flat farmland, and just to the south of it forms sprawling hills and forests, there's even a national forest there founded in the early 1900s to preserve the land (since the area was heavily logged for industry).
Great video! We are current owners of the Desert of Maine. We are a few years into a massive overhaul of this nearly 100 year old tourist attraction. We have many new exhibits, a new self-guided tour that dives deep on the history, geology, and ecology of this unique landscape, and lots of other changes. Ask us anything!
I used to go there as a little kid. Glad to see you're still going!
I'm coming up
Went there after Maine Brewing Company. Felt like a tourist, but loved it there.
Shows a lot that youd care enough to drop a comment hope you do well in your ventures
Can we meat
Having NO idea about the “drift less” area of Minnesota and Wisconsin, driving through there for the first time this summer I will say I was VERY confused as to the geography and what I was seeing around me. It was a VERY cool area.
Yep. Just took a drive along the Mississippi through that region for my first time into Minneapolis. Was wonderful to see the river frozen solid and rocky cliffs poking out from 600 ft bluffs miles away.
Yep. First few times visiting Dubuque, Iowa was a surprise. Cliffs, old forests, hills and cut by the Mississippi. Looked like New England or upstate NY.
If you are ever in adams and sauk county wisconsin, central wisconsin, be sure to visit Rocky Arbor State Park (Wisconsin Dells, WI), Ableman's Gorge State Park (Rock Springs, WI) and ESPECIALLY Devil's Lake State Park (Baraboo, WI).
Also, take the opportunity to take a river boat tour through the sandstone vistas lining the river around Wisconsin Dells. The sandstone strata layers here can only be observed in two other places on the planet, that being The Palisades in upstate New York and some mountainous region out in China.
Edit: The UP belongs to Wisconsin, dammit!
@@thehalberdier4774 UP resident here, I support the state of superior and independence from Michigan.
@@thehalberdier4774 Devils Lake is in the Baraboo Range, remnants of an ancient mountain range exposed due to erosion. It's only 25 miles long and 5 miles wide.
I’ve spent a lot of time in western Nebraska and it’s a hidden gem. The water there is so fresh, the lakes have perfect sand & there’s nobody out there. Nebraska national forest is awesome, the stargazing is on another level
Dude the water may be fresh but they can be alkine
@@nothuman3083 Do you mean "alkaline"? (alkine/alkyne is a very different thing)
To people from the east coast, any place east of the Rockies and west of the Mississippi has low levels of light pollution. (I speak from the vantage point of someone from Connecticut)
@@nothuman3083 As someone from Nebraska I can assure you that such a lake would be extremely rare here. They are in fact quite high quality lakes, along with our many rivers which Nebraska has more miles of than any other state! Sand bottoms on most of them makes floating them quite the fun relaxing adventure. Nebraska may sound boring but there is quite a lot of recreational activities available here.
Seriously. I take a 13 hour drive on weekends sometimes just to visit Ogallala
Siberia. I've always been surprised by how little anyone talks about this massive area.
As the earth warms and more of it opens up I suspect we’ll be talking about it more and more same goes with northern 90% of Canada
Because no one lives there lol, it's a frozen wasteland barely habitable by humans.
@@fungi265 fart for me baby
Siberia isn't an out of place piece of US geography... yet.
@@renlysotherlover294 No we won't. Several generations in the future, more likely.
No matter what state you are in, save for maybe Delaware and Rhode Island due to size, you cannot truly witness their beauty from the interstate highways alone. Highway developers find the easiest available terrain to build in, and additionally are only interested in connecting points of population, preferably through corridors of as continuous of population as possible.
I always recommend travelers get off the beaten paths! Especially in states that have no major reputation for natural scenery. A state that left a huge impression on me long ago through exploration was lower Michigan. I was shocked at how much of lower Michigan is genuinely beautiful away from the cities and highways, and so few know it.
You can drive on I-40 past Petrified Forest National Park without knowing its even there (other than the signs).
“So few know it.” We know. I live in northern Lower Michigan. Just 50 miles south of the Mackinaw bridge. So it depends on which part of the lower Peninsula you are referring to. The southern half of the lower P. is flat and mostly farmland. We call them “Flatlanders”. Up here, the glaciers tore up the land so it’s all hills and valleys. And Forrests. The lumber companies cut all the old growth then abandoned the land for tax purposes. That is how the State Government could create so many and large State Forrests. There’s more, but TL;DR.
@@samiam619 So few not from there. haha
I-80 in Nebraska is the absolute WORST place to drive for seeing things. Take state highway 2 from grand island into the Sandhills and you’ve got a cool transformation from flat fields to a beautiful place.
There are exceptions. I highly recommend a trip up the 101 from California through Oregon and Washington
My favorite geographical oddities outside the US:
Waw an Namus (Libya) - Like you're looking on a Satellite map of the Sahara and think "Oh, it's just endless sand with an oasis here and there", but then you zoom in on Libya, and see a big grayish-black dot in the southern portion of the country. Then you realize...that's a volcano
Victoria Island (Canada) - There you can find a third-order island, an island in a lake on an island in a lake on an island
Ross Island (Ross Dependency; New Zealand) - southernmost active volcano, extreme cold meets extreme hot
Great Blue Hole (Belize) - You're enjoying a barrier reef, you're surrounded by paradise and small islands...and then you see a giant marine sinkhole that looks like a portal to another world. And that's not even the deepest marine sinkhole! The deepest one is in the Paracel Islands and it's called the Dragon Hole. According to legend, the Dragon Hole is where the Monkey King found his cudgel.
Check out Athabasca Sand Dunes Provincial Park in Canada. You walk in what seems to be a dessert in the sahara but see fir trees in the distance. What a weird combo
Amazing list!!
Its avery the cuban american
An ACTIVE volcano. The Sahara has multiple isolated volcanic fields and stratovolcanoes dotted all over it, most notably in Chad, Libya, Algeria and Niger. These volcanoes are nowhere near the African Rift Valley, yet they are powered by the same mantle plume that is cleaving the continent in two.
Gotta love seeing a random Journey To The West reference in the comments section
The Sandhills of Nebraska are indescribable. I've been lucky enough to have been to the bahamas, the virgin islands, and different parts of Europe, along with the majority of US states. But just floating down the Loup River on a summer day in the sand hills is just absolute serenity. Catching a glimpse of a river otter, or a hawk overhead while blissfully floating along in absolute silence is something that just has to be experienced.
Again, more great content! I never knew these things about Nebraska and Oklahoma. Makes me think twice about the two states, they're not just flat and boring landscapes 👏💯
Though I think Kansas is dead flat. I once heard that it's literally flatter than a pancake, which has a flatness coefficient of something like .957 while Kansas is .9997
@@readtherealanthonyfaucibyr6444 I think there is multiple states that are found to be flater than a pancake
@@ANTAlex-pe9li My guess would be if there are any others, they'd be one or both of the Dakotas, but probably none others.
@@readtherealanthonyfaucibyr6444 the flattest state is actually florida...Kansas actually has steady elevation gain from east to west, you just don't see it but you actually gain quite a bit of elevation. Meanwhile the highest spot in Florida is literally a small hill
@@readtherealanthonyfaucibyr6444 kansas isn't that flat.. it has steady elevation gain, and even visually Hilly in the far eastern part of the state as well as the Flint Hills.. that are famous for being really hilly lol and not flat. 95% of illinois, and of course Louisiana, & Florida are literally flat as heck
Two or three unusual sites in West Virginia - Dolly Sods (a natural cranberry bog on a mountain top), the New River (supposed to be the oldest river in north America, and flows north and west, instead of the usual south/east flow in that region). Canaan Valley is also unusual, in being a very broad, relatively shallow valley in the middle of the Appalachians.
WV is one of the states that I often hold as a point of pride for the natural diversity and beauty of the eastern US. I hold it alongside NY, Maine, Louisiana, and Wisconsin(+the MI UP) as my top five states to see the wilds of in the east for visitors from the west.
Florida also has a river that flows Northwest, away from the ocean, instead of South and East.
I live in Wisconsin and find WV absolutely breathtaking. Scouting property at the moment.
Loved winter backpacking the Dolly Sods.
@@jay-no8ok Great people, too!
The tobacco growing region in Connecticut, setting for the novel "Parish", is an interesting microclimate region displaced from the more typical tobacco growing regions.
I grew up in that region, and worked on one of the tobacco farms as a teen for a summer job.
Connecticut was once the top exporter of tobacco, my town specially was once the top in the world here
Don’t ruin it by telling too many people!
Interesting I lived in CT my whole life n had no idea about this
I live in Colorado and drive to NC to see my family every year, and the peace and quiet of crossing Kansas is the highlight of my trip. It's beautiful, and getting off of the interstate is even better. You can make pretty good time without the nutjobs trying to set speed records on 70.
I love this series! Please keep it going!
Being from Ohio a lot of people say it's flat and boring, but the unglaciated plateau is absolutely gorgeous and one of my favorite places to go for a relaxing drive. Caves, gorges, land bridges, there is so much diversity in SE Ohio that many people don't know about!
Northern Indiana also has sand dunes that are pretty unusual, right along the lake!
@Derrangedteddy - i am not from ohio, but would consider "SE Ohio" more southern (upland south), than northern. as an ohioan what do you think?
The sand dunes in Northwest Indiana and Southwest Michigan is due to the prevailing wind off of Lake Michigan. So it is not unusual. It is also cause of lake effect snow.
People: Nebraska is just miles of cornfield!
Nebraska: *Amazing, every word of what you just said...was wrong*
One of the very few places in California that truly looks "out of place" as far as scenery goes is the Sutter Buttes. Located in the Sacramento Valley and about 10 miles (16 km) across, these volcanic remnants are near Yuba City. They stand about 2000 feet (600 meters) above the surrounding valley.
I actually lived in the driftless area my whole life, and let me tell you, the land formations around Trempeleau and la crosse are DEFINITELY something
The western panhandle of Nebraska is basically the southern end of the black hills of South/North Dakota. It’s genuinely a beautiful part of the country and if you’ve never been there I highly recommend checking out that part of Nebraska in particular
One of the coolest things imo are the beach "mountains" of central Florida, aka the Lake Wales Ridge. Basically Florida was an archipelago like the Bahamas when sea levels were higher, all of which had sand dunes and the associated flora/fauna. When sea levels retreated/uplift of the land started, the flora and fauna stayed, creating an inverse island. It's home to a bunch of endemic species only found there that probably started as species found on the islands.
The first time I drove through Nebraska I was expecting to just by a copy and paste of Kansas. I was shocked to see the hills for hours on end. And I found the state quite beautiful as a result especially when you're driving and get near the top of a hill and can see hills endlessly to all horizons. It looks like another planet.
I’m from Nebraska and that’s something you take for granted until you get somewhere flat
Well let's not shit-talk Kansas too much, The Flint Hills are mesmerizing.
@@willbaska yeah and the Jayhawks are bringing home a natty
One day I want to take a road trip around Kansas and Nebraska. Living on the east coast I hear the term ‘fly over states’ a lot and I’m just so tired of people dismissing these states as boring. Every state in the country has beautiful scenery!
your comment is as boring as your state...just kidding your right
As a person from Kansas I can confirm it is a boring state, sorry to disappoint you. We do have the worlds largest ball of twine though
Thing is every state has something unique and also boring. People have different tastes. I'm originally from coastal Virginia and North Carolina but now live in Tennessee with tons of mountains and It's not my cup of tea but it grows on you over time I suppose.
As another person from Kansas, it is mostly boring, but there’s a few good places to check out
1) The Flint Hills are beautiful
2) Mushroom State Park has some odd rock formations that you would not expect from Kansas
Definitely recommend a good cross-country road trip whenever you can make the time - no shortage of wonderful sights if you go looking!
Omg!!! Nothing short of breathtakingly beautiful!
I hope these areas stay preserved in their natural state forever!!!
When I was a little boy on summer vacation, I went on one of the staged gemstone hunts in the desert of Maine... I almost died of heatstroke (at least "almost dying" is what it felt like). Been in love with the icy chill of winter ever since.
If someone in Georgia wants to spend some time in the mountains, they typically head north of Atlanta. However, there is a unique geological formation in west central Georgia, possibly older than the Appalachians, that created a series of low mountain ridges called Pine Mountain that stretch west to east across several counties. They only rise above the surrounding land around 200-500 feet in elevation in spots, but it is a pretty sight amongst mostly lower rolling hills that far south in the state. The largest state park in Georgia covers a chunk of the highest elevations along the ridge, and attractions such as Callaway Gardens and FDR's Little White House are right next to the ridge as well.
Isn't that where the Cherokee were based?
@@rnedlo9909 The Cherokee were mostly in northern Georgia into the mountains of Tennessee and North Carolina. You can visit the old Cherokee capital New Echota a bit more than an hour north of Atlanta.
@@davidmatheny1993 Okay, thank you!
im a georgian and i have never heard of this. neat
@@snichelsticks8653 Callaway Gardens is a more familiar place for folks that live elsewhere in the state, but not much is said about the state park right next door. It is less than an hour and half(in good traffic) from Atlanta if you head south on I-85 and I-185.
I'm from michigan, and something that makes me feel just so sad is that michigan used to be almost entirely old growth forest, like to the extent of it being genuinly _wild_ and dark during the day from the leaf cover, but nearly all of it was lost to logging and the fires of the late 1800's. Even hartwick state park, the last remaining old growth forest in the lower peninsula, was logged to some extent and is considered second-growth
The Palouse region of eastern Washington is an area of blown in dirt that looks like snow drifts from the air. It is some of the best farm ground in the nation, but very steep to farm. If you were in the Palouse and didn't know it, you'd say you were looking at the Tuscany region of Italy -- they look about the same. Since the dirt is all blown in, there are no rocks. Colfax, WA is pretty much the center of the area.
@ V Dub -- Dirt is a 4-letter word. Please talk about the rich "Soils" of the Palouse.
Or, talk about the "Silt Deposits" of the Palouse.
Soil is an ecosystem. Dirt is lifeless mineral matter.
I am at a loss trying to think of any examples of "unexpected terrain" in my home state of California. What it is known for is its tremendous variety of topography, which makes finding unusual instances the expected state of affairs.
Lol yeah California is like a whole bio-dome
It has every conceivable terrain you can imagine. Maybe it should be 6 states?
@@fordtechchris what’s wrong with a state having different terrains. More sounds like someone hates California because it’s liberal and wants to break it up into several smaller states
@@kayzeaza no state should be so large that liberal people in the desert part control the conservative people in the forest part 700 miles away.
@@kayzeaza The last thing we need is one big liberal state split into 6 small liberal states lol
I love this series! The Llano Uplift in Central Texas is a really unique geologic area of the state. Out of the rolling hills of the hill country rises an area full of pink gneiss granite and ancient volcanic domes. Cool stuff!
The sand hills are super dope. Literally nobody lives there, and driving through is like something out of Arabian Nights meet Wild West. Love the mention of the mountains (Arbuckle, Witchita) of OK. Maybe consider the turtle mountains and Devil's lake in North Dakota, or the Flint Hills and Chautaqua Hills in KS?
Definitely the Fint hills!
flint hills would be interesting i think Little Jerusalem or castle rock be interesting too
Kansas chalk formations for sure, if he hasn't done it already; castle rock (not much left of it now, but the location has other badlands) and monument rocks are interesting. I've got a couple drone videos of them on my channel.
@@elloh77 while yes the whole state has been scientifically been proven to be flatter than a pancake it's still got alot of interesting features
South Carolina has it’s own Sandhills too. A lot of sand, clay and long leaf pine.
We have a place similar to the "desert" in Maine here in Norway too - Kvitsanden outside of the town of Røros, sand dunes far from the coast, pretty cool actually.
The scablands in the inland Northwest -- they're essentially the remains of a giant flood that was so powerful that it carved canyons and tossed giant boulders in one single stroke.
Yes. Randall Carlson & Graham Hancock are the leaders in the study of the cataclysm that caused this roughly ~12,600 years ago.
Several floods. A fascinating geological area. Googling "Bretz's flood" will get one started in finding lots of interesting material.
A geographical oddity for me near the area I live, is cheddar gorge in Somerset, UK. A large portion of Somerset is made up of the Somerset levels which are at or below sea level and prone to flooding ever since the area was drained for farmland and inhabitation. So seeing such large hills with a massive gorge running through them in a largely flat area of England always struck me as weird. In the south and east of Somerset its relatively hilly but not by much. Another one would be ham hill, a surprisingly steep hill in South Somerset which overlooks a lot of the low lying areas of Somerset and still somehow towering above other hills in the area. It's right on the edge of the flatter region of Somerset and is the source for hamstone which is used in a lot of local buildings
Some international ones to keep in mind: Spain, Hawaii and Brazil all have parts that could feasibly be in the Australian Outback
Yes, the international foreign country of Hawaii.
@@EllissDee4you4me kingdom of hawaii. under US occupation
@@marcoroberts9462No King, no kingdom, no problem. Hawaii is a US state, like it or not, and the racist natives need to accept that.
@@sunshineimperials1600 I don't think the natives are the racist ones.
@@MechanicalShockwaveBow And who were the ones that bullied White people in Hawaiian schools, the ones who are allowed to have their own segregated school, the ones who have their own slur against White people, and the ones who are enrolled into the welfare system, never working a day in their lives in the name of systemic racism? I can name them; the “native” Hawaiians.
Thanks for mentioning Southern Indiana/Brown County. Out-of-state folks always seem to forget that the whole state isn't one giant, flat field.
Yes! I live 15 minutes east of Brown County state park. Hoosier National Forest is my sanctuary...
I used to own property in Brown County. That part of Indiana is beautiful!
I go to holiday world in Indiana almost every summer, we love seeing the area around there. This super gonna go on a cave tour or two. If you got any other suggestions to go see around that area within a 2 hour drive of Santa Claus please reply to me 🙂🙂
@@lindadoucetowen The Lincoln Boyhood Home isn't too far from there. I went there once six years ago.
Same with the Shawnee National Forest in Southern Illinois
I've driven through the middle of South Dakota and Nebraska from Interstate 90 to Interstate 80 around the Missouri River and North Platt River area. It is not so flat and has some interesting geographic formations.
You should cover Eastern Montana. The rock formations and natural forests as well as water ways and reservoirs. Not many people live there but I do and I would watch.
The hills around the border with NE Wyoming are really cool (around northern Cheyenne Res.). Used to take trips there as a kid
Devil's Tower is quite bizarre
For me Montana is huge and marvellous.
I would watch eveything from this/your state.
Can confirm the desert of Maine is a tourist trap, having lived in Maine all my life there are pictures of me falling backward off of one of those camels when I was younger and nearly busting my head open as kids are want to do.
Sounds like good memories
Oh yeah they are for sure capitalizing on its weirdness, but it's also home to a lot of ecological studies and various other knowledge-seeking escapades. One of my buddies used to do some work there.
Can confirm as someone who was just there a few months ago, it is indeed a tourist trap. Expensive, crowded, and hot, not worth it...
LOL! Great memories!
It's actually "as kids are _wont_ to do." Kids don't want to hurt themselves, but they sure are wont to hurt themselves.
When going more in depth on the Ozarks, the Missouri Geologic Survey has a huge archive of springs, sinkholes, caves, and other features.
The obvious other thing in the area is the New Madrid fault system, but including the general history of how what is now north america was nearly ripped apart would be interesting.
Also the Mt Francois was a volcano. Not many people realize that.
I love living in Missouri. Gone on cave tours, elephant rocks, taum sauk, just so many cool places
Crowleys Ridge in NE Arkansas ... New Madrid fault part of it's creation
@@Xykscyr I road the whole Crowley's Ridge scenic drive going back south...
I've driven thru the Sandhills in NE and it was a really neat experience.
think about all the tribes that used to have wars out there..
May I suggest that if you want to start the title with 'The Desert in Maine...', you should probably put that in the front of your video and not the back. This gives the impression that The Desert in Maine is your main topic when in reality it's just one of the many Out of Place US Geographies that you're talking about which are all equally discussed in length.
If you want to make this episodic, I guess you could title it as 'Out of Place US Geography Ep. X - (Sand Dunes in Nebraska, Desert in Maine, etc.)'
In the forest filled state of Mississippi we have something called Red Bluff. It is a vibrant red gorge that you could maybe talk about
Great Sand Hills, Saskatchewan, Canada. Sand dunes surrounded by farmland.
I love the way you talk, you are fast and very concise, not a single word is wasteful. Listening to you is like my brain thirst being quenched by a ice cold beer on a hot day after mowing the lawn!!
To add to the “desert” theme the Carcross desert in Yukon.
Also the Caspian Hyrcanian temperate rainforest in Iran and Azerbaijan. Another US one would be Letchworth Canyon in New York
There is also a sand "desert" deposit in the interior of Washington Island, Wisconsin.
2 for Texas: Lost Maples State Park, in the hills where the the fall is as colorful and brilliant as you’ll get outside of the north east. And south Texas/Mexico border worlds top bird watching spot. The river has changed course so a lot of the cut off parts are nature preserve. Texas and Mexico have redrawn the border because of the changing river before.
Texas is dope. Central Texas geography is far different than most people think
There are shallow bluffs at the edge of the flood plain all along the Platte River, making the drive along I-80 that much more monotonous because you can't see very far. I've traveled through there many times.
The canals along these hills are really cool. Nothing else like it in the country
I have always been surprised that a lot of people don’t know that a large portion of Washington and Oregon are what I have scrounged up on the internet to be “cold deserts”. The Columbia basin is starkly different than the mountainous or coastal regions. Having lived in both Eastern and Western Washington and born in Northern Oregon, I have always been curious as to why they are massively different. The Cascades apparently create a rain shadow that causes such a landscape; but I would love to know more. I often drive hours across Washington to visit my family’s hometown. I always wonder what the large stretches of monotonous hills were like millions of years ago. They always seem like they were once teeming with life.
Unrelated, the best parts of Washington in my opinion are the mountain passes! (Snoqualmie, Steven’s, White, Satus, Chinook, etc. are all breathtaking!!). One day I hope to explore Northern Washington as well as I imagine it has it’s own beauty as well. 😍 The one time I went to Winthrop was beautiful!
Looking up worldbuilding channels like Artifexian explain quite a lot about why our planet is the way it is.
Hey, i live on the basin!
Between 17.5 million years ago to 10 million years ago, a massive lava flood covered the landscape of eastern Washington and Oregon, causing the earths crust to actually sink due to the weight and thickness of the basalt rock, which is at its thickest in the tri-cities area, where the basalt is up to three miles thick below the cities.
Besides the rain shadow effect causing eastern Washington to be more arid, many of the hills and mountains formed due to the crust being compressed by tectonic movement, which formed hills, including a fault line that includes the towering rattlesnake mountain.
Another fun fact is that the Columbia river has been running for 20 million years, it's older than the basalt flow, and its course has been altered by the basalt floods.
I recommend you look up Nick Zentner on here, he does these awesome and engaging lectures on the geological history of Washington.
@@Birdstangg wow that’s amazing! (And kind of terrifying thinking there was that big of a volcanic event not very long ago in Earth time!) I will check it out, thanks! 😄
This was pretty awesome. I learned something new about Nebraska’s landscape. I was also cool to learn about the Driftless Area.
In keeping with the 'Oklahoma has unusual geography' theme the Fort Sill Tar Pits are quite fascinating.
I have a fascination for places like these. I would love to see this turn into a full series. If you do, would you do it like this or by region/state?
State
I quickly recognized the overhead shot at 4:44 as that of Thedford, NE. That's where US-83 and Nebraska hwy 2 intersect. Went through there many times working for a traveling custom harvest crew. The sandhills are one of my favorite places throughout the plains. It's a shame so many people experience that part of the country only by driving across interstate highways, if even experiencing it at all.
The Long Valley Caldera is a huge topographic bowl in eastern California with crazy stone columns (Crowley Lake Stone Columns & Devil's Postpile)
I have some obsidian I took from one of the cracks in the ground there; back in the day (1970s) they let you climb down into some of them and there was no rule against taking a sample.
That has changed; those volcanic cracks are highly dangerous to fool around in and they sure don't want people taking rock samples out.
I was just a kid then; I don't remember exactly where it was. But we went to Devil's Postpile, fished in Crowley Lake, camped somewhere near Mammoth and June Lake. Still would love to go back and see it all again.
Great video!! Indiana Dunes would be great for a future list. It's one of the most diverse ecosystems of any National Parks and really feels like you are at the ocean.
Agreed!
North-central Pennsylvania has "The Grand Canyon (of Pennsylvania)" and the darkest skies in the country... perfect for stargazing. And yes, the first oil well in the western hemisphere was in northwest PA (Titusville). Grew up in SE PA, and there are plenty of surprises, like anywhere really (if you look hard enough).
Nice video!
Another really bizarre and small oddity in NE PA if you haven't been is in hickory run park where there is a sudden field of boulders in the middle of the forest. I've been many times and it feels so extremely alien to climb around it.
@@colleenfrederick9590 I love coming across things like that in nature; strange open areas in dense forest, fairy rings of fungi, some huge random rock plopped out by a retreating glacier so long ago... It seems to keep you alert and on your toes just when your mind is drifting off in the peaceful environs. Live in Maryland now, and the glaciers never made it here! It's so different and not that far away: THERE ARE NO NATURAL LAKES IN ALL OF MARYLAND! Every single one is man-made. Blows my mind. I miss PA. ✌️ Peace!
Sand Dunes National Monument is amazing. It's like Saudi Arabia in the US. Kansas has some insane rock formations that used to be at the bottom of a gigantic ancient sea. I've been to both places. Crater Lake is also quite unbelievable. A collapsed volcano now constantly filled with crystal clear water.
Kansas - I made a wrong turn in 1989 and out on a county road there is one rock bigger than Wal-Mart just all alone somewhere in Kansas ...
@@TheGunnCat Yes
Fun fact: the largest desert on earth is....Antarctica. Deserts aren't defined by heat, but by having very little precipitation; and Antarctica hardly gets any.
These videos are really well researched and written....good work man! Reelfoot Lake in Northwestern Tennessee is the only natural lake in the entire state and was formed by an earthquake in the early 1800's...has a cool story to it - would love to see you break it down and put it in a video. Congrats on almost 100K!
Yes, ReelFoot is an interesting story.
How much of the lake is lake and how much of it is a swamp?
I recently drove from New York City to Cleveland Ohio on I-80 and wondered if people thought all of Pennsylvania looks like I-80. There are many large cities, thousands of medium sized towns created during east to west settlement in the 1700s where towns are placed 10 miles apart so people could walk between them easier, hundreds of covered bridges, thousands of acres of rich farmland, nuclear power plants, large rivers, Amish communities, an engineering marvel PA turnpike, lots of mountains and hills, and it’s a big underestimated state.
As someone from Philly it kinda blows my mind anyone would think of all of PA looking like anywhere on I-80. I just think of it as part of the megalopolis from DC to Boston haha
Pennsylvania is filled with the Appalachian mountains. People need to use Google Earth more lmao
Temperate rain forests of the Oregon Coast. There are tiny pockets of these in NW Scotland, too.
The temperate rainforests of Oregon are part of one massive rainforest stretching from southern Alaska to the Santa Cruz mountains in California.
Eastern Oregon would be weirder for most people. I’ve talked to a few hundred people over the last couple of years for my job, teaching them about wine regions, and only a handful knew that eastern Oregon is desert. Most of them thought all of Oregon (and Washington) was wet. Blows their minds when I show them pictures of the Alvord Desert. And the Washington wine region in the Columbia Valley.
You could make an entire episode about the pacific northwest. So many are unaware that western Oregon/Washington/BC is actually a temperate rainforest. Even fewer are aware that practically all of eastern Oregon/Washington is highland desert. Then there's the large sand dunes and other anomalies. The only biome the PNW doesn't have is tropical.
Well, there's no tundra or ice sheets either
@@TheYopogo Oregon has a small tundra on mt hood near government camp. While probably not what you meant. Oregon also has a bunch of large glaciers.
@@Jarekthegamingdragon Didn't know about the tundra, that's cool.
What I meant by ice sheets was sea ice, which is a distinctive biome.
If you go far back enough in time, it was tropical.
Although there is no tropical section, there is the Hoh rainforest on the olympic peninsula. Which I believe is the northern most rainforest on the planet. Washington and Oregon as a whole has so many fascinating geographical features like the mount st Helens and the vacant lava tubes there, as well as the whole cascade mountain range. As well as the San Juan islands, the Columbia river basin, etc. etc. I often drive from western Washington (seattle area) on highway 2 and into central Washington, and have made the drive all the way to Spokane. It’s incredible that in just 7 or so hours of driving you can practically watch the landscape actively change and morph around you.
P.S. I love your content, I was surprised to see you on this video lol.
If your taking suggestions you should take a look at the Saugatuck sand dunes in Michigan. A story kinda similar to the Maine Desert but the dunes there are decently tall. Another area you might want to take a look into is the Balcones Fault Line in Texas. It splits the state between the flat farmland to the Hill Country and Edwards Plateau in the west. An aquifer is in the area and supplies San Antonio with water. Anyways love these geography quirk videos.
Great suggestion for Saugatuck. I think the Indiana Dunes to the south are part of the same formation.
Yes, the Balcones Escarpment is interesting. Combining the Balcones with the old weathered remnant of mountains from about Killeen to just west of Dallas marks "Where the West Begins" in Texas. Also, a long string of cities are located at major springs below the Balcones from Brackettville to Austin -- maybe on past Austin.
While touring the Balcones, check out the cave at San Marcos. It's different because it was formed by an earthquake instead of the normal process of limestone dissolved by water moving through bedrock.
Very interesting--first time I've seen your Channel. Being a history major/geography minor, and a Texan, I am fascinated by The Edwards Plateau, the Caprock, and specifically, Palo Duro Canyon. Driving from Lubbock in the Panhandle north towards Amarillo, it is FLAT as FLAT can be, and all of a sudden, just past Canyon, TX, your eyes just bulge out, as the 2nd largest canyon (next to the Grand Canyon) resides at this point in the upper Panhandle. It was not a surprise to me, as I knew the topography and what to expect, as I was going there, as in the Summer, where there is a Play, (similar to the Musical, "Oklahoma," called, "Texas," which is a history of the Panhandle/Plains region, and a natural Amphitheater is situated down in the Canyon. Even in summer in HOT Texas, the temps are cool at night, as there is no humidity. It is a very interesting area, and I would suggest you explore this area, and produce a video about the Aquifer you mentioned, The Edwards Plateau, the Caprock, and Palo Duro Canyon. Thanks alot!
I live about 50 miles from White Sands National Park. The dunes are actually full of water. Even on the top of a dune, you can dig down just a few inches to where the sand is cool and damp. Another result of the state being covered by ocean during the Cretaceous is that there are scads of tiny clamshells everywhere around Las Cruces. The access roads built from digging out irrigation canals are a great place to find them. They range in size from a pea to no larger than a nickel. It may have been an ocean 100 million years ago, but these days it's dry desert and often only 4% humidity.
In The Netherlands, you know, the country of dikes and cows and mills and water, there are also deserts like in Maine. Their origin is also the same: overuse of natural soil caused the sands to become exposed. Do a search on Kootwijkerzand!
Before it became a tourist attraction, my grandfather died crossing the desert in Maine. He didn’t know it was there and perished on a hunting trip.
That's the funniest comment I've seen! My grandfather was felling trees and milking cows a few miles away on Pownal Rd. I'm sorry for your truly tragic loss. R.I.P. the stupid bastard
i remember hearing about that. that was the year it got so hot that the corn in the fields started popping, cows in the fields saw the popcorn falling from the sky, thought it was snow, and damn near froze to death.
Great video! I would love to see a video on the geographic anomalies of Mexico
Love it. As usual, an exceptional quality video.
I love how varied the geography in much of the US (and really, the world) is past how it's commonly seen. I'm from Illinois and we apparently have a species of cactus, not to mention a big forest in the south and that driftless northwest corner
Yes, the attractions in Shawnee National Forest (and IL state parks in and around the Forest)
are well worth an extended visit or a series of weekend visits.
This is such a good idea for a video. I’d love to see more of these.
I think snowy/cold places in regions typically thought of as warm. Like the ski resorts in Africa and Australia
man you’re good as hell
Came here wondering if the driftless area would make it! Having lived in Wisconsin, Iowa, and Minnesota, I can say it's one of my favorite landscapes in the midwest!
There is a mountain range in northern New Hampshire that is called the Ossipee Mountains. The mountain range is a perfect circle and there are two volcanic vents on either side of the mountains called Red Hill and White Hill. There are a few lakes in the mountain range that are former volcanic tubes. There is granite there that you can not find anywhere else.
As you introduce places could you also show a satellite map of the area with basic political boundaries such as county, state and country lines? Otherwise I really enjoyed this video and am looking forward to more!
I mentioned this on the last video, but the Loess Hills of western Iowa would be a perfect fit for one of these videos. Similar in some ways to the Sand Hills, they cover a smaller are and instead of sand they're formed from wind-blown dust from ancient mud flats along the Missouri River. They host a mix of tall grass prairie and deciduous forest on amazingly steep slopes sometimes known as bluffs.
There's several geographic anomalies that come to mind in Louisiana, but that's largely because people just assume that the whole state is swamp.
Prairies: There used to be a ton of prairies in Louisiana. The three main types I'm aware of are saline prairies, calcareous prairies, and the great southwest/Cajun prairie. The most notable one for me is the southwest prairie because it was huge and was in a region with enough rainfall to easily support trees. In terms of vegetation it's more similar to what you would expect from a prairie in Texas than what you would expect in south Louisiana. Unfortunately, a lot of it has been turned into agricultural land or otherwise destroyed.
Sandstone: There's exposed sandstone in the western portion of the state. It's really unusual to go from gentle rolling hills to steep sandstone that can sometimes be cliffs. There's trails in the Kisatchie Hills wilderness area, and hiking up some of those ridges can kick your butt.
Limestone: There used to be limestone outcroppings in Winn parish. Unfortunately these were all mined, but they were very unusual and were homes to populations of calcium loving plants that did not occur anywhere else in the state.
I worked on the pipeline in the high desert of Wyoming along the east side of The Flaming Gorge. The wind was ferocious. The natives of the area said "Idaho blows and Nebraska sucks'. Makes sense for the windblown dunes.
The sand in the Nebraska Sandhills didn't blow in. It's from outwash from glaciers in the Rockies accumulated from the 20 or so glacial eras during the Pleistocene. This material was later sorted by the wind, producing the dunes. Finer silt-sized material blew out to the southeast, piling up hundreds of feet deep and producing the Central Loess Hills, a photo of which appears at 4:32. The landscape shown was clearly formed by moving water, not wind.
Other than those two minor points, this was another excellent video. I was gratified to see my home area given the attention.
He said that
pay attention John and you won't look so foolish lol
The bluffs or Missouri River Valley are long large hills away from the Missouri River and where built by flooding and wind. Most of the hills contain large amounts of small rocks from the shield or rockies as opals and opalites can be found in the shifting grout.
@@nothuman3083 I'm talking about the Central Loess Hills in central Nebraska.
I have a few Geographic oddities for you:
1- Heart Peaks - Located in northwestern BC, north of Prince Rupert, is a volcanic field on a plateau featuring a type of volcano you should never see on dry land, especially not in along the mountain ranges of BC, formed by the subduction zone where the NA continental crust meets the Juan-De-Fuca and Pacific crusts. It's a shield volcano! Normally, you only see those in hot spots over oceanic crusts (think Hawaiian Islands). Yet there it sits, in the middle of the tall, jagged mountains and more traditional cone volcanoes of BC.
2- Okanagan - the Okanagan region of BC is unusually arid for the coastal rainforests that dominate much of BC, and is unusually flat. It's dominated by a semi-desert and plateau that makes the region relatively flat and ideal for grape growing and is one of Canada's most famous producer of fine wines.
3- North Eastern BC - here the borders of BC extent beyond the Rocky Mountains into the NW corner of the Great Plains that dominate much of central USA and Canada. For a province famous for it's mountain ranges, it's quite the unexpected oddity to have a corner of the parries in this province.
4- Table Mountain - located near the BC coast, in the Garibaldi National Park, this is a Strata Volcano (usually cone shaped like Mt St Helens) that's more flat and shaped like a plateau or mesa. This happened because when Table Mountain last erupted, it was buried under kilometers of ice during the last major glaciation and all the ash, lava and other detritus ejected by the volcano was trapped under the ice sheets, forming a flat topped cone volcano you likely won't see anywhere else.
Fort St John and Dawson Creek BC are both two towns that would honestly seem like their part of Saskatchewan or Alberta than anything! They're also the two towns that begin the Alaska highway which drives up into the North most points of the Rockies and into the Liard Plateau. Could honestly do an entire episode covering that region as well as the north into the Yukon, with anomalies like the Carcross desert, Kluane national park's ice field which is the largest non polar in the world, the town of Atlin BC which is a geopolitical anomaly more than anything, and many other noteworthy geographic features
Do give an idea of the "canyons" of the drifters zone, imagine the grand canyon as it was only, say, a quarter finished. That is what the Mississippi River valley is like inside the drifters zone. It's very cool to be in the valley and the largest city in the area is La Crosse, WI, so that is a good place to look up to find pictures.
"Driftless area."
Thank you UA-cam! Every once in a while you do a good job suggesting. Subscribed.
The Maine one reminds me of Jockey's Ridge state park in the outerbanks, NC. I didn't think much of it before my family actually got there but the dunes were the biggest I've ever seen on the east coast. Idk how tall they were - maybe 150 feet or so? They seem out of place considering they don't occur anywhere else in the OBX. From a satellite view, if one had to guess where large sand dunes should go, I would have guessed Hatteras or another cape
The driftless area is my happy place. Castle Rock Bluff is hilariously out of place. Mirror Lake is an insanely cool place to kayak. Mirror Lake also has a cool hike around Echo Rock. The Winona, MN area is absolutely gorgeous in the fall. Potosi Brewery is a cool little brewery nestled in a valley in the driftless area. The old storehouses are literally man made caves built into the bluffs. The whole area is worth a trip.
You should make a video about Old Growth Coast Douglas Fir and particularly the Nooksack giant in Washington State. Did you know that the valley-bottom lowlands of Vancouver BC, Bellingham, Everett, Seattle, Olympia, Portland lied an endless bounty of firs, cedars, hemlocks, etc that had a treeline that averaged 200-300 feet? Did you know that the tallest tree in the world was likely a douglas fir? The theoretically genetic height capacity of a douglas fir compared to a redwood is something like 480ft vs 440ft. 5% of redwoods remain, while only 0.01% of lowland-valley bottom douglas firs remain. The tallest, widest, and straightest trees were logged first. The redwoods that remain are marvelous, but one of the reasons they are so special is because of how genetically similar they are. They are much more likely to be similar size and structure as one another, making them on average the largest trees. But Douglas fir is different, is genetics stretch far and wide, allowing the height maximum to be very very higher than what you might expect. So while not every douglas fir tree in an untouched valley-bottom old growth ecosystem was over 400feet tall; it begs the question...how many? And did the Nooksack giant exist? Ravenna Park is a good example of what was lost, we could've had a treeline preserved near UW that stretched as high as 350-400 feet. But no, we logged them seemingly overnight in the 30s and 40s and a prime example of our ecological history was lost and the cultural knowledge seemingly forgotten and unappreciated for the sake of suburbs and urban sprawl.
As a Wisconsin driftless resident I love the rep. I would recommend Governor Dodge state park as an excellent place to hike in the region.
Have you ever researched the bay lakes of North Carolina? Very interesting geological mystery, that has unique plant life, and is still being debated on their formation. I'd like to hear your personal theory. Thanks for the great videos
I'd add to this the Carolina Bays, elliptical depressions along the South Carolina / North Carolina coastal plain.
I lived in Lawton, OK for a few years, and the Wichita mountains were really nice the wildlife preserve was filled with Buffalo and Longhorns.
Manitoulin Island, in Lake Huron. It is the world's largest Fresh Water island, and it has a number of lakes on it. Some with islands....with ponds on the islands...go figure
In Canada, we have some gigantic sand dunes by the St Lawrence in Tadoussac, i believe it is a very unique place in all of Canada and probably even the whole continent
Finally, someone who says states in the Great Plains aren't just flat. Thank you! I am from KS, & in many places throughout the state, there are beautiful rolling hills & lakes, & there are chalk rock formations & small canyons in the western part of the state. Glad i found your channel!
Can you make a video explaining the cause of the multiple mountain ranges that occur in Nevada and South Iran? They both seem pretty similar in how they formed but they’re in completely different parts of the world.
I love you for mentioning nebraska the first 5 seconds this place is so vast and beautiful and I am stuck like glue in it
Great video keep up the great work man.
This video helped me realize how beautiful parts of the world are, even in places I’d never expect like some of the states I previously had thought to just be boring middle-of-nowhere places. I’m excited to watch the other videos in the series!
The Nebraska sandhills were in fact formed by geologic activity because wind is considered a fluid that transports sediment much like rivers do. Great job with the rest of that segment. You summarize the extent of our geologic knowledge of the Nebraska sandhills exceptionally well.
You should cover the natural springs of florida. I know it's known for its water between lakes and beaches, but the crystal clear water in the middle of the state is stunning, and I've heard the aquifers are what make the area around Gainesville hilly as opposed to the otherwise flat state
Have You been to O'Leno State Park in northern FL,
where the Santa Fe River sinks/disappears
and River Rise, where the Santa Fe returns to the surface?
I love how Brown County Indiana was featured! Its a truly BEAUTIFUL area that I visit frequently! Also the town of Nashville right in the middle of the county has awesome little stores and restaurants
We used to go to the Desert of Maine all the time as kids. It was fun! It’s very much a tourist trap but a fun one.
When I bought my first car in 1993, I took a road trip to New England. I wanted to see the Desert of Maine, but we got lost and couldn’t find it. So we didn’t see it. Years later we went back, found it, but it was closed for the season (it was early April)! Saw it through the fence, but was still bummed out. Maybe this summer we’ll try again.
Canastota, Syracuse NY is known for having pitch black soil and swamps that resemble Louisiana swamps. City of Syracuse sits on salt flats. The region was named after Syracuse Sicily (Siracusa) because of its uncanny resemblance to Sicily. Many towns in central New York are named after Italian and Sicilian cities; Palermo, Syracuse, Rome, Utica and Troy but there is also Camillus, Cicero, Cincinnatus, Corinth, Fabius, Ilion, Junius, Macedon, Marcellus, Pompey, Romulus, Scipio, Sempronius, Sparta, Ulysses, Manlius, Minoa, Salina, and Virgil. Central New York also has high populations of Italian-Americans.
Some of those cities have Hellenic (Greek) names, not Italian/Sicilian, but it is noteworthy that so much of the local municipal nomenclature is from Greco-Roman sources.
Taughannock Falls near Ithaca has a canyon that looks like something out west.
In addition to the superior content here - engaging, instructive, fascinating - I find watching these videos very soothing: I put them on in the background when I’m doing light mental tasks and they seem to keep me going for a while. Thank you for such excellent work, and please keep them coming!
There is a series of canyons in Georgia that are far from the ones in the mountains like Tallulah Gorge or Cloudland Canyon. Less than an hour south of Columbus, Providence Canyon was an unintentionally man made creation because of years of poor farming techniques on the local soil. Erosion sped up and formed canyon walls that are 100+ feet deep in spots. It is beautiful to see the layers of different colored/textured soil in the depths of the canyon.
Thanks for proving that braska isn’t just corn and flat!