These 12 National Geographic Photos of the World’s Greatest Landscapes Will Fill You with Wonder

Reader's Digest EditorsUpdated: Mar. 07, 2022

From the book Greatest Landscapes: Stunning Photographs That Inspire and Astonish

Talented photographers from 'National Geographic' traveled the world to capture photos of nature's raw beauty. What they found will stun you.

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Kerstin Enderlein courtesy National Geographic

Isle of Skye, Scotland

Verdant grasses swathe the land around the tower of rock known as Castle Ewen. Photo by Kerstin Enderlein.

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Alex MacLean courtesy National Geographic

Carlsbad, California

Multicolored flowers form a kaleidoscopic field pattern. Photo by Alex Maclean.

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Teruo Araya courtesy National Geographic

Shimotsuma, Japan

Morning fog settles over a field of wildflowers. Photo by Teruo Araya.

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Ken Lee courtesy National Geographic

Inyo National Forest, California

Weathered twisting branches of an ancient bristlecone pine seem to dance. Photo by Ken Lee. (Here are more spectacular photos of America’s national parks.)

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Ralph Lee Hopkins courtesy National Geographic

Svalbard, Norway

A polar bear steps along Arctic pack ice. Photo by Ralph Lee Hopkins.

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Trevor Williams courtesy National Geographic

Okayama Prefecture, Japan

Fireflies form blinking rivers of light in a still woodland. Photo by Trevor Williams.

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Dave Gordon courtesy National Geographic

San Francisco, California

A span of the Golden Gate Bridge peeks above low-hanging morning fog. Photo by Dave Gordon.

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Beth McCarley courtesy National Geographic

Namib-Naukluft Park, Nambia

In Deadvlei, a camel thorn tree stands tall underneath a star-studded sky. Photo by Beth McCarley.

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Brian Skerry courtesy National Geographic

Cortes Banks, Pacific Ocean

A sheepshead fish (foreground) and señorita fish swim through a kelp forest. Photo by Brian Skerry.

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Robery Fulton courtesy National Geographic

Starlingshire, Scotland

Trees in a winter field hold a soft dusting of snow. Photo by Robert Fulton.

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Christoph Jorda courtesy National Geographic

Pitzal Glacier, Austria

A skier takes flight above an ice cave nearly 10,000 feet high in the Alps. Photo by Christoph Jorda.

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Thierry Bornier courtesy National Geographic

Iceland

Cold Icelandic waters catch the aurora borealis’s iridescence. Photo by Thierry Bornier. For more of National Geographic’s Landscape Photography, check out Greatest Landscapes: Stunning Photographs That Inspire and Astonish.

Originally Published: December 14, 2016

Originally Published in Reader's Digest