11 Stunning US Locations With Amazing Natural Phenomenon

America can be a weird place. Don’t get me wrong. It’s a wonderfully weird place. With all the phenomenal beauty we’ve got going on, nature was bound to throw a little curveball in there for good measure. Over time, science has helped explain these natural occurrences, from rainbow swamps to fire tornadoes and even places where gravity seems to work in reverse. This great land offers us a full buffet of the most bizarre and mysterious quirks of nature.

Check out these strange phenomena around the US and prepare to be left so shocked that you can’t believe what you’re seeing, let alone come up with a reasonable explanation for them. Perhaps that’s why humans have created stories and myths for thousands of years to help explain even the easiest of Earth’s natural phenomena. For instance, ancient Greeks had Zeus in charge of lightning, and the Egyptians attributed the sun’s movement across the sky to the work of their god Ra.

First, we look at a place where it looks like someone dropped a rainbow…..

Psychedelic Swamp, Florida

Yearly, around February and March, a swamp in Florida takes on a whole new look. A technicolor effect happens due to the release of tannic acids from decomposing plant life. The natural oils from cypress leaves, in particular, produce a type of oil slick or soap bubble effect on the still surface of the swamp. When sunlight hits the water just right, the swamp begins to shimmer in a psychedelic rainbow.

These tannins also occasionally produce black water or patches of water that seem incredibly inky and highly reflective. The dark water has beautiful red hues in bright sunlight and resembles a black diamond with its stunning reflections. This phenomenon can be seen in many forests parks and across Florida.

We need to hammer home just how amazing the next place is…..

Thor’s Well, Oregon

Seated on the edge of Oregon close to Cape Perpetua, what seems like a bottomless sinkhole swallows the flow of seawater around it. Thor’s Well, as this natural wonder is known, is very dangerous, and approaching the roaring well takes nerves of steel. The vast hole is likely only around 20 feet deep, but it still manages to produce amazing sights.

This unique coastal phenomenon has been puzzling residents for years. Swirly seawater flows into this rocky chasm and occasionally erupts into the air in a foaming geyser. No one knows what first caused this peculiar phenomenon, but one popular theory holds that the collapse of a sea cave caused Thor’s Well.

Others believe that the formation may be a gateway to the underworld. Whatever the truth, probably not that second thing, one thing is for sure, Thor’s Well is both a beauty and a beast. The best time to visit is one hour before high tide to see it without water and then watch how the formation fills up.

You’ll have a few burning questions about the next one…..

Fire Tornadoes, Missouri

If you thought the 1996 movie Twister taught you everything there was to know about tornadoes, you were wrong. Meet the firenado, which is precisely what it sounds like, a tornado that sucks up the surrounding fire, creating a swirling, burning cone of “No Thanks”!.

Extremely rare and incredibly dangerous, fire tornadoes form when intense heat combines with high winds. These conditions are not hard to come by if a grassy area catches fire on a windy day. When hot air rises rapidly, cool air rushes in from beneath and around it, swirling the flames upwards like water in a toilet. Firewhirls are about the size of a tiny twister, growing up to 100 feet tall but only two feet wide. If a pyrocumulus cloud forms above, it can look like a full-sized tornado.

The next one will pool you in with its colors…..

Rainbow Pools and Geysers of Yellowstone National Park

Yellowstone Park sits on a vast caldera, a volcanic feature usually formed by the collapse of land following a volcanic eruption. The area is full of geothermal hot springs and geysers that are known for their mesmerizing colors. Pools such as Abyss Pool, Black Pool, and Morning Glory Pool are some of the park’s biggest attractions.

The crazy colors are caused by temperature, bacterial growth, and chemical balance. Some of the pools may look magnificent but are so acidic that your skin would burn within moments of contact with the water. The Grand Prismatic Spring in the state park is the biggest hot spring in the US and the third largest in the world. Its location is in the Midway Geyser Basin.

Grand Prismatic Spring was distinguished by geologists working in the Hayden Geological Survey of 1871 and named by them for its striking colors. The colors include green, blue, red, yellow, orange, and brown, and recall the rainbow dispersion of white light by an optical prism.

Ice to see you?…..

Ice Caves of Mendenhall Glacier, Alaska

Unfortunately, the next place on our list does not exist anymore as of may 2020 due to climate change, but we couldn’t omit it because it genuinely was a phenomenal sight. The Mendenhall Ice Caves are within the Tongass National Forest in Southeast Alaska and 12 miles long. The melting of the massive Mendenhall Glacier created crystalline cathedrals of breathtaking beauty under the ice.

Though these caves looked magical, they were also treacherous. Thinning ice and slippery rocks can create hazardous conditions for even the most experienced explorers. There aren’t many places where you can encounter every stage of the water cycle at once. But that was the magic of the Mendenhall Ice Caves, where water ran over rocks and under the frozen bright-blue ceilings inside a partially hollow glacier. Inside the glacier were stunning blue ice caves, accessible only to those willing to kayak to the side of the ice and climb over the glacier.

This next light show will make you come alive……

Fireflies, Tennessee

Imagine standing in your backyard, and suddenly you’re surrounded by glowing pinpricks of light, all pulsing in unison. Well, for two weeks out of the year, Tennessee’s Great Smoky Mountains host a magical natural display. From May to June, one strain of firefly glows synchronously, and they all flash simultaneously. This stunning phenomenon is a mating ritual, and the National Park Service offers shuttles to firefly-filled areas during this time.

Scientists studying the firefly have found that the males flash in unison as a way for the female to be sure she is responding to one of her own. Other firefly species are flashing at night, and some of them are predatory, so she must be able to know males of her species. The flash patterns are more intricate than you would think. They are a series of 5-8 flashes, followed by a pause of about 8 seconds. Initially, the flashing appears random, but the period of darkness is synchronized. As more males start joining in, the flashing will also begin to synchronize, and entire parts of the forest will be pulsing with light.

To protect these fireflies, be sure to collect your garbage when you leave, and despite what the kid in you says, do not try to catch them!

You’ll want to circle back around for the next one…..

Fire Rainbows, Idaho

Also called ice halos, these vivid rainbows are typically seen just beneath the sun or moon. They are created by light shining through atmospheric ice crystals, and only at certain latitudes can be seen. The clouds have to be at least 20 thousand feet in the air, with the correct number of ice crystals and the sun has to strike the clouds at precisely 58 degrees.

In general, a “fire rainbow” appears when the sun is high in the sky, higher than 58° above the horizon, and the light passes through translucent. Sunlight infiltrating the crystals’ vertical side and leaving through their bottom side is refracted through a prism and separated into an arrangement of visible colors. When the plate crystals in cirrus clouds line up with their sides parallel to the ground, the result is a brilliant spectrum of colors resembling a rainbow.

The Devil is in the details…..

Devil’s Kettle, Minnesota

Devil’s Kettle is the name for the spot where the Brule River splits in two and half of it vanishes. Oddly, one half of the Brule river empties into what appears to be an 800-foot gorge with no outlet in sight. For years, people have been trying to find out where the water leads. Dye, ping pong balls, and even small cameras have disappeared into the hole, never to be seen again. One theory is that it eventually empties into the Pacific ocean, but the truth is a mystery to this day.

The DNR said it used science to conclude that the water disappears into the rock at Devil’s Kettle and reenters the river from underground but has yet to prove this theory. According to the DNR, hydrologists last fall found nearly identical volumes of water flowing both above the Devil’s Kettle waterfall and below it. That shows the water is most likely rises in the stream below the waterfall. They plan on testing this hypothesis in the future with a dye trace to show where the water resurfaces. During low-water flow, “they will pour a fluorescent, biodegradable dye into the pothole and note where the dye reenters the river.”

When an accident makes you go WOW!…..

Fly Geyser in Washoe County, Nevada

You can find Fly Geyser about 20 miles north of Gerlach in Washoe County. This remarkable geyser was created accidentally in 1961 during the drilling of a well. The vivid coloring and fantastical shape of the natural steaming spout give it a whimsical, otherworldly appearance.

It is located on Fly Ranch, about two hours north of Reno, on the edge of the Nevada Black Rock Desert, and it’s a 3,800-acre parcel of land purchased by the Burning Man Project in 2016. Scientists familiar with the geyser note that the coloring on the outside of the mounds results from thermophilic algae, which flourishes in moist and hot environments.

The inside of the stacks contains quartz, and it is growing much more rapidly than any other geysers that scientists have studied. Typically, quartz doesn’t begin to grow for about 10,000 years within geysers, making the Fly Geyser even more of a marvel.

What goes down must go up???…..

Gravity Hill, Pennsylvania 

There are a few fundamental laws of physics that we typically depend on, gravity being at the top of the list. What goes up must come down, right? Well, that isn’t always the case, or at least it doesn’t appear to be at Gravity Hill in Pennsylvania. “Gravity hills” are parts that seem to operate outside the laws of physics.

One such spot in Pennsylvania is a popular stopping-place for the curious and skeptical alike. McKinney Road is in Allison Park, not far from Pittsburgh, and is just one Gravity Hill in Pennsylvania. Another is in Bedford. When you visit the road, put your car in neutral, and your car will appear to roll uphill slowly. Other objects, such as balls, will do the same. While most people accept that this phenomenon is an optical illusion, some believe some unique magnetism exists.

These kinds of sites are located all over the world. There may even be one where YOU live!

The sky is not the limit with this last one…..

Nacreous Clouds, Alaska

Simply put, nacreous clouds are clouds that resemble mother of pearl, and you can see the most brilliant colors when the sun is several degrees below the horizon. These ethereal cloud formations are only seen at high altitudes when temperatures drop below negative 85 degrees Celsius. These clouds stretch in colorful ribbons across the lower stratosphere, their iridescent hues shifting and moving with the wind.

They are usually seen in Antarctica but have also been noticed in the Arctic, Scotland, Scandinavia, Canada, Alaska, and Russia. On some occasions, they have also been reported in other parts of northern Europe. Nacreous clouds are often lenticular wave clouds and are therefore found downwind of mountain ranges that induce gravity waves in the stratosphere. Sadly, these cloud forms are horrible to the environment because they encourage the chemical reactions that break down the ozone layer.