[SCANDOLA NATURE RESERVE, CORSICA] — Okay, who’s been to the Scandola Nature Reserve in Corsica? Non? Strap in. You’re about to see something really amazing. You gotta gotta go do this. A huge natural preserve in the northwest of Corsica, with the most dramatic rock formations, canyons and wildly shaped rocks you’ve ever seen, plunging right into the sea. Dwarfing everything in their midst, namely you. Scandola is like being in a one-armed Grand Canyon, with the deep blue Mediterranean sea on the right side, and every color and shape of rock you’ve ever seen on the left. The Scandola peninsula was created from a collapsed volcano that fell into the sea, so you feel the earth opening up before you. This is a protected nature reserve, both
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[GORGES DU VERDON, FRANCE] — All along the skinny serpentine road that follows each side of the Gorges due Verdon canyon rim are cool slot canyons to explore. Canyons like this awesome hike below the jaw dropping Point Sublime. I wasn’t planning on this hike. It was all innocent, really. I just stumbled on the signs and kept going. I had no water, no backpack, no raingear, no flashlight, no map, no guidebook. But the Scope-colored water and steep canyon kept pulling me “just a little farther.” The path descends to follow along the water, then climbing up ladders, dodging between stone arches then, disappearing into cool dark tunnels, emerging on the other side. When I say tunnels, I mean pitch black tunnels. Signs warn you should