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Landscapes strange enough to look photoshopped, and the specific season or weather window that makes each one look the way it does in the photos
David Tran / Pexels
The most striking photographs of the landscapes in this list are almost never taken on an arbitrary day: they depend on a specific seasonal, weather, or lunar condition that transforms the location from merely interesting to genuinely otherworldly, and a traveler who visits outside that specific window frequently encounters a considerably less dramatic version of the place than the photographs that motivated the trip suggested. Understanding the specific timing requirement before booking is the difference between arriving to see the landscape at its most extraordinary and arriving to a more ordinary version of the same location.
Each entry in this list covers the landscape, what makes it look surreal, and the specific season, weather condition, or timing that produces the effect most travelers are actually hoping to see.
