The Chacaltaya Glacier was Bolivia’s one and only ski resort and it had some of the best skiing in the world. Sadly, a few decades of El Niño and the 18,000-year-old glacier became a thing of the past and disappeared completely in 2009. The ’60s and ’70s were a great time for skiing in the region, but a massive meltdown in 1980, degraded the ice terribly.
It is now the location of a research observatory. If you look at the ski lodge in the picture, the reality of the weather changes becomes clear.
Yosemite’s Jeffery Pine
Ansel Adams’ famous glass plates of the Jeffrey pine on top of Yosemite’s Sentinel Dome first brought the tree into the public eye in the 1860s. The famous image and its beautiful location made it one of the most photographed trees in the world.
The tree, which managed to grow despite its lack of soil, lived atop the dome for hundreds of years but died in 1977 during a severe drought. It remained standing for many more years, but ultimately collapsed in a fierce storm in 2003.
The Pink and White Terraces
New Zealand’s breathtaking Pink and White Terraces were considered a natural wonder of the world. The terraces formed over thousands of years when water that was rich in silica emerged from springs and boiling geysers and crystallized into enormous tiered staircases. The minerals in the springs gave the rock their pink and white hue.
The terraces were destroyed in the eruption of Mount Tarawera in 1886, which is also worth discussing. Aristocrats used to visit this site and even bathed in the water, but sadly no one could experience this wonder in over 100 years.
The Yosemite Firefall
The Firefall at Yosemite National Park used to draw in an enormous crowd. Started in 1872 by the owners of the Glacier Point Hotel, every night in the summer they would light large fires and throw their embers over the edge to the valley below to create a “Firefall”.
Almost a century later, the National Park Service stopped the practice because it was not a natural phenomenon and mostly because the large crowds it drew were damaging the valley.
Six Flags AstroWorld
The Six Flags Astroworld in Houston Texas was a seasonally operated theme park. The park, which was the brainchild of former Houston mayor Judge Roy Hfheinz, opened its doors on June 1st, 1968. He wanted it to compliment the Astrodome as part of his idea for an Astrodomain and it originally sat on 57 acres. AstroWorld was sold to the Six Flags Corporation in 1975 and was the first park that they acquired and not built.
The park added many attractions over the years and was fairly successful. It was shut down in 2005 due to a drop in attendance and parking issues. The whole structure was demolished and all that’s left is a parking lot used for overflow parking.