Nature is, without a doubt, something you simply cannot afford to miss in this short life. I try to travel as frequently as I can to hike, mountain bike, snowboard and scuba. I was in Switzerland for several days recently and it was just jaw-dropping. [1][2][3][4][5]. Being away from crowds/touristy areas, the concrete jungle, light/noise/air pollution really puts a lot of your life and problems into perspective.
me and my wife used to as well, until we started realizing that sometimes it is complete madness to do so: there are of course the ecological and economical reasons, but the main reason is we figured we don't have to travel to get into nature. A couple of years ago I started hiking around the city where we live and discovered a whole wealth of beautiful nature of different kinds I never even knew was there. Which made me feel stupid and enlightened at the same time. Stupid because of not knowing it was there and being sucked into the 'you must travel at least x times a year to visit nice stuff' which lives strong amongst many people I know. Enlightened because of knowing it was just there for us to visit whenever we feel like.
We took this idea a bit further and instead of travelling abroad we set our minds on discovering all beauty around us by simply taking the bike and doing a short trip (say 20 or 30km) to an area we've never been before. It is simply amazing what we found already.
Granted, this is not for everyone, for starters because not everyone lives in an area where there actually is easy to reach countryside/rural area, but I highly suggest to look at sattelite images of the area around you, look for green spots and ask yourself if you know what they look like. And go figure it out if you don't.
Absolutely. I live in Washington state, and I feel like there's more nature in just this statethan I could take in over a lifetime. Driving across the state means going from a desert following the Columbia, through a shrub-steppe, into the Cascade foothills, up to the evergreen covered Cascade range, then down into the rainforests of the PNW, then on to the Pacific.
My wife and I moved to the Puget Sound area in 2009, and I've not regretted a single moment. We moved from the KCMO area and it's like night and day. People simply seem to care more about nature and outdoor activities than in MO. When we had a son, my parents moved out here to be nearby as he grows up (and watch him while we work); they don't regret a thing either, they love it here as well.
Even if you don't travel around going to the state and national parks, there's a ton of regional parks with trails, trails all over for biking and walking and a lot of nature all around.
I mean... it rains here all the time, and, and, earthquakes and volcanoes, it's probably a bad idea to move here. ;)
we did a PNW road trip a couple years ago and got lucky with great weather the whole time. Olympic National Park /Hurricane Ridge, Moss Forest, Mt Saint Helens, the coastal drive around Portland and Seattle are excellent.
certainly, i am not suggesting that traveling abroad [for nature] should option #1. i live around Chicago and i have been to hundreds of places in the States with thousands remaining. that being said, there are many things that simply do not exist here and are quite unique to other places, mainly a combination of flora/fauna/geology/climate.
while you can find 20 forest preserves nearby, you cannot really experience the vast diversity that truly exists without traveling some significant distance.
I was there on a hike along the Via Alpina! Is that Lauterbrunnen and possibly the train to Jungfraujoch?
One of the most memorable times of my life was hiking through there (Meiringen, Grindelwald, and Lauterbrunnen specifically). Very peaceful and meditative.
yes, this is a hike from Murren to Gimmelwald which is quite literally "The Shire" [1] (after a train from Lauterbrunnen). and yes, Jungfraujoch of course.
[1] https://i.imgur.com/ETu4tsr.jpg
[2] https://i.imgur.com/EsppCVS.jpg
[3] https://i.imgur.com/WwqmZjJ.jpg
[4] https://i.imgur.com/aWJxEZf.jpg
[5] https://i.imgur.com/zJRh5tm.jpg