In 1998, a female band called Dixie Chicks (now called The Chicks) released a song titled “Wide Open Spaces,” which stayed four weeks at the number one spot on the U.S. Country Singles Chart and landed at 41 on the U.S. Pop Singles Chart. The lyrics tap into the familiar theme of a young woman striking out on her own to find independence, freedom, adventure, and her future. The clear message is that she needs plenty of space to put all this in motion. She needs room to make mistakes and learn from them. She needs big sky to expand her vision. She needs plenty of depth, breadth, and no ceiling. The opening line of the song proclaims how this deep-seated desire is an essential part of the human spirit: “Who doesn’t know what I’m talking about?”

In our travels across the country and overseas, my wife and I are usually drawn to wide open spaces. We love expansive vistas where the terrain stretches out before us for miles on end, and the view of the canopy above is unobstructed. And although these destinations are physical or geographical, they lend themselves to mental and emotional experiences that transport us far beyond the landscape alone. We like to say that these moments are good for our souls, when perhaps we are reminded of how small we are and how big the world, or even the universe, truly is.

Some of our favorite locations to see such grandeur are in the American West, but we have also witnessed breathtaking scenes in other places in the South, Northwest, Midwest, and in Europe. I have written other posts about how we value wide open spaces, but I thought it might be nice to share some images here of locations where we have felt the power and majesty of the natural world, from mountains, valleys, and deserts to shorelines, lakes, and streams, and always an abundance of big sky. After all, when it comes to appreciating the wonder of the natural world, who doesn’t know what I’m talking about?