The rain grew gentler and the sky cleared, and I stopped the car beside a staggering mountain view, a misty vista laced with shimmering tree branches laden with bromeliads and lichens.
Situated in a valley in the Canadian Rockies, Jasper combines staggering mountain vistas with an ingenious design by the legendary architect Stanley Thompson.
From sweeping desert vistas to staggering mountain views, California contains some of the most insanely beautiful sights in America.
"I don't foresee a PSI for Cyprus at all," said the American who negotiated the private sector bond swap that cut an estimated €107bn from Greece's staggering debt mountain last year.
WITH its staggering setting of mountains and sea and its elegant skyscrapers ranged along the bay, small wonder that Vancouver has been rated by the United Nations as one of the best places in the world to live.
It would be easy, motoring along the California coast, gasping aloud as the two-lane twists of Highway 1 reveal staggering scenes of mountains, ocean, sun and fog, to accelerate through the turn and drive right past the ramshackle collection of quaint buildings tucked into the towering redwoods of Castro Canyon like a miniature Wild West set overgrown with wisteria.
Bring a camera for the staggering bay and mountain views; beware the high winds that can pitch the incautious over sheer 700-foot cliffs.
And boy did it work; when Drago took to the ring after a rousing reception, his physique was staggering, a man-mountain of Russian granite, muscles bulging, and a look in his eye that was so terrifying he would have beaten 99% of his opponents before any punches were thrown.
As any summer visitor can attest, Banff (altitude, 4,537 feet; population, about 8,300) has more than its share of good restaurants and galleries, along with hot springs and staggering views of Cascade Mountain (9,836 feet), just north.
As our crossing of the Andes ended, this panorama opened out to reveal a staggering array of snow-capped mountains to north and south.
