Is there such a thing as ugly nature?

Certain desert areas maybe, where it's just flat and brown or endless sand everywhere and no vegetation. Like a lot of the middle east, or maybe parts of Nevada.

I think there's a certain beauty in desert landscapes. Not like the Sahara but the western US. Austere but beautiful.

R1, but is that really ugly, or just the anxiousness we feel in the face of an inhospitable environment?

I'd say the deep ocean is kind of ugly, at least to us. On land (and in shallower water), you could argue that many things have evolved to be aesthetically pleasing. Flowers, for example, have evolved to attract bees and birds for pollination, creatures who themselves have evolved an aesthetic appreciation of those flowers. Many types of birds, especially in the tropics, have evolved magnificent colors. Look at the different varieties of Macaw, or the Resplendent Quetzal. The same could be said for bird vocalizations -- listen to the sublime song of the Hermit Thrush or the Amsel, or even the American Robin.

In the deep sea -- the hadal zone -- creatures don't have the same experience of the world around them. They live in complete darkness. They never see sunlight. There isn't vegetation in the same way there at other depths, or on land. They might have some aesthetic sense, but since their senses have evolved so differently than ours, we can't experience their world in the same way they do.

On the other hand, though, not all beautiful things have an evolutionary function. For example, clouds. During the height of COVID, I started to spend part of my day just looking at the sky. Clouds are exquisitely beautiful. I learned about the different types and their relative altitude, and I could watch them for hours, focusing on their beauty, the ways they slowly change shape, etc. It was like waking up one day and discovering a new world, one in the sky that I'd never paid much attention to before. I don't take clouds for granted anymore, and they’re one of my favorite parts of nature. But why should clouds be inherently beautiful? They're not flowers seeking to attract pollinators; they're not Wood Thrushes looking for a mate. They just ... are.

In that sense, one may also find beauty in the hadal zone.

Fascinating question, OP.

Thank you Mama Gaia.

Kansas at first is very interesting but the longer you travel on I70 the scene just repeats itself, over and over and over. It becomes boring rather than ugly but the gophers are cute.

R4, I spent 2020 getting high, too. ;-)

There are pink lakes around the world that people think are amazing, but they look awful to me. I'm thinking in particular about Lake Hillier in Australia. It's supposed to be stunning and awesome, but it makes me a little sick to look at it.

Anything that has been through a catastrophic destruction - for instance the aftermath of a forest fire with sparse black, sooty trees still standing on a smoldering forest floor, ash and muck everywhere and very little life. Or aftermath of a mud slide, tornado, earthquake, tsunami. Not including the destruction of human habitation, which is certainly shocking and messy, but he havoc wreaked on the natural landscape only.

I needed to double my anti-depressants when traveling the Interstate 5 in California between Tracy and The Grapevine.

Bump