"We destroy these resources at our peril, " Clinton said during his visit to the park, known for its towering, fog-shrouded mountain peaks, dripping trees and exotic birds.

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The villas are built on steel beams that sprout from a mountain slope, and sit atop a row of trees that also form the resort and mountain skyline.

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It takes seven or eight hours and strong legs to hike the whole crossing, past ice-blue crater lakes, over snow-covered ridges and through windswept mountain deserts, where totara trees cling to the soft black volcanic sand.

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Reporting from Tennessee some years ago, Bagehot was left slack-jawed on entering Knoxville's titchy yet lavish airport, which boasts a giant indoor replica of a Smoky Mountain stream, complete with real trees, 18, 000 gallons of water, boulders and a wooden sculpture of a bear.

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People come here for all sorts of reasons: to ski, climb and hike on the mountains, to raft and kayak the rivers, to camp among the trees, or explore on their mountain bikes.

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The land is heavily covered with mature Douglas firs and maple trees, and rolls across the base of a mountain range on the Olympic Peninsula, with a total onsite elevation change of nearly 600 feet, again huge by golf course standards.

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More than 5, 000 hectares of national park sit in virtual silence, trees arcing back and forth up and down the valleys, which stretch into mountain peaks.

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