Not all lights go out after the sun goes down. In fact, in some places of the world, they switch on, illuminating the night with glowing orbs and neon sparkles. Some are manmade, like glow-in-the-dark murals that wake up after dark and walk-through attractions dedicated to neon and light sculptures. But many are the handiwork of Mother Nature. From bioluminescence that lights up bays and beaches to caves that flicker with thousands of glowworms, here are some of the world’s most extraordinary places that glow in the dark.
These caves on New Zealand’s North Island are home to a galaxy of glowing creatures that transform what would be dark, dingy spaces into living light installations. This particular species of glowworm, Arachnocampa luminosa, is only found in New Zealand, and dangle delightfully in the caves along the Waitomo River. It’s thought that their light is a device to attract prey.
They’re actually the larvae of a fly or fungus gnat and glow with a blue-green bioluminescence that illuminates the natural grottoes. There are usually tours where visitors can take a boat ride through the caves and gaze up and around them at the light spectacle, while an upper level of cave formations – including the tall chamber called the Cathedral – are lit by more of the glistening creatures.
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The eponymous cascade of Cumberland Falls State Resort Park is pretty lovely to look at in daytime. On full moon nights, though, it’s really something special. That’s when a “moonbow” or lunar rainbow can be seen to emerge from the use of the waterfall, which happens to be the largest waterfall south of Niagara. One of few places where the natural phenomenon can be seen, it’s created by moonlight reflected in the mist.
One of Las Vegas’ most unique attractions is sort of a graveyard for old neon signs. Or maybe it would be better to describe it as a retirement home, because the Neon Museum saves pieces from motels, hotels, restaurants and bars and restores them to their former glory. The display in the outdoor “boneyard”, where paths weave between piles of letters and images, is fascinating in daylight but is something even more spectacular at night.
Signs are illuminated against the dark sky, creating a riot of clashing, flashing neon that immerses visitors in a kind of retro reverie. The yard opened in the 1990s and now holds some of the city’s most iconic signs that were nearly lost, from a guitar from the Hard Rock Café to the enormous sign from the Stardust Resort and Casino, which was demolished in 2007.
The waters around Krabi, on the west coast of southern Thailand, are teeming with tiny bioluminescent marine plankton or dinoflagellates, which create gorgeous streams of sparkling blue light when disturbed. Railay Bay is particularly famed for this natural spectacle, and people can swim, snorkel or stand-up paddle through the glittering waters around the new moon.
Synchronous fireflies, which flash in unison creating a “blinking” effect, are especially rare – and Elkmont in Great Smoky Mountains National Park is considered one of the best places in the world to see them. The park is actually home to nearly 20 different species of firefly, some of which are active during the day and others that use light patterns and flashes to communicate with each other from dusk. It’s bugs that fall into the latter category that create a stunning natural light show each year.
These Photinus carolinus or synchronous fireflies put on their dazzling display during their mating season, which lasts for just a fortnight around late May to early June. At times they flash out of synch, creating incredible swirls of light across the forest floor and hillsides like the trails of a thousand sparklers. When they come together, they create short bursts of light with periods of darkness in between.
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Ghost Mushroom Lane, on South Australia’s Limestone Coast, is as wonderfully weird as it sounds. The attraction is dedicated to the ghost fungus or Omphalotus nidiformis, which glows an eerie yellow-green after dark and, though it looks a little like an oyster mushroom by day, is as poisonous as the name suggests. The luminosity is due to a chemical reaction between the mushrooms’ enzymes and oxygen.
The brilliantly bizarre mushrooms are found mostly in southern Australia and Tasmania, with clusters also reported in India, and grow around fall into wintertime. Ghost Mushroom Lane, on a mushroom breeding ground, usually opens in May and June to allow people to peer at the fungi up-close. They grow – and glow – along paths that weave through pine forest, reaching up to eight inches (20cm) in width.
There are plenty of strikingly strange creatures in the rainforest of Madagascar’s Ranomafana National Park, from red-bellied and ring-tailed lemurs to geckos camouflaged as leaves. So it would take a very special mushroom to hog the limelight. This glowing, bioluminescent number is one of several unusual fungi dotted around the forest floor and sprouting from trees.
This ode to Vincent van Gogh could hardly be more Dutch. It’s a cycle path, for a start, and even weaves its way past two windmills (both subjects of Van Gogh's paintings). The path, which runs for 1,969 feet (600m) just outside Eindhoven and is part of a longer route, was developed by artist Daan Roosegaarde. Its thousands of colored stones are charged up by sunlight and glow at night to reveal fragments of Van Gogh’s famous painting Starry Night.
The forests around Prachinburi, a province in central Thailand to the east of Bangkok, are home to one of the world’s most eye-catching displays of fireflies. There are tens of thousands of these magical little creatures, which flash as part of their mating display. And what a display. The synchronized flashes resemble bright yellow fairy lights or a flurry of Chinese lanterns fluttering around the trees.
It’s such a dazzling display that Prachinburi has been dubbed “land of the firefly”. The insects’ glittering lights brighten the forest floors only after sunset, especially the dusky hours up to around 8pm, and only in the country’s rainy season, which typically runs from May or June to October.
The Northern Lights or aurora borealis are among the world’s most famous and sought-after phenomena, and Alaska’s proximity to the Arctic Circle makes the state one of the best places to see them. With its clear, unpolluted skies, the wilderness of Denali National Park is a particularly lovely setting for the swirls of pink, yellow, green and lilac that decorate the skies in winter.
The wildly beautiful capital of the wildly beautiful Greenland, Nuuk has long winters with thick snow and days that are almost sunless. Those factors along with the clear skies and lack of light pollution mean that the Northern Lights can take the stage for a spectacular dance show of shimmering and swirling green and yellow lights.
What could be more magical than a cave illuminated by hundreds of glowworms? The creatures that hang out at the Natural Bridge waterfall in Springbrook National Park are actually the larvae of small flies, known as glowworms because of their tendency to, well, glow. They dangle here between December and March, spinning sticky, bioluminescent threads to catch flies that venture into the caves around the cascade.
The larvae can only be seen after sunset, when they create a light that shines within the caves. Close up they resemble tiny glowing orbs (pictured). The flies, Arachnocampa flava, are only found in the rainforests of Australia and New Zealand, where they thrive in the humid, dark conditions of caves and canopies. And they’re not the only thing that shines in Springbrook National Park, part of the Gondwana Rainforests; it’s also home to glowing mushrooms and fireflies.
It may be pretty much always sunny in San Diego and nearby La Jolla Shores but the sea doesn’t always sparkle quite so brightly. Every few years, though, nature puts on a dazzling display of bioluminescence. Thousands of microorganisms known as phytoplankton gather on the water’s surface, painting the tide red by day and creating a neon light show after dark. They look especially spectacular when disturbed by big waves and nighttime surfers.
This glowing beauty is the work of graphic arts studio Reskate, based in Barcelona, Spain. Their glow-in-the-dark murals, which brighten streets and buildings around Europe too, are created using photo-luminescent paint charged with a light that responds to motion. This one in San Antonio is called Chili Queen in honor of the women who served up bowls of chili con carne in the city’s plaza from the mid-19th century.
The bioluminescent bay off the north coast of Grand Cayman, the largest island of this Caribbean archipelago, is home to some fascinating creatures that, while barley discernible to the naked eye, create a gorgeous glowing spectacle when they get together under dark skies. Ostracods are teeny-tiny crustaceans that have two brilliant nicknames: seed shrimp, because they’re as small as tomato seeds, and disco shrimp – because they sparkle in unison as they ooze blobs of blue vomit as part of their mating display.
Small isn’t really the thing in Dubai, and nor is understated. So it shouldn’t be surprising that the world’s largest “glow” theme park is in the United Arab Emirates city. Dubai Garden Glow is a riot of light and color, with hundreds of illuminated installations in shapes from jellyfish and penguins to flowers and trees. The pieces are crafted from recycled materials and handmade lights and designed by artists from around the world.
The largest of the Channel Islands, which lie between England and France, Jersey has stunning sandy beaches that rival those in the Caribbean. It’s also known for its network of Second World War tunnels and long-eyelashed, caramel-colored Jersey cows. Less famous but perhaps even more beguiling is what happens on those beaches at night, when thousands of (usually brown) bristle worms emit a yellow-green glow.
The tiny invertebrates live on many of the beaches including at La Rocque Harbour, where they transform the seabed into something resembling an especially starry night sky. They’re most visible when the tide is low on nights when the moon isn’t full, allowing the worms to really glow in the dark. This picture shows one of the island’s beaches in the daytime, carved up by worm castings.
Puerto Rico has three of the world’s five bioluminescent bays where the concentration of dinoflagellates – a type of plankton that glow a fluorescent blue-green when disturbed – is high enough to be visible. Mosquito Bay is officially the brightest, with up to two million of the bright organisms per gallon of water. The island of Vieques is wonderfully secluded and unspoilt, with an absence of light pollution making the natural spectacle even more incredible.
By day, the termite mounds of Emas National Park are impressive towers of reddish-brown, tightly packed earth. By night, they rival the most ostentatious light displays. As darkness falls, it appears as if the termites have wrapped their tower blocks in twinkly fairy lights. The illuminations are actually the work of thousands of bioluminescent click beetle larvae, who lure termites out with light before feeding on them. The park is part of the tropical savannah Cerrado, a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Toyama Bay in Japan’s Toyama Prefecture is teeming with hotaruika or firefly squid, which are both a visual treat and a culinary delicacy. The tiny squid are just three inches (7.6cm) long and look pretty ordinary in the daytime. But they’re packing something special in their tentacles, where organs called photophores light up an electric blue that sparkles in the dark.
There’s even a museum dedicated to the bioluminescent squid. The Hotaruika Museum, close to the bay, has exhibits on the creature and also has a restaurant serving dishes made with firefly squid. Between March and June, the museum runs nighttime boat tours where people can go out to watch working fishing crews catch neon tangles of the squid, lighting up the night like a thousand glow sticks.
Japan has more than its fair share of gorgeously glowing things, from fungi to fireflies. There are around 50 species of the latter in the country, in fact, and several parks in the Okayama Prefecture are the open-air theaters that host some of the prettiest performances. Around late May or early June is when they’re at their most active, lighting up locations like Unai Hotaru (Firefly) Park with eye-popping streaks and streamers of yellow-green neon.