The Signs Tell You Where You Are (9 Photos)

Signs and the Places Around Them

A sign can tell you more than where to go. It can show how people, wildlife and weather share a patch of ground: an airport that is also a beach, a footpath across a golf course, or a road with a toad-crossing warning.

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🐿️ Squirrel Crossing — Bourtange, Netherlands 🇳🇱

The Dutch words overstekende eekhoorns mean “crossing squirrels.” The sign is fixed to a tree in Bourtange.

📷 Photo: Donald Trung Quoc Don / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)

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🏜️ Restricted Area — Nevada, USA 🇺🇸

Warning signs stand where a remote desert road reaches the edge of the Area 51 restricted zone, in a photo from 2003. They ban entry and photography, though the land beyond looks open and empty.

💡 Paper Fact: The name Area 51 appears in a CIA history of the U-2 spy plane that George Washington University’s National Security Archive released in August 2013. In an earlier release, those passages had been blacked out.

📷 Photo: X51 / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0)

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🌲 A Landscape With an Invisible Hazard — California, USA 🇺🇸

Near Horseshoe Lake, the dead trees are the warning. The U.S. Geological Survey explains that carbon dioxide rising from underground has killed trees in this area.

📷 Photo: inkknife_2000 / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 2.0)

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🐸 Toad Crossing — Powfoot, Scotland 🇬🇧

The little silhouette at Powfoot covers a mile of road. In spring, toads cross roads on their way to breeding ponds, and in some places volunteers help them across.

📷 Photo: Rosser1954 / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)

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🐧 Penguin Crossing — Robben Island, South Africa 🇿🇦

On Robben Island, the two figures warn drivers about a local penguin colony. Conservation group SANCCOB has a ranger on the island who monitors African penguins and other seabirds.

📷 Photo: ShannonHampton / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0)

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🔥 Extreme Heat Danger — Death Valley, California, USA 🇺🇸

The boardwalk leads onto Badwater Basin’s salt flats, where summer heat makes even a short walk serious. The National Park Service advises visiting in the morning and carrying water.

💡 Heat Fact: The park holds the world record for air temperature: 134°F (57°C), measured at Furnace Creek on July 10, 1913.

📷 Photo: Graeme Maclean / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 2.0)

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💥 Tanks Crossing — Dorset, England 🇬🇧

Near East Stoke, a warning about tanks shares a post with one about sudden gunfire. Public routes cross Dorset’s military training areas, and the Ministry of Defence asks visitors to follow local warnings and access restrictions.

📷 Photo: Phil Champion / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 2.0)

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🏖️ Beach Runway — Barra, Scotland 🇬🇧

On Barra, the sand is both beach and runway. The airport says the beach is open to the public when the airport is closed and the windsocks are down; when it is operating, aircraft need the space.

💡 Runway Fact: Barra is believed to be the only airport in the world where scheduled flights use a tidal beach as the runway. At high tide the runways are under water, so flight times move with the tide.

📷 Photo: luxpim / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 2.0)

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⛳ Golf Course Crossing — Aldbury, England 🇬🇧

A public footpath crosses a golf course near Aldbury. The sign tells walkers that a shout of “fore” means a ball is coming their way.

📷 Photo: Peter S / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 2.0)

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