Ever actually been to Walden Pond? The one time I went many years ago, I had really built it up in my head as a place of surpassing beauty that inspires poetry in your soul. Then when I get there I walk up and see this type of scene:
(yes, that's Walden, not my pic though) My first impression was bitter disappointment and revulsion, although the fat pasty guy in speedos that walked past me may have played a part in it as well. It does get better the farther you walk away from the people but like 20-30 minutes later you're back around to them again.
Admittedly, it probably doesn't speak well of me that I saw a horde of nasty people fouling a pristine natural setting instead of seeing a bunch of happy families enjoying a local swimming hole like I've done myself many times, but to my knowledge no one ever wrote a transcendent book called
Melton Hill.