What are some lesser known cities with spectacular nature?

Places like Vancouver, Rio, Sydney, San Fracisco, Cape Town etc are cities renown for their stunning natural scenery. What are some lesser known ones? I'm talking about places like Tucson (I was genuinely shocked how gorgeous its surroundings were), Albuquerque (ditto), Taipei (was definitely not expecting those mountains and cool mountain towns just outside the city), Muscat (now my favorite city in the middle east), cities that go under the radar.