So I have a problem. I'm driving through absolutely beautiful country, full of the valleys replete with all the trees. I drive into a scenic pullout, complete with a platform to take you into the scenery. But what do I photograph and how? If I take a shot that encompasses the vista, it becomes just a bunch of trees in a valley. If I close in on the valley, it still looks like it's just a bunch of trees in a valley. How do I photograph the scene that will reflect the sense of beauty and awe I felt when I was looking at it, in situ?
When you're trying to distill the sensory overload of standing at a spectacular vista down to a two-dimensional print, it helps to recognize what the camera can & cannot do. It will record (more or less) what's contained within the frame as a flat, two-dimensional projection onto the sensor or film. To really convey the experience, you need to provide some depth cues to the viewer who will be looking at your print after the fact. This is why that golden, late day light just before sunset is so magical; it casts everything into relief and provides all sorts of depth cues through shadows and modeling.
If you're forced to shoot one of these spectacular vistas in drab light, you can at least do your best to provide some sort of depth cues to convey some of the impact of being there. You can use atmospheric perspective (foreground is sharp, distant hills recede into haze), framing with nearby trees, or a prominent & interesting foreground subject to add depth. You can crop out a bland sky and use overlapping ridges or trees. Leading lines or s-curves are old favorites because they work to pull the viewer's eye into the frame. And there are all sorts of things you can do in Photoshop to rescue less than stellar files. It's amazing what a gentle s-curve on a curves adjustment layer can do to punch up a drab image.
Of course, sometimes you're just screwed. It's hard to make anything worthwhile out of vista with a dead white sky and flat, featureless lighting. Ansel Adams had it easy; he lived in Yosemite valley for years, so he could go out day after day to the same spectacular vistas until the light was pitch-perfect. That's why you'll probably shoot your best landscapes close to home.