Reviewing some of my older pictures as well as recent ones, I came up with these new tips and creative ideas:

1. The Dehaze filter in Lightroom.  The Dehaze slider is located in the develop module (in Lightroom 6 or CC), under Effects. Increasing the Clarity slider does NOT mimic the effect, but that was all you have in prior versions. See these examples: first is with Dehaze, second with increased Clarity With Dehaze with increased clarity original The original image.
2. Look for complementary colors in your images, such as yellow-orange and blue like in this image. Winding roads, trails, footprints let the eye travel and add interest. Dune Walk
3. Change the temperature or tint in Lightroom or Photoshop to add warmth. Or just add sepia tones to the highlights in split toning, adjusting the hue ( I use around 45)  and saturation (increase the saturation first to 50%, so you can see the changes, then back off until you see just a bit of warmth). Yosemite gold
4. Or stick with B&W when color does not add to the image.  Rock Stream B&W
5. And just have Fun!  Play in Photoshop layers with merging different images or distorting with filters to create abstracts. There is no ONE formula, just your creativity.  Some recent examples of mine:  Water Twirl Ice BeautyPhotomontage of flowers in ice in three's as a square with vibrant colors.