While leveling or even at level cap, it can be worth while to do a little exploring Telara, there is some extra fun and rewards to be found from doing so.

Cairns


These pils of rock, traditionally used as burial markers or waypoints, are found in Telara by looking on the high ridgelines that border the various different zones. A fair amount of jumping is usually required, and their locations are fixed, so you can Google the exact spots if you want to cheat, but just riding along the ridgelines should find them. Opening them usually rewards an uncommon item and some money.

Zone Puzzles
Every zone in Rift (Other than Tyrant's Throne) has a zone puzzle. It's a sort of mini game that you have to solve. The zone puzzles are usually somewhere out of the way, where you would not normally go, like hidden behind a large hill or structure etc. You get a rare or epic quality item and lots of money (About 3-4 Plat in 60-65 zones) as well as an achievement. Every puzzle is completely different, but there is lots of videos on youtube showing the locations and ways of solving them if you get stuck. Below is a picture of the Droutlands Puzzle, which is fairly easy.



It's best to do each zone puzzle when you reach the level cap for the zone, as the reward is in a bag that reqires a certain level to open and the reward will be an item for that level. So for example, the Droutlands is marked on your map as being for level 36-44 and the puzzle reward is in a bag that needs level 45 to open and has a level 45 item in it, so do it at level 45 for best results.