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I'm a lifelong Midwesterner who's often thought that the beauty of the Midwest is really overlooked and underappreciated naturally. But I don't think the best of the Midwest tops the best of the Rockies or Appalachians, or the Maine and Oregon coasts.
I still think the following parts of the Midwest are absolutely beautiful and worthwhile places to visit for anyone:
-Lake Superior shore in both MN/WI
-The north woods/lakes country for MN/WI
-Driftless Area of WI/IA/MN
-Ozarks in Missouri
-Black Hills/Badlands of South Dakota
-Brown County in Indiana
-Door County, WI
Growing up in NE Ohio the entire area felt so much different than Iowa, Nebraska, etc. showcasing how vast the Midwest is. Being so far east, Ohio is the only state in the Midwest that is a part of the Appalachian Foothills. Some of the best waterfalls in the Midwest are found in places like the Hocking Hills. Cincinnati is one of the more picturesque cities of the region. The Lake Erie Islands are a fun weekend getaway for people across the area.
Cities like Cincinnati, St. Paul and Minneapolis are consistently rated year after year as having some of the nation's best urban park systems. States like Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio and Wisconsin are in the top 10 states for boater registration. Water plays a big role in recreational life.
I am not saying they are on par scenery wise as out west or parts of the east coast, but it certainly is underrated especially beyond the people who really do not know much about areas outside of a simple Google search.
The whole point of this discussion is to compare scenic areas of the Midwest to those of the coasts and mountain states.
And what I said about Chicagoland notwithstanding, that flat landscape served as the inspiration for one of the first uniquely American architectural styles, the highly horizontal Prairie style of Frank Lloyd Wright.
And the contrast between land and sky in the right conditions can IMO produce nearly Ansel Adams-quality vistas. Here, for instance, is a photo I took at a railroad crossing near Edelstein, Ill., when I was traveling from Chicago back to Kansas City via the "Chicago-Kansas City Expressway" (IL/MO 110) with a journalist friend of mine:
I don't think you need to be a farmer to see beauty in that.
But I will allow that generally flat, featureless topography usually isn't all that visually interesting. The Atlantic coastal plain, as several have noted here, shares that quality.
I will also note here that my hometown of Kansas City has interesting topography because it sits where the great ice sheet that covered most of the North American continent during the last Ice Age stopped (that's why the Missouri River makes a left turn at Kansas City). The bluff along the south edge of the Missouri River floodplain east of downtown is part of the city park system and also home to one of the most scenic roads in the Midwest: Cliff Drive, the only Missouri scenic byway located in an urban area. The road is also closed to motor vehicles on weekends, which gives you a chance to get up close and personal with the wildered* landscape along it.
*This is a word I picked up from Prof. John Stilgoe of Harvard, who used it to describe land that had been cleared for farming once but since returned to a state of nature. Another poster upthread noted that much of the rural land in the Eastern states has this character.
Last edited by MarketStEl; 02-28-2023 at 09:36 AM..
I'm a lifelong Midwesterner who's often thought that the beauty of the Midwest is really overlooked and underappreciated naturally. But I don't think the best of the Midwest tops the best of the Rockies or Appalachians, or the Maine and Oregon coasts.
I still think the following parts of the Midwest are absolutely beautiful and worthwhile places to visit for anyone:
-Lake Superior shore in both MN/WI
-The north woods/lakes country for MN/WI
-Driftless Area of WI/IA/MN
-Ozarks in Missouri
-Black Hills/Badlands of South Dakota
-Brown County in Indiana
-Door County, WI
Man you really need to take a trip to Michigan. Based on your posts it's pretty clear you've never been. IMO The UP and the entire western MI shore of Lake Michigan has an edge on all of these.
The whole point of this discussion is to compare scenic areas of the Midwest to those of the coasts and mountain states.
And what I said about Chicagoland notwithstanding, that flat landscape served as the inspiration for one of the first uniquely American architectural styles, the highly horizontal Prairie style of Frank Lloyd Wright.
And the contrast between land and sky in the right conditions can IMO produce nearly Ansel Adams-quality vistas. Here, for instance, is a photo I took at a railroad crossing near Edelstein, Ill., when I was traveling from Chicago back to Kansas City via the "Chicago-Kansas City Expressway" (IL/MO 110) with a journalist friend of mine:
I don't think you need to be a farmer to see beauty in that.
But I will allow that generally flat, featureless topography usually isn't all that visually interesting. The Atlantic coastal plain, as several have noted here, shares that quality.
I will also note here that my hometown of Kansas City has interesting topography because it sits where the great ice sheet that covered most of the North American continent during the last Ice Age stopped (that's why the Missouri River makes a left turn at Kansas City). The bluff along the south edge of the Missouri River floodplain east of downtown is part of the city park system and also home to one of the most scenic roads in the Midwest: Cliff Drive, the only Missouri scenic byway located in an urban area. The road is also closed to motor vehicles on weekends, which gives you a chance to get up close and personal with the wildered* landscape along it.
*This is a word I picked up from Prof. John Stilgoe of Harvard, who used it to describe land that had been cleared for farming once but since returned to a state of nature. Another poster upthread noted that much of the rural land in the Eastern states has this character.
There is definitely beauty in flat fields, and fields with wheat blowing in the wind are stunning, to me. It doesn't reach the grandeur of the mountains, of course, but it's quiet beauty, and there's something to be said for that.
Wisconsin is beautiful. Minnesota is close. Probably Michigan too but I have not seen it myself.
Comparisons to most east coast states probably ends there.
There is just nothing in the breadbasket of Kansas, Nebraska, Iowa, Oklahoma. I like the rolling hills of Iowa, but it is not Vermont or the Blue Ridge Mountains or upstate New York.
They all have their highlights, like the Black Hills of South Dakota, or the Ozarks in Missouri.
New England just has a breathtaking amount of stunning beauty.
Honestly, I love seeing all the farms, silos and neatly-plowed fields off the Interstates in Illinois. They're not mountains, palm trees or bodies of water, but they're picturesque in their own way. No matter whether you drive on I-55, I-57, I-64 or I-70, the scenery is very Rockwellian. Even I-90 has a small sliver of picturesque farmland between Rockford and the Chicagoland area. I haven't driven on I-72 or I-74 in Illinois, or I-80 or I-88 outside of the Chicagoland area, but I imagine the scenery on those Interstates is similar too. The only real outliers I've seen in Illinois are I-24 or I-94. I-24 passes through the Shawnee Hills in extreme southern Illinois, and I-94 never leaves the Chicagoland area.
In my modest travels, upstate New York had the most beautiful and well kept barns and silos I have ever seen, but I haven't traveled extensively in the past 20 years, so my take is dated.
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