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What do you think is overall the most scenic state that touches the Atlantic Ocean (we can also count VT and WV in this)? Either in terms of scenic diversity or exceptional individual features.
Overall, I would give the nod to New York State with New Hampshire a close second. New York has the barrier island beaches along long island, the hudson valley, great lakes, high mountains including a few that reach above timberline, and obviously world class urban scenery and skyline in the NYC area.
New Hampshire has a short but rugged seacoast, many beautiful hamlets and villages, and I think that the Whites are by far the most impressive mountain range in the east.
Your thoughts?
When you add VT and WV, you should not just count the NY which is oceanfront. It implies the rest of the state is landlocked.
Try noting the water in upstate NY: You listed the Hudson and great lakes. You missed the rest: Finger Lakes. Letchworth State park (grand canyon of the east). Niagara Falls. Yes, Lake Erie and Ontario -- miles of lakefront! Erie Canal. Thousand Islands. Lake Champlain ( there is a NY side as well as VT). Hundreds of beautiful places here no one ever notices since we are "out in the boonies" according to those downstate.
I grew up playing on the LI beaches, but I will take the beauty of upstate NY over any of them.
One other thing about life up here? We never need to ration WATER!
Believe me I meant no slight to New York State: it's my favorite east coast state along with New Hampshire. I just wanted to keep my OP fairly brief so I picked a couple of highlights that came to mind.
What do you think is overall the most scenic state that touches the Atlantic Ocean (we can also count VT and WV in this)? Either in terms of scenic diversity or exceptional individual features.
That's like asking to pick your favorite child. The answer is they're all great.
Location: That star on your map in the middle of the East Coast, DMV
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Great way of describing the scenery of New York state! I agree with that description.
This is how I would rank the East coast states from Most scenic to Least scenic:
1. New York state: Already explained by ktaadin. Also, what forgot to be mentioned is New York state have some great waterfalls such as Niagra Falls and Kaaterskill falls.
2. North Carolina: Sort of similar to New York state scenery. It has some pretty high mountains, it has barrier island beaches too. Charlotte is not New York City but it actually has some nice urban scenery and developing a nice skyline.
3. Massachusetts: Cape Cod, Martha's Vineyard, and Nantucket have some pretty great scenery, as well as Boston for some urban scenery. Also the hills, lush forests, and farms of Western Massachusetts are nice.
4. Maine: Vast areas of lush forests and probably more evergreen trees than the other East coast states and rocky coastline. Some nice small town scenery.
5. Vermont: Vast areas of lush forests. Some mountains. Also some nice small town scenery. Great fall colors in the trees during fall but this is true for some other East state coast states too.
6. New Hampshire: Similar to Maine and Vermont.
7. Pennsylvania: Nice urban scenery in Philadelphia, vast areas of farms, rolling hills, lush forests. Even some big lake coastline around Erie.
8. Florida: Very flat but some pretty great tropical beaches and subtropical beaches. Palm trees in Southern areas of Florida. Miami has some pretty good urban scenery. The farmland is pretty different from the other East coast states it seems like with more orange grove farms and more tropical/subtropical farmland.
9. Georgia: It has some coastline and it has some big hills and even some small mountains. It has some urban scenery around Atlanta. It has large vast areas of forests and farmlands.
I think Savannah might also have some pretty good urban scenery.
10. South Carolina: At least it has a coastline. Charleston has some pretty good urban scenery in some parts it seems like.
11. Virginia: It has some hills/mountains and coastline.
12. Rhode Island: Coastline, some islands, farms. Providence seems to have some urban scenery that seems pretty good.
13. New Jersey: It actually has some great views of Manhattan NYC from Jersey City. This would be higher on the list but the rest of New Jersey just looks kind of ugly to me. The only other places that might have decent scenery in New Jersey is part of the Jersey coastline, and areas of Northwest New Jersey. Also Jersey City and Hoboken has some pretty good urban scenery things about it.
14. Connecticut: I guess it has some nice coastline, farms, lush landscapes but still pretty low on the list. Nothing that special to offer in scenery compared to the other states. Does not really offer any great urban scenery.
15. Delaware: Same as what I said about Connecticut. Actually Delaware and Connecticut have some urban decay such as Hartford in Connecticut and Wilmington in Delaware.
16. Maryland:I dont know what it is about Maryland but it just seems to be the least scenic and most ugliest East coast state by far. It has the blahness of Connecticut and Delaware but with the urban decay of Baltimore. But then again the best neighborhoods of Baltimore might offer some decent urban scenery.
If Washington DC was not in its own special administration region and was actually part of the state of Maryland then Maryland would most definitely be much higher on this list. But Washington DC is technically not part of Maryland so...
Overall though plenty of Northeast states offer plenty of great urban and nature scenery.
When you look at it geographically and as far as topography as well, from Pennsylvania on down through MD, VA and the Carolinas each state pretty much is uniformed throughout. They are just chopped up and were historically carved into different states. They all have coastline to the East, each of them with bays, rivers, and banks on the shorelines. Urbanized greenland area once you move further west in each state where most of the population lives, plenty of farmland in each of them, with rolling hills and mountains to the West some higher than others depending on the state, but still very scenic in each of them, and growing up in the Mid-Atlantic i have always felt this way. Each state is very historic and has civil war battlefields, and historic sites all over to explore. So to say MD is not on the level of the others is just completely opinionated and biased statement. Yes it is geographically smaller so therefore it would have less, but it still just as scenic and definitely not BLAND. I understand you may look at "Suburban MD" mainly in the DC-Baltimore corridor suburbs and not like the look of it, but that geographically is about 25% of the state. Saying you don't like the looks of the houses in the suburbs or highways, or the urban decay in Baltimore city which is 80 square miles and not even all 80 sq mi of the city is in decay, is just being picky.
VA and MD are the only ones with an Eastern and Western Shore, and with the small size of Virginia's, Maryland is really the only true state with an Eastern Shore that is almost completely different from the rest of the state. It has an entirely different pace and the people are extremely different as well. The majority of people dropped off on the Eastern Shore of MD would think they were in Delaware before realizing its Maryland.
New Hampshire i think is more scenic than New York, it has taller mountains, a rugged coastline, (north of hampton) and the Merrimac(k?) is beautful in NH, mostly north of Manchester, then it gets less stunning.
Portsmouth is a nice town. also along the whole river up from Portsmouth is rolling hills and some cliffs.
Second comes NY state for reason aforementioned in other posts.
Then comes Massachusetts.
the western end is beautiful the berkshires are high rolling hills, with small cities lke NO. Adams and Pittsfield. with dramatic valleys for the Hoosic, deerfield, westfield ect.
working east the view from Mt. Tom is amazing and only 15 minutes away from downtown Springfield.
then the Conn. River valley which obvouisly has the Conn. River.
Then the Worcester hills which go til they meet the Merrimac(k) river valley. the southeast has rolling hills and great beaches
4) Maryland
The west has high mountains and deep steep valleys that hold small towns like harpers ferry. THen the mountains fade to hills. Density picks up as you near Baltimore/ Washington.
The fall lin has some steep hills, in some places droping right in to the ocean as a cliff.
the Bay side has wonderful beaches and small hill with pictureque hamlets.
5) Maine- its stunning coastline that is the most dramatic in the east, the rest of the state is much like the Bershires of massachusetts, only less populated..
New York is really, really hard to beat for overall scenic attractions. (It is, of course, one of the larger East Coast states so it has an advantage).
Something that New York has over a lot of other states is the sheer variety and amount of naturally occurring waters: whitewater rivers, mountain ponds, two (count 'em two) Great Lakes (and Lake Champlain is pretty major too), the Hudson, the St Lawrence River with its 1,800 islands, ocean beach, naturally occuring major lakes of all shapes and size. I do feel a wee bit sorry when I travel to other states down south and mostly all they have are "fake lakes" (reservoirs)
Don't even get me started on the waterfalls, which even if you discounted Niagara Falls, would be amazing. (Middle Falls at Letchworth, Taughannock, Kaaterskill...) and the gorges.
And the amazing thing about enjoying the water in NY is that you don't have to be wealthy to get near it.
I agree that other states on the East Coast have higher mountains, less populated seashore, better skiing, rocky seacoast etc but New York is, arguably, where young America's sense of "wilderness grandeur" began if you judge by the Hudson River school of art and such.
57 min long done by MD Public Television so just the MD side of the Chesapeake
The Chesapeake is a real Jewel and oft overlooked. It is huge too
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Video: Chesapeake by Air
