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Most other cities mentioned so far, while having nice attributes about them, or close to amazing scenery, are too landlocked or one dimensional. Weather is a factor for most too. It’s just my opinion, but if you have crummy weather where you can’t enjoy being comfortable outside on a daily basis what good is it.
No city spends 365 days a year in abject misery. There are personalities on here who pedal this hyperbole about weather. I get it. If you don't like winter you don't like winter. People who are not strong enough to handle cold, are no different than people who are not strong enough to handle heat. They all consider their opinion the most valid.
I for one cannot stand the weather west of the Mississipi. I like to be surrounded by water and life, not brown hills and weeds. I need rain, I need epic thunderstorms, I need clouds. Living in Phoenix and Southern California for 6 years I'd started going batty after about the 40th day of unrelenting sun. I have never found mountains to be breath taking(especially the arid rockies), or necessary for beauty.
I'd add all Michigan metro's and their access to the stunning north country to this list, even if you have to wear a coat for part of the year.
Title is relatively straightforward...which cities have the most beautiful outdoors areas within a 1-2 hour drive? For the purposes of this thread, let’s define a city as anywhere with >200k MSA.
As usual there's a west coast bias given most of the responses. However for those familiar, one to two hour drives from cities like Washington DC, Boston and NYC offer up stunning landscapes in places like the Shenandoah Valley/Blue Ridge Mountains (DC), Cape Cod/White Mountains/NH Lakes Region (Boston) or Hudson Valley/Long Island (NYC).
Portland, Oregon is hard to beat. Within 2 hours you can be skiing on Mt Hood, fishing the Columbia river for salmon, or white sturgeon, playing in the surf at Astoria, hiking on numerous trails in the area, enjoying professional soccer (Timbers), professional basketball (Trailblazers), watching college football and basketball (Oregon State Beavers). Loads of opportunities.
No city spends 365 days a year in abject misery. There are personalities on here who pedal this hyperbole about weather. I get it. If you don't like winter you don't like winter. People who are not strong enough to handle cold, are no different than people who are not strong enough to handle heat. They all consider their opinion the most valid.
I for one cannot stand the weather west of the Mississipi. I like to be surrounded by water and life, not brown hills and weeds. I need rain, I need epic thunderstorms, I need clouds. Living in Phoenix and Southern California for 6 years I'd started going batty after about the 40th day of unrelenting sun. I have never found mountains to be breath taking(especially the arid rockies), or necessary for beauty.
I'd add all Michigan metro's and their access to the stunning north country to this list, even if you have to wear a coat for part of the year.
I'd agree that many, many locations around the country have excellent outdoor opportunities, with a wide variety of landscapes and weather- and that places like Michigan are highly underrated in this type of thread. I do think you're generalizing a lot about the west, though. Not all places look remotely like Phoenix or Southern Cal, not by a longshot.
Like everyone else in this conversation, I'm biased. So I'll just say that I think there are very few places as gorgeous and well-positioned for accessible recreation on this planet as this corner of the United States.
Bellingham, WA is the only place in the Cascades where the mountains meet the sea in the NW, and within 2 hours you can be in the San Juan Islands, exploring temperate rain forests, mountaineering on jagged mountains, skiing in some of the snowiest places in the planet, climbing on massive rock faces, or hanging out in great cities like Vancouver, BC or Seattle. Expand it to 3 hours and you can add deserts, the Pacific Coast and the Olympic mountains.
I'd agree that many, many locations around the country have excellent outdoor opportunities, with a wide variety of landscapes and weather- and that places like Michigan are highly underrated in this type of thread. I do think you're generalizing a lot about the west, though. Not all places look remotely like Phoenix or Southern Cal, not by a longshot.
You are correct it's a pretty overt generalization. I was more using hyperbole to showcase hyperbole. I get a bit worn down by the posters that write off large swaths of the country based on their personal preferences, but present their opinion as if it's simply known fact.
I know the difference between the lush PacNW and the arid Southwest very well. Even the front range and plains are different. Overall my preferences are still for the weather, and topographical style of the eastern US vs. the West.
No city spends 365 days a year in abject misery. There are personalities on here who pedal this hyperbole about weather. I get it. If you don't like winter you don't like winter. People who are not strong enough to handle cold, are no different than people who are not strong enough to handle heat. They all consider their opinion the most valid.
I strongly agree and would add humidity to the "abject misery" index....i.e. the east coast is humid year round nonsense.
Title is relatively straightforward...which cities have the most beautiful outdoors areas within a 1-2 hour drive? For the purposes of this thread, let’s define a city as anywhere with >200k MSA.
It depends on your idea of "most beautiful outdoors". Some like the beach/coast, some like hiking in wooded areas, some like boating on lakes, some like dry and rocky mountains, etc.
Without clarification, we'll each give our own unique idea of what we want, rather than what the OP wants.
Even above, someone went on about humidity, and it being awful. I've found super dry regions to be the true awful areas, with humidity a plus and benefit. There's a big difference between dry mountainous regions and watered mountainous regions, for example.
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