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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.
In no particular order. Where the city does not exceed 200,000, but the MSA does, I put MSA (since the OP asked for at least an MSA > 200,000)
Portland, Oregon
Portland MSA, Maine
Seattle, Washington
Salt Lake City, Utah
Denver, Colorado
Albany MSA, New York
Duluth MSA, Minnesota (I can attest to this one)
Reno, Nevada
Boise, Idaho
Manchester MSA, New Hampshire
These come to mind, but is certainly not exhaustive.
Last edited by cornsnicker3; 08-22-2018 at 11:50 AM..
Knoxville, TN
Burlington, VT
Bellingham, WA
Medford, OR
Boulder, CO
Fort Collins, CO
Eugene, OR
Anchorage, AK
Manchester, NH
Salem, OR
Asheville, NC
Portland, ME
Provo, UT
Ogden, UT
Boise, ID
Tucson, AZ
Los Angeles (and Orange County)
San Diego
San Francisco (entire Bay Area plus Sacramento)
Honolulu
It’s hard to match Southern California coastline with 10-11K ft mountains 1-2 hours away. Not to mention the desert too.
The Bay Area with its coastline, the redwoods, wine country, & the Sierras is tough to beat as well.
Honolulu is Hawaii, enough said there.
Honorable mention goes to Seattle. It’s absolutely gorgeous, and it’s one of my favorite cities, but the weather blows a good portion of the year. The same goes for Anchorage. While I’m sure it’s stunning, the weather factor is huge.
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.
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