Mountainy conservative city for a mid 20s (apartment, income)
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A lot of central/eastern WA, OR, and ID would work. Even though WA and OR are quite liberal/left overall, the rural areas are quite purple or red. There is a winter but not super bad, a lot of Mexican food trucks in central WA in places like Wenatchee, Yakima, Tri-Cities, with mountains not far. Could drive to Seattle or Spokane in a few hours for an international airport.
I think you would be priced out of Boise, but some of the SW suburbs might work. Better might be Twin Falls. Usually has a milder winter than Boise, but for some reason they are getting the majority of storms over them this year. Still warm storms, so mostly rain in town. Population about 50K in town, over a 100K in the metro area. Great mountains to the north (Sun Valley area and the Sawtooth Mountains, among other areas). More, very less used mountains to the south. The Snake River runs through the area.
Birmingham is about as south as you can get in the South and still have hilly/mountainous areas. Knoxville and Chattanooga are probably the only pure mountainy cities on the eastern side of the US, with Birmingham, Huntsville, Nashville, Winston-Salem, Charlotte and Raleigh as notably hilly. While there's some conservative mountain city areas up in the WV, PA, NY area, there's a bigger amount of snow.
If settling for beaches, I'd say try Tampa, but the rent might be high. The panhandle area to New Orleans is also pretty decently populated, I think only New Orleans and Mobile meet that 100k bar as far as core metro cities go (2 mill from Panama City to Gulfport metros, not including New Orlean's.). On the Atlantic, Jacksonville might be the best bet. Savannah and Virginia Beach could work, too.
Super dog-friendly trail systems, no income tax, huge mountains and all that. We do have winter.
The more rural the city or county the more likely any mandates are ignored for the most part. Local political leadership seems to make the most difference on this. Look for the mayor and sheriff to be red....even conservative states have blue cities with all the mandates and other policies some of us do not want to live with.
Rent can be pricey here though.
It does seem like most of your criteria might be found in the South, Utah or Arizona.
I live in ABQ and while the climate and mountains might be what OP is looking for, it is a blue city in a blue state. There is street food and food trucks. There is a mask mandate indoors in public places. It is an interesting mix of ages and cultures. Right now, it is reasonably affordable. There seems to be a flurry of development that might change that (Amazon, Netflix, Intel, NBC Universal). There is a housing shortage and rents have been going up.
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Originally Posted by bluescreen73
Grand Junction, Colorado. It's not my cup of tea, but you might like it. It's a fairly conservative town on the Western Slope. City population is about 65k, and the metro is around 150k. It's not in the mountains, and it's got a desert feel that's very similar to Eastern Utah, but the San Juan Mountains are a couple hours away. The downtown is small but walkable. It's the home of Colorado Mesa University, but with an enrollment of only 9k, it doesn't feel as much like a college town as Fort Collins or Boulder do. Winters are mildish. The city only gets 17" of snow per year, but the average high in December and January is below 40 degrees. Colorado does have a state income tax, but it's a flat 5.4%, and property taxes are fairly low.
I also recommended Grand Junction (but my post was deleted for no apparent reason). The town is unlike much of Colorado in that it seems to be more of a working town rather than a big tourist destination. At least that is my perception. It sits at the foot of Grand Mesa, the "largest flat-topped mountain in the world" they say. The Mesa is forested and has plenty of lakes for fishing. There are jeep trails and hiking trails. My frequent visits to GJ are usually to spend some uncrowded time on the Mesa for fly fishing. The city itself is in sort of an alcove between the Grand Mesa, Book Cliffs, and the heights of the Colorado National Monument to the west. The climate is warm enough for peach orchards and there are lots of vineyards and wineries in the area. It certainly has four seasons. The "grand junction" is the confluence of the Gunnison and Colorado rivers. The Black Canyon of the Gunnison (wilderness and national park) is an hour or so south of town. There are smaller towns in the valley: Fruita, Clifton, Paradise; Moab (Arches and Canyonland) is about 90 minutes to the west. Denver is four hours to the east but seems farther.
Go to the Black Hills. The culture is still very Midwestern, and they are very conservative. Absolutely beautiful mountain country to boot. Not so much on the food truck side, but I think you'd find what you're looking for culturally and scenery wise.
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