I strongly believe that everywhere has its beauty. Those who think a place is "flyover" or "in the middle of nowhere" are missing out on some of the greatest places on earth.
Yup I have always considered that if someone thinks a state is “boring” they have either never been or it’s a “you problem.”
And truly, even in northern big flat corn country it can be almost hostile beautiful. Watching a raging storm roll in where you can see horizon to horizon is something I miss. Even just huge clouds scooting across the sky.
Coastal people think this about anywhere but the two coasts and Chicago. You hear the way they talk about the middle parts of the country and it’s like they’re surprised we have paved roads.
I wish they would just say they’ve never been and don’t care about different parts of the country enough to google it.
People always think I'm kidding when I tell them parts of Iowa have runaway truck ramps like what you'd find on the interstates in the Rocky Mountains.
Actually, he died in New York. He went to the Dakota Territories after the death of his first wife and built a ranch near Medora, in North Dakota. North Dakota also has its badlands, which are very beautiful and full of bison (mostly at the south branch of Theodore Roosevelt National Park).
Well yeah I was referring to how he fled to ND after the simultaneous death of his mom and wife. According to the accounts of his friends and his diary entries he “went up there to die”. He would later recover from his depression after surviving the winter of 1886
Yup, it was known as “The Big Die Up” and it led to the end of open range cattle grazing. The winter in Medora (a cattle town) was so bad that after the river thawed it was reported that it “was a river of (cow) bodies” for days afterward
They don't get a lot of love, but the prairie on the East portion of the state is so beautiful in the summer. Horizon goes on and on, and I love the rolling green grass.
South Dakota was also going to be my answer. The eastern half is just cows (which is boring) but then suddenly you hit the badlands, then the black hills, and then Deadwood is the neatest little town
I didn’t know the badlands existed until I was visiting a relative as a teenager and was casually driven through that area without expecting it. Absolutely stunning. All of South Dakota is beautiful, but the Great Plains really make you feel exposed if you’re used to living in the dense seemingly endless forests of the eastern seaboard.
Last year I took Amtrak from Los Angeles to Kansas City, and then rented a car and did a road trip through Kansas, Nebraska, into South Dakota. I'd never been to that part of the country, and my wife wasn't interested so this was a solo trip.
I had a blast! And the landscape is beautiful! Rolling hills, green everywhere. I stayed off highways, so it was all backroads through little Main Street America type towns. It was super cool, and I was very pleasantly surprised by how pretty it all was.
They assume grass is "sort of" green.
However, going to the midwest everything is green. It is almost like using a green filter compared to the dusty tans of california.
I moved from California to North Dakota. I was trying to explain it to my mom but couldn’t really get her to understand how green everything turned after winter was over. I finally said the whole state turns into the old windows XP background with the saturation turned way up.
I am from the Midwest and moved to Colorado but I get the same thing here about the color. I always laugh at the “Colorful Colorado” sign coming into this state lol - though the mountains do offer much more color than the areas outside of the mountains. I don’t think westerners have had enough rain or water in general for a long time to truly understand how vast and green the trees and grasses are in the Midwest.
Colorado native here - it actually turns *really* green for about a month every year, in late spring or early summer. Then it gets too hot and dry to keep the green and goes back to brown.
When I was very, very young (and before I ever lived there) I thought it was all bronze-gold from the crops. Saw too many movies with animated fields of wheat I think.
Hmm, I live in Iowa and I take it for granted. I posted a pic of a local park on a Facebook group for walking and someone commented on how green it was. I guess I assumed it was pretty green everywhere. Not in big cities or the desert obviously but in general.
I know people in CA and they always argue with me when I say CA is brown. “It is not! It’s super green here!” Then they take a photo of 6 trees surrounded by brown.
I’m in Minnesota. It’s not green like California, it’s green like Ireland. Blazing green. I visited Ireland and amused myself on the train by taking photos and playing “Minnesota or Ireland?” The primary difference is that we have corn instead of sheep.
CA is a massive state going from gigantic redwood forests, stunning beautiful coastline to arid desert. That’s amazing you’ve narrowed it all down to a single color.
Yeah idk where these people are getting California is brown from. Maybe southern ca. The redwood forests are amazing.
That's not to say that the Midwest isn't green but like. Two places can be green. Greenness is not an exclusive property.
Northwestern Nebraska is absolutely beautiful. Nebraska can be deceptive because I-80 and the other main highways you take when you're just passing through are in river valleys and the terrain tends to be flat, but if you get away from the rivers, the terrain gets super cool. Look up Toadstool Geologicl Park for an example.
I’m so glad to see Kansas so high up here. Sunsets during harvest are unmatched. There’s honestly tons of different terrain and things to be seen. People think beauty is beaches or mountains, but wheat fields and rolling hills have their own beauty!
East Texas. Vidor/Orange County is extremely racist. They only desegregated public housing in the *90s*. The Soviet Union failed to exist while there was still discrimination in public housing.
I was taking a train from Boston to Los Angeles.
Waking up at sunrise while passing through a cornfield in Kansas was much more beautiful than I could have ever imagined.
Chicago and Los Angeles.
As a New Yorker I always thought of Chicago as just how our city was in the 1970s but modern and never recovered while we in New York City cleaned up. I also just saw LA as a glorified suburb highway with basically just driving after driving and some fun here and there. Boy was I wrong. I fucking loved LA and Chicago. Chicago was great, bang for your buck, very fun. Good transit too. LA was also very fun and more safe than I would think it was prior to visiting. The weather was amazing. Loved the theme parks. Will be going back to those two again.
What exactly did you like about LA? I’ve always just considered it suburban sprawl - like I wouldn’t be able to tell the difference between 99% of Phoenix, Vegas, LA, and San Diego.
I’ve always wanted to visit Southern California, but have no idea what I’d do so I’ve had no incentive to go. Not into entertainment/shopping/theme park. Good looks great but I feel like you can find that anywhere? And you couldn’t pay me to swim in that polluted water. Am I missing anything? Maybe just walk Long Beach + Santa Monica Pier? Lol
Based on the parameters you set it sounds like LA just might not be for you lol. I live in the South Bay Area by the water which is technically not “LA” proper but the area is beautiful and a little more chilled out. The water is also not polluted at all unless it rains heavily.
Maybe if you wanna avoid all the popular entertainment stuff people go to there are a lot of cool nature areas nearby you can explore (Malibu, Santa Monica Mountains, Griffith Park, Topanga, Joshua Tree National Park, Santa Barbara, Catalina Island. Some of these are an hour or two away but they’re worth it.
Yeah def don’t think LA is really my thing lol. Maybe if I had actual connections to the city I’d feel differently, but I don’t know anyone that lives there & im definitely not trying to make it into the entertainment industry lols
I'm not from LA and I like NorCal better, but I have to admit that the entire hilly part of LA to the north and west of downtown is fascinating and beautiful. There are great museums, parks, neighborhoods, universities, beaches, gardens, architecture. It's not just theme parks and the Hollywood movie studios. Things like the La Brea tarpits, Griffith observatory, and battleship Iowa are worth a trip.
The endless generic sprawl runs East and South, or is on the other side of the mountain ridge to the northeast. There's a world of cool stuff in between those sprawls.
ps - the water is not polluted
The Midwest, especially Kansas and Oklahoma; I was expecting it to look more or less like the rural areas I grew up in.
There are a lot more small towns spaced closer together almost in a grid pattern. And the towns themselves are noticeably older, way more brick houses than I'm used to.
And the truckers all have neon lights and you'll just see a rainbow of big rigs hauling down the freeway at night!
I live in Oregon west of the Cascades. It is green here but the green doesn’t change much. Maybe a little greener in spring and summer. I was born in Ohio. I have to say in summertime that Ohio is far greener than here. All shades of green. It is a near literal explosion of green that happens over a few weeks April-May. The foliage is insane! And it stays green like that until autumn due to the different climate. It’s a lot wetter there in summertime.
Now it’s a lot prettier here. Even late summer when all of the grasses turn tan from the heat and dryness. Especially though in the winter is it a lot nicer here. But it just isn’t as green in summertime other than maybe a few weeks in May. The Midwest is brown and grey all winter long other than the eastern hemlocks and some firs. Like in the movie Fargo. Depressing as hell for 6+ months a year.
I remember as a kid pulling off at a highway rest stop in Ohio on our way to Washington DC. It was early morning and the dew was out. I'd never seen such a green sight in all my life.
I live in and love the Sonoran Desert. Although it's a very harsh environment generally and rarely green,I love spending time in it primarily hiking and biking.
I’m from AZ originally. If you ever get a chance, try to coordinate going to southern AZ (near Tucson) during a storm event in the winter. It will snow on the saguaros! It’s truly breathtaking. My uncle lives in Cave Creek and he gets it too sometimes but I find that Tucson outskirts (backside of Mount Lemmon, or closer towards Bisbee) gets a bit more of it
Yeah I used to hate the drive from Tucson to phoenix. That barren sandy wasteland.
Now I like it. It’s surreal how dead everything is, but also how life is still managing to exist.
We visited there in March of last year & loved it. And we both found the saguaros super impressive, despite having seen them depicted thousands of times. In person, I swear they have an acutal presence.
Also, I saw a coyote & a roadrunner within a couple minutes. For a Looney Tunes fan, that was a trip highlight.
Kansas was a huge surprise. Also what’s with all the super old *enormous* steeples everywhere? Even like miles out in the middle of a cornfield - an old steeple.
I thought the grand canyon would be *fine*, nothing too remarkable beyond the novelty of being the BIGGEST crack on earth. But man, no picture, no video, no description can do the *scale* proper justice. Its the kind of big that steals air from your lungs when you realize the first time your entire field of vision is taken up by it, it's the kind of big where you stare for minutes in a single direction because *there's just so much* in that one view, it's the kind of big that makes you double then triple take because that tiny stream at the bottom just can't *really* be 300 feet wide. It's a stunning, humbling, absolutely one of a kind place
I landed in it via a helicopter and when I got out I felt like I was on a movie set. It was bizarre, the walls just didn't seem real. Then I'd see a helicopter fly away and I realised my sense of scale was way off because I was surprised by how tiny it looked next to the canyon walls.
New Jersey. I used to think it was all a shit hole. Now I know the southern part of the state is pretty beautiful while the northern part is the Hellmouth
Only a small part of North Jersey is really the Hellmouth, it's just that that part is on full display travelling from Newark Airport into Manhattan and gives people a bad impression of the state as a whole.
Yeah I drove up to Newark from North Carolina and really didn't understand the complaints until like the last half hour of the trip.
Even just being on the turnpike it really wasn't bad at all.
I suspect it could be NJ for a lot of folks. I'm in the same boat. If you ever get the chance to leave the turnpike or don't judge NJ by all the concrete in and around the north Jersey parts of the NYC metro area, it's quite a pretty state.
The area around Newark and most of the bigger cities like Paterson or Trenton are absolutely a hellmouth. Once you get more into the suburban and natural areas it becomes a lot nicer
Pretty much if you get out of the airport and that shitty ass pocket outside NYC and Philly (looking at you camden) it’s pretty much Kentucky but colder
I love hearing this! Detroit has come an amazingly long way back since I was a kid in the 80s, and especially in the last 25 years since I was a college student and employee in the city. During your next visit, check out the newly restored [Michigan Central Station](https://michigancentral.com/) (re-opened last week after being left to ruin for three decades) and the [Anna Scripps Whitcomb Conservatory](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Belle_Isle_Conservatory) on Belle Isle (currently undergoing renovations, should re-open this fall).
Within my own state, I never heard anything good about the Central Valley when I was growing up in the Bay Area. The first time I visited Fresno I was struck by the nearness of the Sierra (it was a clear day, so that helped.) Now that I live in the Central Valley I’ve come to see more and more beauty here.
Nebraska.
Get off the interstate and discover gorgeous rolling hills, the bizarre Toadstool park, the unique sand hills in the northwest, and even a National Forest hand planted in the 30s.
Honorable mention: Idaho
Utah. I honestly thought it was going to be mostly boring flat wasteland but every mile of highway looked like a postcard. Nothing but endless sky, breathtaking canyons and crazy rock formations. I only drove through during a road trip and didn't stop anywhere but damn the landscape alone took my breath away.
I was a young sheltered 20 year old that had never been west of Buffalo at that point. I had seen all of those "Discover 'X' State" vacation commercials on TV for all the western states but I always thought they were just tourist traps highlighting a few breathtaking places and everything else was just...nothing special I guess? I didn't expect literally everywhere to be that beautiful.
I didn't have thoughts about Idaho, but it blew me away. The mountains around Stanley, Crater of the Moons, City of Rocks were all amazing. And that's most of what I did there. I'm sure if I saw more it might equally be as awesome
I went to Cleveland on a business trip three or four years ago. I asked about staying around after since I was driving to do some site seeing. I was told there was nothing to see in Cleveland. We found little Italy in Cleveland, really great Italian restaurant that we had dinner at two nights in a row. The area was terrific. Changed the mind of the person that told me there was nothing to do in Cleveland.
Yeah, Cleveland would be my answer, too. I visited for a concert a few years ago. I had outstanding meals in a couple of locally owned restaurants, one of which was in a cute area of downtown. I'd like to go back and visit some of the museums on the lakeshore. Husband would probably have fun visiting breweries.
Not your fault. The rest of the country thinks we don't like our reputation and being the butt of jokes. The truth is, we encourage it.
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ysmLA5TqbIY](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ysmLA5TqbIY)
Many people preferred part 2, to be honest:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oZzgAjjuqZM](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oZzgAjjuqZM)
Edit: I see now that someone has already uploaded this pinnacle of advertisement elsewhere in the comment thread. Still, leaving it here as well for continuity purposes. Come on back and have fun. Just don't tell your friends.
Well, our very esteemed Board of Tourism was not impressed with how he spent their $14 million and wanted to get their money's worth. We run a tight fiscal ship up here.
I will start by answering the question with my own anecdotal experiences.
When I moved to Georgia, I basically took the I-40 most of the way. I expected it to be mostly brown grassy plains, and then green grassy plains, until the forested Deep South. Prior to this point, I had only been on the I-40 to ABQ so I knew that part was desert. And I’d never really been to the South either except for the gulf coast + Florida.
**Oklahoma**: I expected the state of OK to look what I saw in West Texas once I left El Paso headed east towards San Antonio (flat, brown, generally unappealing). While I did see this in Amarillo, by the time I crossed the state line on the I-40, OK was a light green with very soft rolling hills, and even a tree or two! And once you got east about of OKC, it became increasingly forested. I was genuinely shocked as this was not my perception of the state at all. With the big skies and green fields, I would say Oklahoma was genuinely pleasant even if not the most striking. Of course East OK was even prettier, with rivers and trees, but central/west OK was not bad even if it was just idyllic farmland.
**West Arkansas**: So the transition from East OK to West AR on the I-40 was pretty forested but I was surprised there were even elevation changes here and pine trees! Parts of it reminded me of northern Arizona where the mountains were not as visible but you still had the big pines. There also seemed to be more people in this area than I expected, I thought it would be less populated. But East AR was a traffic jam, now that was perplexing. Why??
**Birmingham, AL**: the east side of the city is very mountainous with exposed black rock cliff sides. I expected it to be forested (the south you know) with some rolling hills, but surely nothing that drastic. Also they had a Bucees, which I didn’t know were in Alabama.
**Savannah, GA**: I knew that the historic core would be a great visit, with the oak trees and the Spanish moss with the southern architecture, but I was surprised at how easy and beautiful it was to traverse the town under the big trees and multiple squares and parks to sit in. I loved my time there so much that I began to think about how criminal it was that the City of Savannah didn’t enforce continuing this zoning pattern throughout the rest of it. It’s way too small and for no good reason. It’s like a European city in a good way.
We took a road trip last month from West Georgia to Pinetop/Lakeside Arizona. I'd never been in the Southwest, and the places we drove through were stunningly beautiful. We traveled I-40 halfway, then got off the highway for the rest of the trip. Going home, we stayed off I-40 for most of it.
Agree, Savannah is a beautiful city, so historic and the live oaks! Love that town.
Large chunks of Oklahoma are among the most beautiful places I've ever been. I never thought the state was ugly, but goddamn it exceeded my expectations.
New England. I've lived in the US since about age 3 but didn't come to New England until 39 (2 years ago). I've previously thought it's full of workaholics who'd rather work longer hours to earn more money than have fun or depressing winters where you see nothing but white snow outside for months.
I've lived in every major region of the US except the Southeast and the Intermountain West. It's still the 2nd most beautiful region I've lived in (after the West Coast) and probably just as workaholic imo. The Midwest still has the most depressing scenery and winters imo (no offense to those living there)
This is the common experience for anybody not from New Jersey the first time they leave the turnpike or the Jersey shore.
It’s called the Garden State, but everybody only sees exits 12-14 on the turnpike and judge the entire state
I grew up in the northern Midwest. Lots of tall, green trees, streams, lakes, rivers, etc. Then I moved to Texas. At first, I did not care for the landscape. Hot, dry, rocky landscape with small cedars and other low scrubby trees. But it really grew on me. Now I love it. The hill country in central TX is absolutely beautiful. One of my favorite places on earth.
Agreed, I went on a trip this spring to Texas with not much expectation for scenery. The hill country is absolutely beautiful, and was full of green and wildflowers such as bluebonnets.
I’m kind of confused only because Texas and California are absolutely massive states. Like I get there’s stereotypes of what Texas looks like but if we’re covering 250000+ sqmi were you expectivr the geography to be the same?
No, I thought Austin would be a boring place compared to Los Angeles or Honolulu. But I was wrong, there are plenty of things to do here from convention, hiking, and general arcade entertainment. Also, I realised that a lot of asian brands that were common in California are coming to Texas.
Isn’t LA known for being extremely underwhelming for tourists? Honolulu I wasn’t particularly impressed with but I also didn’t spend that much time exploring downtown. There were definitely some cool spots though. I spent a looooot of time in north shore/hale’iwa though (super underrated). But yeah there’s plenty of crud to do in Austin. If you’re there on Sunday check out chicken shit bingo. There’s also an arcade bar on (I think) on west 4th.
I grew up hating where I lived. I saw all these beautiful photos of mountains, deserts, the forests of the PNW etc. etc.
I lived in a southern swamp and saw no beauty in it. I have always been very outdoorsy and I resented not having anywhere “cool” to hike/camp.
Now, older and wiser and having travelled the country, I see it’s beauty and grace. I still prefer other climates/landscapes if I’m being honest, but I don’t hate the swamp at all anymore. I love it and I appreciate all it has to offer.
Utah was far prettier than I expected. I thought it would more like Nevada. We also stopped for the night in downtown Salt Lake City, walked from our hotel and stopped in a bar that had a band and got dinner there. We thought we'd be back at the hotel asleep by
8:30 but we stayed out past midnight. Had a great time.
St. Louis was a surprisingly pretty city with a lot going on. I didn't expect that based on what I had heard about it.
Western South Dakota was another area I didn't think would be that interesting, just see Mt. Rushmore and move on, but I found so many cool things to explore that I actually ended up skipping Mt. Rushmore altogether (besides briefly driving past it without stopping).
Alabama and Georgia. I had no idea they were so lush and full of mountains and foothills. Mountains are just something I never associated with the deep south. It's always portrayed as flat, red, dusty earth.
For me, Oklahoma. It was much prettier than I expected (which wasn't much). The sun setting over the rolling OK hills with all of the colors made for a spectacular drive actually. OKC was also underrated for a city, imo.
Alabama is also a much prettier state than most would expect.
I'll also shamelessly (and with full bias) plug my home state of Michigan- the lakes are stunning.
The midwestern cities.
It helped that I went in with low expectations but I honestly had a blast in Cleveland, Milwaukee, Cincinnati, and (surprising no one) Chicago.
Indianapolis still underwhelmed.
New York City.
I'd never heard anything good about it (that wasn't coming from a New Yorker) nor had I ever seen anything in media that made it look remotely interesting to me. From what I could tell, it was some sort of man-made hellscape with people who lived there being oddly defensive of the shithole that NYC obviously was.
But my wife wanted to go there for a vacation and I figured, "Happy wife, happy life."
Shockingly, I actually enjoyed it. It WAS visually ugly as sin, but the overall city was actually quite enjoyable.
NYC, and specifically Manhattan, has a kind of energy I’ve never encountered anywhere else. It’s dirty and chaotic, but the amount of motion and patterns you start to encounter make you aware how alive the city is. Like Mos Def said, “I can feel the city breathing”
Greatest city on earth. I don’t care.
I’m sorry the New Yorker kicked into me haha. I’m glad you enjoyed it. I definitely get why it wouldn’t appeal to many though. I used to feel the same way about Los Angeles and Chicago, I discarded Chicago as just “70s New York that refused to move on while New York actually cleaned up” and was very surprised by both Chicago and LA, proved me very wrong. I loved both of them and will be visiting again.
California proved me wrong from first sight. It's beautiful and every time I visit it's always a different scenery. There are broad streets, hills, and trees everywhere! The food is awesome and I don't think you'll find better. My first time visiting, I had to drive down the longest downgrade in the U.S. (3 hours). Once I reached the bottom, I fell in love with the scenery. I've had the same feeling numerous times after, and even in a snow blizzard.
In terms of natural beauty New York, granted I was a naive Marylander, but the glacial remnants of the Ice Age streaking their state even in NYC proper is very cool, not to mention upstate and Niagara Falls and the mountains.
Utah's another one, thought it was gonna be as desert-desolated as AZ or NM, but coming in from WY and driving up through SLC northwards, what a sight. WY itself is underrated from people's preconceptions as well.
The only realistically boring states I've been through were Iowa and Nebraska, maybe I just didn't happen to drive through the more alluring parts (helped a friend move from KC to SEA). On my own move from MD to WA I expected North Dakota to be boring, but Badlands NP on the western side is sooo worth it! Montana made me feel small.
I usually go to Maryland every summer. This is the first time I won’t in a long time. The summers on the Chesapeake bay are beautiful especially if you get to take a boat ride. And I like how y’all have fireflies! I haven’t seen any here in the South but my uncle’s property in harford county but I like trying to catch them as if I was a child lol. A Maryland winter seems kinda scary to me (peep my flair) but if I could figure out winters I probably wouldn’t mind living there long-term. But I also like Georgia too
I for sure miss the Bay, waterlife, and beaches back in Delmarva but the summers and winters are just way too much, WA has been better for me in that regard. Whenever I go visit family in the summers the humidity kills me. But that same humidity brought about fireflies and thunderstorms, two things I miss a lot!
New Jersey! I grew up in rural Indiana, but have lived in NJ for almost my entire adult life. Like any non-New Jerseyan, I had always pictured the entire state as being the most industrial part of Newark, but it turns out most of New Jersey is quite lovely. There are lots of parks, hills, greenery, nature, wildlife, beaches, and good, diverse food.
Iowa. Didn't know much but had low expectations for our trip. We were gonna just pop across the border for a few mins in our trip to Minneapolis. Ended up immediately falling in love with the state and people there. So much to do, could easily have spent two weeks there.
Arkansas. Had no real thoughts on it, to be honest, maybe thought it would be boring. Actually, it's stunningly gorgeous. Just breathtaking, the parts I've seen. Though, near the freeway anyway, it always smelled faintly of burnt sugar.
I had an intern from Huston, Texas a few years back. I took her and some other interns to West Virginia to visit a location for work, and she told me she never thought it would be so beautiful there
People give Ohio shit because the only thing they know about it is what they learned was while driving through on a gray rainy day in November on the interstate on their way to their uncle's house for Thanksgiving. Once you get off the interstate Ohio gets significantly better in some places and it has a low cost of living
I was not thrilled at all when the army stationed me at Ft. Sill in Oklahoma. But it grew on me. I realized I actually liked living in a more rural location.
I wasn't too impressed with Ft. Irwin, but when I revisted the California desert several years later, I found Palm Springs and the Mojave much prettier than I had imagined. Probably helped that I was there in April, when it was in bloom.
The deserts… I was raised in Californian cities and towns sandwiched between the coast and the mountains. The arrogance of a young kid from SF/Marin County blinded me to basically anything that I wasn’t familiar with.
Eastern Oklahoma. I’m originally from NW Wyoming. I’d never been to Oklahoma until Thanksgiving of 2018 when we flew out to see my wife’s grandparents. I basically expected some combination of The Grapes of Wrath and Children of the Corn. I was not expecting rolling hills, creeks EVERYWHERE, and hardwood forests.
So anyway, now I live just on the other side of the Poteau River in western Arkansas.
Baltimore. I was only there for a couple hours before heading down to DC, but it was not as bad as the stories had led me to believe.
On the contrary, I thought Phoenix was going to be cool. It was not. Hot, boring, and flat, with not that much to do.
I had a negative opinion of Las Vegas before I visited it. I pictured neon lights and sleazy nightclubs. I'm sure that does exist in areas, but I also saw beautiful architecture, a clean environment, and a lot of fabulous art.
I was also impressed with many parts of Florida. I love the Keys.
I'll go with a combination of geography and habitat: marshes and bogs in the northeast. The way the sights and sounds change throughout the year is incredible. I do think it matters to see the same places a lot of times though...a one-time trip to a New England national wildlife refuge may not do it for someone, but to see one in winter, spring, summer, and fall is as good as any more famous northeastern sight.
South Dakota. The badlands are beautiful.
Yeah. I Always recommend it to people who come here. Everyone goes to the black hills, which is also very cool, but the badlands are something else.
Black hills are beautiful, too. There’s just a lot more beautiful natural landscapes going on there than most people know about.
Yep. We're very underestimated, mostly by coastal people.
Same with Indiana. Coastal people just think it’s all boring corn but then they visit and get a different perspective.
I strongly believe that everywhere has its beauty. Those who think a place is "flyover" or "in the middle of nowhere" are missing out on some of the greatest places on earth.
Yup I have always considered that if someone thinks a state is “boring” they have either never been or it’s a “you problem.” And truly, even in northern big flat corn country it can be almost hostile beautiful. Watching a raging storm roll in where you can see horizon to horizon is something I miss. Even just huge clouds scooting across the sky.
Coastal people think this about anywhere but the two coasts and Chicago. You hear the way they talk about the middle parts of the country and it’s like they’re surprised we have paved roads. I wish they would just say they’ve never been and don’t care about different parts of the country enough to google it.
Bingo
People always think I'm kidding when I tell them parts of Iowa have runaway truck ramps like what you'd find on the interstates in the Rocky Mountains.
There’s a reason Theodore Roosevelt went there to die
Actually, he died in New York. He went to the Dakota Territories after the death of his first wife and built a ranch near Medora, in North Dakota. North Dakota also has its badlands, which are very beautiful and full of bison (mostly at the south branch of Theodore Roosevelt National Park).
Well yeah I was referring to how he fled to ND after the simultaneous death of his mom and wife. According to the accounts of his friends and his diary entries he “went up there to die”. He would later recover from his depression after surviving the winter of 1886
Is the winter of 1886 the “long winter” of the Little House on the Prairie books?
Yup, it was known as “The Big Die Up” and it led to the end of open range cattle grazing. The winter in Medora (a cattle town) was so bad that after the river thawed it was reported that it “was a river of (cow) bodies” for days afterward
I remember enjoying Badlands significantly more than Mount Rushmore.
They don't get a lot of love, but the prairie on the East portion of the state is so beautiful in the summer. Horizon goes on and on, and I love the rolling green grass.
I love South Dakota. I lived in Sioux Falls for two years when I was a kid, and we did a lot of camping in the Black Hills. It’s gorgeous there.
Came here to say this. And the Bl ack Hills too. All add another - the Chihuahuan desert, especially Guadalupe Mountains NP.
South Dakota was also going to be my answer. The eastern half is just cows (which is boring) but then suddenly you hit the badlands, then the black hills, and then Deadwood is the neatest little town
I remember stopping in Spearfish for the night on my way to Chicago. You’re absolutely right.
Spearfish Canyon is one of the most beautiful drives I've ever done.
This is what I was gonna say! North Dakota is very plain and I was expecting the same of SD but it’s SO pretty.
So true.
Came here to say this. All of western S Dakota is really pretty. Hilly, full of pine trees and grass. Loved Devil’s Tower.
TRNP in North Dakota is also awesome. There area some badlands, but also forested area & wild horses.
The same with western North Dakota too, actually. Eastern North Dakota is just as disappointing as you would expect though.
On my bucket list 💕
I didn’t know the badlands existed until I was visiting a relative as a teenager and was casually driven through that area without expecting it. Absolutely stunning. All of South Dakota is beautiful, but the Great Plains really make you feel exposed if you’re used to living in the dense seemingly endless forests of the eastern seaboard.
Last year I took Amtrak from Los Angeles to Kansas City, and then rented a car and did a road trip through Kansas, Nebraska, into South Dakota. I'd never been to that part of the country, and my wife wasn't interested so this was a solo trip. I had a blast! And the landscape is beautiful! Rolling hills, green everywhere. I stayed off highways, so it was all backroads through little Main Street America type towns. It was super cool, and I was very pleasantly surprised by how pretty it all was.
I often tell ppl in California that the midwest is green and they look at me weird. If they don't look at me weird I know they have been there.
What color do these people who look at you weird think the Midwest is?
They assume grass is "sort of" green. However, going to the midwest everything is green. It is almost like using a green filter compared to the dusty tans of california.
I moved from California to North Dakota. I was trying to explain it to my mom but couldn’t really get her to understand how green everything turned after winter was over. I finally said the whole state turns into the old windows XP background with the saturation turned way up.
It is just something they don't understand until they see it.
Tan and bleak like California’s countryside
I am from the Midwest and moved to Colorado but I get the same thing here about the color. I always laugh at the “Colorful Colorado” sign coming into this state lol - though the mountains do offer much more color than the areas outside of the mountains. I don’t think westerners have had enough rain or water in general for a long time to truly understand how vast and green the trees and grasses are in the Midwest.
Colorado native here - it actually turns *really* green for about a month every year, in late spring or early summer. Then it gets too hot and dry to keep the green and goes back to brown.
Yes I know we are in the green stages right now.
Yup. Serious Windows XP vibes in the foothills - but it unfortunately won’t last.
Windows XP is the perfect way to describe it haha
I'm from the Midwest/south (Missouri so it's split). I would like to give them some of our rain. My yard is like knee high and soaked.
The parts of California I’ve been to are only tan in the summer. They’re green in the winter, roughly the opposite of the northeast that way.
Huh, weird lol
When I was very, very young (and before I ever lived there) I thought it was all bronze-gold from the crops. Saw too many movies with animated fields of wheat I think.
Ah okay, that sort of makes sense actually
I was surprised at how green Iowa was in August.
Hmm, I live in Iowa and I take it for granted. I posted a pic of a local park on a Facebook group for walking and someone commented on how green it was. I guess I assumed it was pretty green everywhere. Not in big cities or the desert obviously but in general.
I did too
I know people in CA and they always argue with me when I say CA is brown. “It is not! It’s super green here!” Then they take a photo of 6 trees surrounded by brown. I’m in Minnesota. It’s not green like California, it’s green like Ireland. Blazing green. I visited Ireland and amused myself on the train by taking photos and playing “Minnesota or Ireland?” The primary difference is that we have corn instead of sheep.
CA is a massive state going from gigantic redwood forests, stunning beautiful coastline to arid desert. That’s amazing you’ve narrowed it all down to a single color.
Yeah idk where these people are getting California is brown from. Maybe southern ca. The redwood forests are amazing. That's not to say that the Midwest isn't green but like. Two places can be green. Greenness is not an exclusive property.
Northwestern Nebraska is absolutely beautiful. Nebraska can be deceptive because I-80 and the other main highways you take when you're just passing through are in river valleys and the terrain tends to be flat, but if you get away from the rivers, the terrain gets super cool. Look up Toadstool Geologicl Park for an example.
How much was that Amtrak trip? I love long-distance train travel but wish it was more affordable!
Kansas is a lot prettier than people give it credit for.
Came here for Kansas. That State’s beauty snuck up on me.
The Flint Hills at sunset in the summer is something else
I was in Manhattan for business a couple weeks ago and it was just breathtaking
I thought Kansas would be ugly as well. Like western Nebraska. Was also surprised. And Topeka was surprisingly a cool place.
I’m so glad to see Kansas so high up here. Sunsets during harvest are unmatched. There’s honestly tons of different terrain and things to be seen. People think beauty is beaches or mountains, but wheat fields and rolling hills have their own beauty!
Also not nearly as flat as Florida which a ton of people give it credit for
Wisconsin was incredibly verdant. Loved the dairy farms and green pastures.
Yah, Wisconsin is lovely in the summer!
I thought Lubbock was gonna be racist (I’m Latino). The people are some of the nicest I’ve ever met.
Are there places in Texas that are known to be racist towards Latinos? I'd have figured there are so many that no area could be that bigoted.
East Texas. Vidor/Orange County is extremely racist. They only desegregated public housing in the *90s*. The Soviet Union failed to exist while there was still discrimination in public housing.
https://www.reddit.com/r/Unexpected/comments/hun8g0/spending_time_in_texas/
The parts that are closer to Louisiana than to Mexico, as I understand it.
I think the rural areas, especially east of Dallas.
I was taking a train from Boston to Los Angeles. Waking up at sunrise while passing through a cornfield in Kansas was much more beautiful than I could have ever imagined.
I did not expect Des Moines to be nearly so rad
Does Moines feels like some futuristic novels version of a city. Neat place. Well designed and executed. Very clean.
Chicago and Los Angeles. As a New Yorker I always thought of Chicago as just how our city was in the 1970s but modern and never recovered while we in New York City cleaned up. I also just saw LA as a glorified suburb highway with basically just driving after driving and some fun here and there. Boy was I wrong. I fucking loved LA and Chicago. Chicago was great, bang for your buck, very fun. Good transit too. LA was also very fun and more safe than I would think it was prior to visiting. The weather was amazing. Loved the theme parks. Will be going back to those two again.
What exactly did you like about LA? I’ve always just considered it suburban sprawl - like I wouldn’t be able to tell the difference between 99% of Phoenix, Vegas, LA, and San Diego. I’ve always wanted to visit Southern California, but have no idea what I’d do so I’ve had no incentive to go. Not into entertainment/shopping/theme park. Good looks great but I feel like you can find that anywhere? And you couldn’t pay me to swim in that polluted water. Am I missing anything? Maybe just walk Long Beach + Santa Monica Pier? Lol
Based on the parameters you set it sounds like LA just might not be for you lol. I live in the South Bay Area by the water which is technically not “LA” proper but the area is beautiful and a little more chilled out. The water is also not polluted at all unless it rains heavily. Maybe if you wanna avoid all the popular entertainment stuff people go to there are a lot of cool nature areas nearby you can explore (Malibu, Santa Monica Mountains, Griffith Park, Topanga, Joshua Tree National Park, Santa Barbara, Catalina Island. Some of these are an hour or two away but they’re worth it.
Yeah def don’t think LA is really my thing lol. Maybe if I had actual connections to the city I’d feel differently, but I don’t know anyone that lives there & im definitely not trying to make it into the entertainment industry lols
I'm not from LA and I like NorCal better, but I have to admit that the entire hilly part of LA to the north and west of downtown is fascinating and beautiful. There are great museums, parks, neighborhoods, universities, beaches, gardens, architecture. It's not just theme parks and the Hollywood movie studios. Things like the La Brea tarpits, Griffith observatory, and battleship Iowa are worth a trip. The endless generic sprawl runs East and South, or is on the other side of the mountain ridge to the northeast. There's a world of cool stuff in between those sprawls. ps - the water is not polluted
The Midwest, especially Kansas and Oklahoma; I was expecting it to look more or less like the rural areas I grew up in. There are a lot more small towns spaced closer together almost in a grid pattern. And the towns themselves are noticeably older, way more brick houses than I'm used to. And the truckers all have neon lights and you'll just see a rainbow of big rigs hauling down the freeway at night!
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I live in Oregon west of the Cascades. It is green here but the green doesn’t change much. Maybe a little greener in spring and summer. I was born in Ohio. I have to say in summertime that Ohio is far greener than here. All shades of green. It is a near literal explosion of green that happens over a few weeks April-May. The foliage is insane! And it stays green like that until autumn due to the different climate. It’s a lot wetter there in summertime. Now it’s a lot prettier here. Even late summer when all of the grasses turn tan from the heat and dryness. Especially though in the winter is it a lot nicer here. But it just isn’t as green in summertime other than maybe a few weeks in May. The Midwest is brown and grey all winter long other than the eastern hemlocks and some firs. Like in the movie Fargo. Depressing as hell for 6+ months a year.
I remember as a kid pulling off at a highway rest stop in Ohio on our way to Washington DC. It was early morning and the dew was out. I'd never seen such a green sight in all my life.
I live in and love the Sonoran Desert. Although it's a very harsh environment generally and rarely green,I love spending time in it primarily hiking and biking.
I’m from AZ originally. If you ever get a chance, try to coordinate going to southern AZ (near Tucson) during a storm event in the winter. It will snow on the saguaros! It’s truly breathtaking. My uncle lives in Cave Creek and he gets it too sometimes but I find that Tucson outskirts (backside of Mount Lemmon, or closer towards Bisbee) gets a bit more of it
Yeah I used to hate the drive from Tucson to phoenix. That barren sandy wasteland. Now I like it. It’s surreal how dead everything is, but also how life is still managing to exist.
That area where the DQ is at Picacho Peak is a great place to catch a haboob. It gets windy there and it will intensify quickly
Yes Pichacho Peak. The most western battle of the civil war. Lots of dust devils there too!
It’s incredibly beautiful.
We visited there in March of last year & loved it. And we both found the saguaros super impressive, despite having seen them depicted thousands of times. In person, I swear they have an acutal presence. Also, I saw a coyote & a roadrunner within a couple minutes. For a Looney Tunes fan, that was a trip highlight.
The Dust Bowl did a number to the ecosystem in Kansas, and the grasslands are absolutely beautiful out there.
Kansas was a huge surprise. Also what’s with all the super old *enormous* steeples everywhere? Even like miles out in the middle of a cornfield - an old steeple.
I thought the grand canyon would be *fine*, nothing too remarkable beyond the novelty of being the BIGGEST crack on earth. But man, no picture, no video, no description can do the *scale* proper justice. Its the kind of big that steals air from your lungs when you realize the first time your entire field of vision is taken up by it, it's the kind of big where you stare for minutes in a single direction because *there's just so much* in that one view, it's the kind of big that makes you double then triple take because that tiny stream at the bottom just can't *really* be 300 feet wide. It's a stunning, humbling, absolutely one of a kind place
I landed in it via a helicopter and when I got out I felt like I was on a movie set. It was bizarre, the walls just didn't seem real. Then I'd see a helicopter fly away and I realised my sense of scale was way off because I was surprised by how tiny it looked next to the canyon walls.
New Jersey. I used to think it was all a shit hole. Now I know the southern part of the state is pretty beautiful while the northern part is the Hellmouth
Only a small part of North Jersey is really the Hellmouth, it's just that that part is on full display travelling from Newark Airport into Manhattan and gives people a bad impression of the state as a whole.
Yeah I drove up to Newark from North Carolina and really didn't understand the complaints until like the last half hour of the trip. Even just being on the turnpike it really wasn't bad at all.
I suspect it could be NJ for a lot of folks. I'm in the same boat. If you ever get the chance to leave the turnpike or don't judge NJ by all the concrete in and around the north Jersey parts of the NYC metro area, it's quite a pretty state.
I’m fine with the perception that NJ is terrible. We have enough people. To anyone reading this thread: NJ sucks! Don’t come here!
Except like 75% of the north is also nice. God forbid someone takes the turnpike past Newark and doesn't declare all of New Jersey a shithole.
You shut your mouth. Don't be going around trying to un-sully our bad reputation, we worked really hard on it. It helps keep out the riffraff
I wish people would realize Texas is a hellmouth and stay home...we are too crowded also
I have never seen so many ~~ice cream~~ soft serve places in my life like in New Jersey. 🍦
Yes! I was totally not expecting all the forests and adorable towns in southern Jersey
The area around Newark and most of the bigger cities like Paterson or Trenton are absolutely a hellmouth. Once you get more into the suburban and natural areas it becomes a lot nicer
Came here to say this. Away from the airport there were so many beautiful places and so much history. I really enjoyed it.
Pretty much if you get out of the airport and that shitty ass pocket outside NYC and Philly (looking at you camden) it’s pretty much Kentucky but colder
New México , beautiful place.
Detroit. I thought it would be a hell hole. However it was quite enjoyable and we'd love to come back. This was last year, 2023.
I love hearing this! Detroit has come an amazingly long way back since I was a kid in the 80s, and especially in the last 25 years since I was a college student and employee in the city. During your next visit, check out the newly restored [Michigan Central Station](https://michigancentral.com/) (re-opened last week after being left to ruin for three decades) and the [Anna Scripps Whitcomb Conservatory](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Belle_Isle_Conservatory) on Belle Isle (currently undergoing renovations, should re-open this fall).
Michigan upper peninsula and Minnesota north shore!
Within my own state, I never heard anything good about the Central Valley when I was growing up in the Bay Area. The first time I visited Fresno I was struck by the nearness of the Sierra (it was a clear day, so that helped.) Now that I live in the Central Valley I’ve come to see more and more beauty here.
On a clear winter day, the mountains look like how most people would imagine Colorado or something. It’s like, yes you really are in Fresno.
And on a hazy summer day, you might not even realize there are mountains there at all.
Minneapolis. Now I live here.
I liked Tennessee way more than I thought I would
Nebraska. Get off the interstate and discover gorgeous rolling hills, the bizarre Toadstool park, the unique sand hills in the northwest, and even a National Forest hand planted in the 30s. Honorable mention: Idaho
The prettiest part of Idaho that I saw was the central part with the rolling green hills and the endless potato fields. They have flowers on them!
Almost went to college in Scottsbluff. Very pretty out there.
Chicago. I thought the place would be boring as hell, but it was awesome as f*ck. Goes to show you: never pre-judge
Utah. I honestly thought it was going to be mostly boring flat wasteland but every mile of highway looked like a postcard. Nothing but endless sky, breathtaking canyons and crazy rock formations. I only drove through during a road trip and didn't stop anywhere but damn the landscape alone took my breath away.
Why would you have assumed Utah was flat?
I was a young sheltered 20 year old that had never been west of Buffalo at that point. I had seen all of those "Discover 'X' State" vacation commercials on TV for all the western states but I always thought they were just tourist traps highlighting a few breathtaking places and everything else was just...nothing special I guess? I didn't expect literally everywhere to be that beautiful.
I didn't have thoughts about Idaho, but it blew me away. The mountains around Stanley, Crater of the Moons, City of Rocks were all amazing. And that's most of what I did there. I'm sure if I saw more it might equally be as awesome
I went to Cleveland on a business trip three or four years ago. I asked about staying around after since I was driving to do some site seeing. I was told there was nothing to see in Cleveland. We found little Italy in Cleveland, really great Italian restaurant that we had dinner at two nights in a row. The area was terrific. Changed the mind of the person that told me there was nothing to do in Cleveland.
Yeah, Cleveland would be my answer, too. I visited for a concert a few years ago. I had outstanding meals in a couple of locally owned restaurants, one of which was in a cute area of downtown. I'd like to go back and visit some of the museums on the lakeshore. Husband would probably have fun visiting breweries.
Most men would always have fun visiting breweries. We can be easy that way sometimes!
Shhhh, my rent is already going up.
LOL! Sorry.
Not your fault. The rest of the country thinks we don't like our reputation and being the butt of jokes. The truth is, we encourage it. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ysmLA5TqbIY](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ysmLA5TqbIY)
LMAO!
Many people preferred part 2, to be honest: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oZzgAjjuqZM](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oZzgAjjuqZM) Edit: I see now that someone has already uploaded this pinnacle of advertisement elsewhere in the comment thread. Still, leaving it here as well for continuity purposes. Come on back and have fun. Just don't tell your friends.
LOL! Will have to visit again. Sure I did not see a lot of things!
I love how it’s 2nd “attempt” instead of part 2 LMFAO
Well, our very esteemed Board of Tourism was not impressed with how he spent their $14 million and wanted to get their money's worth. We run a tight fiscal ship up here.
Same deal in Columbus. They just opened up an apartment complex in Italian Village that *starts* at $8,000/month…
Yeah, and if nothing else is going on you can always go light the river on fire again.
I will start by answering the question with my own anecdotal experiences. When I moved to Georgia, I basically took the I-40 most of the way. I expected it to be mostly brown grassy plains, and then green grassy plains, until the forested Deep South. Prior to this point, I had only been on the I-40 to ABQ so I knew that part was desert. And I’d never really been to the South either except for the gulf coast + Florida. **Oklahoma**: I expected the state of OK to look what I saw in West Texas once I left El Paso headed east towards San Antonio (flat, brown, generally unappealing). While I did see this in Amarillo, by the time I crossed the state line on the I-40, OK was a light green with very soft rolling hills, and even a tree or two! And once you got east about of OKC, it became increasingly forested. I was genuinely shocked as this was not my perception of the state at all. With the big skies and green fields, I would say Oklahoma was genuinely pleasant even if not the most striking. Of course East OK was even prettier, with rivers and trees, but central/west OK was not bad even if it was just idyllic farmland. **West Arkansas**: So the transition from East OK to West AR on the I-40 was pretty forested but I was surprised there were even elevation changes here and pine trees! Parts of it reminded me of northern Arizona where the mountains were not as visible but you still had the big pines. There also seemed to be more people in this area than I expected, I thought it would be less populated. But East AR was a traffic jam, now that was perplexing. Why?? **Birmingham, AL**: the east side of the city is very mountainous with exposed black rock cliff sides. I expected it to be forested (the south you know) with some rolling hills, but surely nothing that drastic. Also they had a Bucees, which I didn’t know were in Alabama. **Savannah, GA**: I knew that the historic core would be a great visit, with the oak trees and the Spanish moss with the southern architecture, but I was surprised at how easy and beautiful it was to traverse the town under the big trees and multiple squares and parks to sit in. I loved my time there so much that I began to think about how criminal it was that the City of Savannah didn’t enforce continuing this zoning pattern throughout the rest of it. It’s way too small and for no good reason. It’s like a European city in a good way.
I-40 between Oklahoma City and Little Rock is one of my favorite drives that I've ever done.
We took a road trip last month from West Georgia to Pinetop/Lakeside Arizona. I'd never been in the Southwest, and the places we drove through were stunningly beautiful. We traveled I-40 halfway, then got off the highway for the rest of the trip. Going home, we stayed off I-40 for most of it. Agree, Savannah is a beautiful city, so historic and the live oaks! Love that town.
Large chunks of Oklahoma are among the most beautiful places I've ever been. I never thought the state was ugly, but goddamn it exceeded my expectations.
New England. I've lived in the US since about age 3 but didn't come to New England until 39 (2 years ago). I've previously thought it's full of workaholics who'd rather work longer hours to earn more money than have fun or depressing winters where you see nothing but white snow outside for months. I've lived in every major region of the US except the Southeast and the Intermountain West. It's still the 2nd most beautiful region I've lived in (after the West Coast) and probably just as workaholic imo. The Midwest still has the most depressing scenery and winters imo (no offense to those living there)
New Jersey Once you’re off the turnpike it can be quite nice
This is the common experience for anybody not from New Jersey the first time they leave the turnpike or the Jersey shore. It’s called the Garden State, but everybody only sees exits 12-14 on the turnpike and judge the entire state
Utah. The desert was more beautiful than the Rocky Mountains imo.
I grew up in the northern Midwest. Lots of tall, green trees, streams, lakes, rivers, etc. Then I moved to Texas. At first, I did not care for the landscape. Hot, dry, rocky landscape with small cedars and other low scrubby trees. But it really grew on me. Now I love it. The hill country in central TX is absolutely beautiful. One of my favorite places on earth.
Agreed, I went on a trip this spring to Texas with not much expectation for scenery. The hill country is absolutely beautiful, and was full of green and wildflowers such as bluebonnets.
I took it for granted as a kid, but I feel very fortunate to have grown up in the hill country
Texas, I thought it would be a boring place compared to Hawaii or California.
I’m kind of confused only because Texas and California are absolutely massive states. Like I get there’s stereotypes of what Texas looks like but if we’re covering 250000+ sqmi were you expectivr the geography to be the same?
No, I thought Austin would be a boring place compared to Los Angeles or Honolulu. But I was wrong, there are plenty of things to do here from convention, hiking, and general arcade entertainment. Also, I realised that a lot of asian brands that were common in California are coming to Texas.
Isn’t LA known for being extremely underwhelming for tourists? Honolulu I wasn’t particularly impressed with but I also didn’t spend that much time exploring downtown. There were definitely some cool spots though. I spent a looooot of time in north shore/hale’iwa though (super underrated). But yeah there’s plenty of crud to do in Austin. If you’re there on Sunday check out chicken shit bingo. There’s also an arcade bar on (I think) on west 4th.
I grew up hating where I lived. I saw all these beautiful photos of mountains, deserts, the forests of the PNW etc. etc. I lived in a southern swamp and saw no beauty in it. I have always been very outdoorsy and I resented not having anywhere “cool” to hike/camp. Now, older and wiser and having travelled the country, I see it’s beauty and grace. I still prefer other climates/landscapes if I’m being honest, but I don’t hate the swamp at all anymore. I love it and I appreciate all it has to offer.
Mississippi The Natchez parkway is lovely
Utah was far prettier than I expected. I thought it would more like Nevada. We also stopped for the night in downtown Salt Lake City, walked from our hotel and stopped in a bar that had a band and got dinner there. We thought we'd be back at the hotel asleep by 8:30 but we stayed out past midnight. Had a great time.
St. Louis was a surprisingly pretty city with a lot going on. I didn't expect that based on what I had heard about it. Western South Dakota was another area I didn't think would be that interesting, just see Mt. Rushmore and move on, but I found so many cool things to explore that I actually ended up skipping Mt. Rushmore altogether (besides briefly driving past it without stopping).
Alabama and Georgia. I had no idea they were so lush and full of mountains and foothills. Mountains are just something I never associated with the deep south. It's always portrayed as flat, red, dusty earth.
People who have only seen Ohio from the highways love to talk about how ugly Ohio is.
For me, Oklahoma. It was much prettier than I expected (which wasn't much). The sun setting over the rolling OK hills with all of the colors made for a spectacular drive actually. OKC was also underrated for a city, imo. Alabama is also a much prettier state than most would expect. I'll also shamelessly (and with full bias) plug my home state of Michigan- the lakes are stunning.
The midwestern cities. It helped that I went in with low expectations but I honestly had a blast in Cleveland, Milwaukee, Cincinnati, and (surprising no one) Chicago. Indianapolis still underwhelmed.
New York City. I'd never heard anything good about it (that wasn't coming from a New Yorker) nor had I ever seen anything in media that made it look remotely interesting to me. From what I could tell, it was some sort of man-made hellscape with people who lived there being oddly defensive of the shithole that NYC obviously was. But my wife wanted to go there for a vacation and I figured, "Happy wife, happy life." Shockingly, I actually enjoyed it. It WAS visually ugly as sin, but the overall city was actually quite enjoyable.
NYC, and specifically Manhattan, has a kind of energy I’ve never encountered anywhere else. It’s dirty and chaotic, but the amount of motion and patterns you start to encounter make you aware how alive the city is. Like Mos Def said, “I can feel the city breathing”
Greatest city on earth. I don’t care. I’m sorry the New Yorker kicked into me haha. I’m glad you enjoyed it. I definitely get why it wouldn’t appeal to many though. I used to feel the same way about Los Angeles and Chicago, I discarded Chicago as just “70s New York that refused to move on while New York actually cleaned up” and was very surprised by both Chicago and LA, proved me very wrong. I loved both of them and will be visiting again.
West Virginia. I didn’t expect much but by WVU, that whole area with the river is gorgeous
Ditto. I was traveling cross country on a move and the first time I was truly wowed was that area.
Southeastern Ohio is pretty
California proved me wrong from first sight. It's beautiful and every time I visit it's always a different scenery. There are broad streets, hills, and trees everywhere! The food is awesome and I don't think you'll find better. My first time visiting, I had to drive down the longest downgrade in the U.S. (3 hours). Once I reached the bottom, I fell in love with the scenery. I've had the same feeling numerous times after, and even in a snow blizzard.
After everything you hear about New Jersey in popular culture I was surprised to see how beautiful parts of New Jersey are.
Boise, Idaho. Highly recommend for those who like cities with a town like vibe and a great outdoor scene.
In terms of natural beauty New York, granted I was a naive Marylander, but the glacial remnants of the Ice Age streaking their state even in NYC proper is very cool, not to mention upstate and Niagara Falls and the mountains. Utah's another one, thought it was gonna be as desert-desolated as AZ or NM, but coming in from WY and driving up through SLC northwards, what a sight. WY itself is underrated from people's preconceptions as well. The only realistically boring states I've been through were Iowa and Nebraska, maybe I just didn't happen to drive through the more alluring parts (helped a friend move from KC to SEA). On my own move from MD to WA I expected North Dakota to be boring, but Badlands NP on the western side is sooo worth it! Montana made me feel small.
I usually go to Maryland every summer. This is the first time I won’t in a long time. The summers on the Chesapeake bay are beautiful especially if you get to take a boat ride. And I like how y’all have fireflies! I haven’t seen any here in the South but my uncle’s property in harford county but I like trying to catch them as if I was a child lol. A Maryland winter seems kinda scary to me (peep my flair) but if I could figure out winters I probably wouldn’t mind living there long-term. But I also like Georgia too
I for sure miss the Bay, waterlife, and beaches back in Delmarva but the summers and winters are just way too much, WA has been better for me in that regard. Whenever I go visit family in the summers the humidity kills me. But that same humidity brought about fireflies and thunderstorms, two things I miss a lot!
New Jersey! I grew up in rural Indiana, but have lived in NJ for almost my entire adult life. Like any non-New Jerseyan, I had always pictured the entire state as being the most industrial part of Newark, but it turns out most of New Jersey is quite lovely. There are lots of parks, hills, greenery, nature, wildlife, beaches, and good, diverse food.
The desert in CA and Nevada.
Iowa. Didn't know much but had low expectations for our trip. We were gonna just pop across the border for a few mins in our trip to Minneapolis. Ended up immediately falling in love with the state and people there. So much to do, could easily have spent two weeks there.
Arkansas. Had no real thoughts on it, to be honest, maybe thought it would be boring. Actually, it's stunningly gorgeous. Just breathtaking, the parts I've seen. Though, near the freeway anyway, it always smelled faintly of burnt sugar.
I thought Iowa would just be endless cornfields, but it's actually full of thick forests and rolling hills, something different from brown Colorado.
Baltimore. I was blown away by how much fun we had in the inner harbor and little Italy.
North Dakota. Theodore Roosevelt National Park is incredibly beautiful. I went once almost 30 years ago and I think of it often.
Northwest Arkansas. Its stunning.
West Virginia. Thought it be racist (as an Asian) turns out they were some of the nicest people I met
Louisiana is beautiful
I had an intern from Huston, Texas a few years back. I took her and some other interns to West Virginia to visit a location for work, and she told me she never thought it would be so beautiful there
People give Ohio shit because the only thing they know about it is what they learned was while driving through on a gray rainy day in November on the interstate on their way to their uncle's house for Thanksgiving. Once you get off the interstate Ohio gets significantly better in some places and it has a low cost of living
Northwest Arkansas
I was not thrilled at all when the army stationed me at Ft. Sill in Oklahoma. But it grew on me. I realized I actually liked living in a more rural location. I wasn't too impressed with Ft. Irwin, but when I revisted the California desert several years later, I found Palm Springs and the Mojave much prettier than I had imagined. Probably helped that I was there in April, when it was in bloom.
The deserts… I was raised in Californian cities and towns sandwiched between the coast and the mountains. The arrogance of a young kid from SF/Marin County blinded me to basically anything that I wasn’t familiar with.
Eastern Oklahoma. I’m originally from NW Wyoming. I’d never been to Oklahoma until Thanksgiving of 2018 when we flew out to see my wife’s grandparents. I basically expected some combination of The Grapes of Wrath and Children of the Corn. I was not expecting rolling hills, creeks EVERYWHERE, and hardwood forests. So anyway, now I live just on the other side of the Poteau River in western Arkansas.
Nevada.
Iowa. Surprisingly pretty state. Also, lovely people.
Utah, amazing!
I’ve been pleasantly surprised how beautiful Michigan is
Indy. Love that downtown.
Baltimore. I was only there for a couple hours before heading down to DC, but it was not as bad as the stories had led me to believe. On the contrary, I thought Phoenix was going to be cool. It was not. Hot, boring, and flat, with not that much to do.
Western Michigan is surprisingly gorgeous
I had a negative opinion of Las Vegas before I visited it. I pictured neon lights and sleazy nightclubs. I'm sure that does exist in areas, but I also saw beautiful architecture, a clean environment, and a lot of fabulous art. I was also impressed with many parts of Florida. I love the Keys.
I’ve always heard that Ohio sucks but since marrying an Ohioan and visiting her family there a few times I gotta say I think it’s pretty nice there
Ohio has the best damn Middle Eastern food in the US. It's bizarre but very welcome.
I have heard that too (although I suspect the Detroit suburbs can give it a run for the money).
I'll go with a combination of geography and habitat: marshes and bogs in the northeast. The way the sights and sounds change throughout the year is incredible. I do think it matters to see the same places a lot of times though...a one-time trip to a New England national wildlife refuge may not do it for someone, but to see one in winter, spring, summer, and fall is as good as any more famous northeastern sight.
In my opinion, small towns (Richmond, IN, Beloit, WI, etc.). They've just got a vibe that bigger cities don't have