... that you almost feel guilty about not visiting? I've known people from NYC that have never been up the Empire State Building or new World Trade Center, and I lived in Nebraska for three years but never saw Mr. Rushmore nor the Crazy Horse monument, even though it was within 4-5 hours drive. There is a sublime beauty and power to the Great Plains that I miss.
Do you figure you'll visit these places eventually, or do you just not have much interest in them?
We’ve seen all the major sights in NYC, including Grant’s Tomb. But, there are many sights nearby still on our list. Niagara Falls being number one and the baseball hall of fame. Close by is Plimouth Plantation. We were supposed to visit my brother in Dodge City and drive to Mt. Rushmore together but that was during Covid. Hope to do this trip in the summer of 2023. We decided to do our visiting to Europe for a few years since as we age it gets more difficult.
Grand Canyon, which takes less time to drive than my flights to Europe. Lame justification: it seems really hard to plan.
I never hiked Diamond Head until I'd moved away from Hawaii. I still have never been in Iolani Palace (someday)!
I have been to many of the tourist sites in DC and Baltimore. I am working through some of the less busy sites. I want to see it all and will eventually.
Lived in Thailand for 3 years and went to many popular sites, but never the floating market. And I hardly spent time in Chaing Mai, despite is being a big and important city.
Never been to the Rough Rider Bar at the Menger Hotel in San Antonio.
My husband has lived in Paris for more than 20 years and has never been in the Louvre !! 😳😳
The closest National Park to me is Glacier yet I've never been there. I HAVE driven by the cut off on I90 to get there dozens of times on my way to Yellowstone which is hours further on, lol!!
Kim!
@Kim-Wow! Top of my bucket list in the USA is Yellowstone NP! I have never been. And now that we know we are moving from AK in a few years I have an Alaska bucket list!
Pam - Glacier National Park is spectacular. We have not been to Death Valley but have visited all of the other national parks in the west. We live in the high desert. Not sure I want to see more desert. Finally took a trip to Olympic National Park last summer.
I've found that most residents don't visit their own backyard. The cities I've lived in, I took in most of the sights. At least the ones that have interest for me.
I still have to visit 11 of the Lower 48 + DC. I can get New England accomplished in 10 days when I get around to it. Then there are just some individual states
On my road trips, lately I make more stops at those roadside Historical Markers. There are some interesting factoids to be discovered.
OP, you are spot on about the Great Plains. To me, "flyover country" is NYC and Metro areas of SoCal and NOCal.
I am doing better. My brother came to visit a few months ago and we actually acted like tourists in my town. We saw very interesting places I had not seen after living here for 30 years! My Texas list is still long.
And CW, the Grand Canyon only seems hard to plan. The tricky part is getting in park lodging, but that’s just timing.
Pam, I think it’s Glacier next summer for me! Second time’s the charm, I hope, after having to cancel last summer!
@Tammy - I go at least once every year to Yellowstone for a couple of weeks. I'm happy to help you (or anyone else!) plan a trip there. Lodging needs to be booked well ahead. I used to be able to do last minute (like book in April for June) but that is pretty difficult (though not impossible) now. I added on 2 days to the front end of my June trip a month ago and had difficulty finding lodging in the gateway town of Gardiner.
Mary, thanks for the vote for Glacier. The problem is it doesn't have geysers, lol!! I'm a geyser gazer and can sit for hours waiting for something to erupt, lol! I generally spend half my time in the park in the OF area and the other half birding and wildlife watching. TravelMom...fingers crossed! A road trip like before?
*Just will add as a general caveat to anyone wanting to book in park lodging for a National Park. Do some research ahead of time either on the park's official NPS.gov website OR the Trip Advisor forum for that park to determine who the official concessioners are for park lodging. There are a couple of online reservation sites that "look and sound*" official but are not and charge a 10% booking fee plus have terrible cancellation policies.
Not much interest or little interest in seeing these places listed above, Mt Rushmore, Empire State Building, etc in the past. Now not interested at all.
I am interested mainly in going back to Washington, DC to revisit sites and to visit sites I did not see the first time in 2016.
In Peterborough, the Canadian Canoe Museum. I hear it is really well done, and I pass it every time I go to the Home Depot.
In Ottawa, the Terry Fox Memorial statue. I've only been to Ottawa once, and that was on union business so I had no time to see anything. Maybe we'll fit it in this October when in Ottawa for our niece's wedding.
Almost all of the rest of Canada.
I did go to Newfoundland for the first time in 2019, and I rank it as the best holiday ever.
I did not want to come home.
It's actually cheaper and quicker to fly to Europe than to get across to there.
I live in England, and have been to more parts of the British Isles than Nick. Scotland only a few times, and Ireland not at all. Wales has been nearby for 50 years, so that is local. I have no interest in the Changing of the Guard or the Lord Mayor's Parade, whatever that is. There are some attractive towns and villages in the Cotswolds, but a lot of the scenery is dull and there are more interesting landscapes elsewhere. My first visit to Stonehenge was on a school trip in the 1950s, and I have been a few times since. It is an iconic site of great historic significance, but I can understand why some people are left cold, physically, emotionally or both
.
There are lots of castles and old churches and cathedrals, so we visit them sparingly, and often prefer the run-down and neglected rather than the ones which are tarted up to make them film sets. I am always surprised that places like Sezincote are never mentioned by enthusiastic overseas visitors to the Cotswolds. I am not averse to the occasional cream tea, but the expensive piles of delicate sandwiches and cakes that others find attractive do not appeal. Adding Champagne seems to make them worse.
I would like to spend more time in New England. I have spent time in almost every other part of the United States and lived mostly in the West. I have been to Massachusetts, Vermont, New York, New Hampshire, Rhode Island and Connecticut. My wish list would include Maine (It looks so beautiful!) and additional time in the aforementioned states. Pam, Glacier Natl’ Park is spectacular and not overrun with visitors. We lived in Montana a few years and visited every chance we got.
I was born in Paris 30-40 years ago and lived here most of my life...and I have yet to visit the Sainte Chapelle.
The best thing to see in my area: Great Smoky Mountains National Park:
https://en.wikivoyage.org/wiki/Great_Smoky_Mountains_National_Park#Q464004
This is on the Tennessee-North Carolina state line, far to the east of Nashville.
Great places for hiking, camping, birdwatching and just sitting beside a waterfall to meditate.
I've spent a lot of time in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park.
One of the best observation points is the Clingmans Dome Observation Tower, designed by an architect who was one of my father's best friends. Built on a mountaintop in 1959, it is a 45-foot tall concrete observation tower (on a mountain top) with a circular observation platform accessed by a spiral ramp. The platform allows visitors a 360-degree panorama of the surrounding mountains. Signs point out the various peaks, ridges, cities, and other features visible in the distance.
Downtown Nashville has honkytonks and bars, restaurants, and country music halls, but that's not my scene. I leave that for those younger people who want to party a little on their vacation.
Memphis, far to the west of Nashville, has Elvis's home, Graceland, plus downtown Beale Street, where street musicians play the blues. Neither of these are my kind of scene, either, although I've been to Memphis many times to visit friends and have done a "drive-by" of both places.
I've seen most of the sights in my own area, some of them multiple times, including Lake Louise and Banff (including the hot springs and Sulfur Mountain), Moraine Lake, Johnson's Canyon, Jasper, Canmore, the Tyrell Museum of Paleontology, the Glenbow Museum, the Frank Slide, Head-Smashed-In-Buffalo Jump, West Edmonton Mall (worked at the grand opening), Radium and Fairmont hot springs (in BC, but not too far from us), The Calgary Stampede, Heritage Park, the new Calgary Library (attended the grand opening for that), the Calgary Zoo, Roger's Pass, Kicking Horse Pass, the Columbia Icefields, and more.
I've been to almost every other province and territory in Canada, with the exception of Newfoundland/Labrador, the Northwest Territories, and Nunavut. I drove through just a small portion of New Brunswick, but I saw a fair bit of Nova Scotia and PEI, I lived in Ontario, I've been to Quebec four times, I've been to Manitoba twice, I've been to Saskatchewan four or five times, I've been to British Colombia multiple times, especially south-central BC (Okanagan), Vancouver Island, and Vancouver, and I've been to the Yukon twice.
I've also been to a number of states, including Washington, Montana, Idaho, Oregon, California (several times), Hawaii (multiple times), Arizona (twice), Florid (twice), Massachusetts, and New York (just the city--not the rest of the state).
In my home province of Alberta, one area I've never visited is Waterton National Park. I do expect to go someday.
Northern Maine. Everglades National Park Florida. The Texas Coast. Death Valley California. Alaska. Been everywhere else. You're not missing much if you don't see Crazy Horse . Technically, I don't think its even a monument. Recent photos look just like it did in 1979. :)
Okefenokee Swamp in GA, the Boll Weevil Statue in Enterprise and George Washington Carver Museum at Tuskegee in AL, and a walking tour in Charleston. We've done the carriage tours countless times, but never a walking tour. We plan to take a walking tour with friends this summer. A Gullah tour of the area is also on my bucket list. A trip to the Dakotas, Iowa, Nebraska is on my bucket list-it's one of the trips we had to cancel in 2020. I need to visit Natchez and Vicksburg at some point before we leave AL-I have never set foot in Mississippi-but I've been to Hawaii 3 times, as well as the 3 West Coast states and Maine.
I've enjoyed reading your responses. Thank you.
Have never been inside the Denver Mint, nor joined the line snaking around the exterior of the building. Pennies now cost more than one cent to make, so the mint isn’t making any money, while they’re making money.
The vast Great Plains region of the USA is so big, it may distort the perception of proximity. Would anybody visiting east of the Mississippi determine that someplace “just” 4 or 5 hours away was in the neighborhood? And linking Dodge City and Rapid City, two states away, as close sites, seems like saying that as long as you’re in Chicago, jot by Washington, D.C. Or Wheeling is close enough to Rhode Island, be sure to see Providence, too, while you’re in the area. Still, I’ve gone to Europe time and time again, and skipped so much of the USA in the process.
Almost all of the rest of Canada.
You stole my answer SJ. It took a trip to Europe and its incredible history to make me appreciate that Canadians have our own unique stories. Since my first European adventure in 2014, I've made a point of learning about my own history and search out historical points of interests wherever I am. However, cross-Canada airfare is sooo expensive compared to direct flights to warmer climates such as California, Arizona and Florida that Canada often takes a backseat.
Nothing.
As a retired film and TV location scout based in LA I’ve been privileged to see hidden tunnels under the streets of downtown LA, the rooftop of City Hall, the various Studio Lots ( Warner Brothers, Disney, Fox, Paramount), Naval and AirForce bases, Army barracks, Osgood and Farley, Lone Pine’s Alabama Foothills and was able to secure permission to use the not yet opened parkway outside Temecula to film The Fast and The Furious.
But my favorite was getting to scout Cape Canaveral for a TV pilot about Astronauts that never aired.
A native Californian grew up in the Bay Area so have walked across the Golden Gate, was in sec 43, row 21, Section 14 at Candlestick Park Game 3 of the World Series when the quake hit, have walked among Redwoods, hiked into June Lake, gambled at South Shore Lake Tahoe, skied in the Sierras, climbed the Mt Whitney trail, hung out in Death Valley. Have seenthe Salton Sea, visited General Grant, General Sherman, Methuselah and Jedidiah Smith Redwoods National Park, Sacramento, Yreka, Raymond Burr Vineyards, Napa, Sonoma, Pt Lobos, UC Berkeley, Stanford, the Central Valley, Mt Lassen, Mt Shasta, Clear Lake, San Diego, Desert Hot Springs, Walt’s House ( aka Disneyland) Palm Springs, Mt San Jacinto, Yosemite, Big Sur, Morro Bay, Petaluma, Happy Camp, Eureka, Turlock, and….
Spent a few years out of state and returned in the 80’s. Moved to SoCal to work in the movie business. Until a 4 story apartment building went up across the street could see the Hollwyood Sign from my window.
So nope, haven’t missed much in my home State of California.
It's in Canada but it bothers me that I have visited 8 provinces but not the closest, Manitoba. Maybe the Winnipeg Folk Festival someday?
One thing about living toward the middle of North America is most things are a 2 day drive away (or less). I find every state and province interesting and there's a good vacation in every one-- there are literally no dogs in the bunch. Those who go to Hawaii or Florida or Europe every year are missing out.
Aside: The Everglades isn't much, to be honest.
I never hesitate to book tours in places I visit, whether it’s NorthAmerica or Europe. However, I’m not good about doing it in “home” locations. My husband isn’t really a road-trip guy and driving gives me anxiety, so I’m hoping within the next year to start booking tours to sites that are relatively close - Valley of Fire and Zion come to mind. We lived in WA for over 30 years and never visited Mt. St. Helens. It’s time to change my approach.
We hope to eventually visit all 50 states (I have been to 46), but we are focusing on Europe while we are still relatively young;) We have seen the highlights of Minnesota, but we still spend weeks every summer camping at our favorite spots. We have visited at least 22 national parks, climbed up Mt. Rushmore (back when you could do that prior to the Greenpeace incident of 2009), and participated in the Volksmarch up Crazy Horse twice. We still have places in the US (Oregon, for one) and Canada that we want to visit when we no longer have the energy to travel internationally.
Our US National parks are gems! Have been to most of them. Last summer Glacier, Yellowstone and Tetons with adult children and 5 grands! Just 2 wks ago husband and I stayed inside Zion and did day trips to Bryce and Death Valley. This summer an Alaskan cruise with my fam after 2 cancelled summer trips. Denali and Glacier Bay looks pretty awesome! Tough to determine favorites as they all have their own specialness! We live in NW Ohio where it’s just plain very flat land and farm fields! To some it’s even….beautiful??
I've never actually made lists and run the numbers but I suspect I've been to more foreign countries than I have US states. I'll have to do that now just for my own curiosity!
Celeste, that's an interesting exercise. My foreign country number and number of states is close-28 countries, 27 states. My state list only counts those in which I did some sightseeing, not those where I only landed at the airport or drove through. My foreign country list includes East Germany, Byelarus(which was part of the Soviet Union when I went to Minsk), Scotland, and Wales as separate countries, but not Bahamas and Cayman Islands. I confess that although I have at least 5 additional states on my "near future" bucket list, most of my foreign plans in the future return to places I can't get enough of-England, France, and Italy.
I'm originally from Russia and really sad I have never visited St. Petersburg. Unfortunately, it doesn't look like I will get to/want to go anytime soon.
There is a famous Frank Lloyd Wright house - Falling Water - less than an hour from my house that I’ve never been to. It’s not because I’m not interested - I’ve been wanting to go for years. There’s just no urgency.
I’m fairly well traveled in the US, and I’ve been to almost every place that really interests me. But Acadia National Park is one place I am still dying to visit.
I have a very modest number of countries (11) in which I visited cities and towns, not just stop-overs: England, Poland, France, Hungary, CZ, Germany, Belgium, Austria, Holland, Sweden, and Canada. The number of states, including DC, outside of CA is 8:
TX, TN, Louisiana, Georgia, Mass, Washington, and AL.
You are right Aimee. There are numerous more National Park monuments, forests, historical sites etc. etc. They too have included some of our visits and are wonderful and yes…less travelled. We have not been to Big Bend NP in Texas. Have been reading more about that. And Voyageurs in Minn. The more remote the harder to get too!!? Those two seem “extremely” different from each other! More to see and experience…
And yet we crave more Europe also! My husband says my motto is…”where to next?” Thankful he’s on board with me after 45 yrs!
I've been to most of the big cities of the US (at least the ones I wanted to visit) and most of the National Parks. However there are two NPs that I haven't been to that I would still like to see - Yosemite in California and Acadia in Maine. Opposite ends of the country and because I live on the west coast, Yosemite is more likely to happen than Acadia. Two things are holding me back from seeing these. One is the crowds at Yosemite and the whole planning/scheduling thing to avoid them as much as possible. The other is the fact that both of these parks are oriented to the outdoor/active/nature/hiking style and my hiking days are behind me (advancing age and physical limitations have arrived). But one never knows.
The other place that I want to see that is in my neighborhood and that I may actually get to visit is the Painted Hills in Eastern Oregon. They're part of the John Day Fossil Beds National Monument and the hikes (walks) to see them are short and sweet. I'm actually planning a 3-4 day road trip to take them in along with the Wallowa Mtns in NE Oregon, another place I've been wanting to see.
I lived in both Minnesota and Colorado before moving to Oregon and I made it a point to see every corner of those states as well as the surrounding states. I've seen most, if not all, of the State and National Parks and other places of interest there.
Back when Amtrak train travel was easier and more comprehensive than now, I made several cross country rail trips and I've been an avid road tripper since forever - first with my family and then when I learned to drive. I've crisscrossed the country by car more times than I can count, including all of the Canadian Provinces that border the US (and a couple that don't). So, I really haven't missed much of the US - at least the parts that I had any desire to see.
Although I have not yet been to Yellowstone, a friend told me DO NOT GO IN JULY OR AUGUST. I'm guessing June is almost as bad. He said it was so crowded he didn't fully enjoy the experience.
Like most places the shoulder season seems to be the best time to mitigate the congestion of both cars and people. Perhaps May, September, and October.
Anna, we seriously considered Sweden, Tallin, St. Petersburg, and Finland the year we went to Denmark and Norway. We ruled it out, because we were travelling during my daughter's exams in England, and she had to go back to England for one exam mid-trip. This would have occurred during the St. Petersburg portion, making that impractical. So, we didn't go, and now I'm really regretting it. :(
Carroll, there's also FLW's Kentuck Knob within several miles of Fallingwater. It was formerly known as the "Hagen House" (owner's of the Hagen Ice Cream company). There's plenty of fun at Ohiopyle! Just several miles south of those FLW homes is the old National Pike (Route 40) which has many interesting sites. I lived in rural Elk Lick township, Somerset county PA until my family moved to the Detroit area when I was a teenager. I loved the history of the French & Indian War (the National Battlefield site Fort Necessity, Jumonville Glen, and the Mount Washington Tavern. The Casselman River Bridge is a national historic site on the old Route 40 in Grantsville MD and was the largest of its kind in the world when constructed in 1813. Penn Alps Mountain Crafts is near the bridge and Amish furniture is in the area. The National Road (including the Casselman Bridge), was the first federally funded road in U.S. history. There's the Western Maryland Scenic Railroad between Frostburg and Cumberland. We've spent romantic times at the Historic Summit Inn (Farmington PA) on Route 40 which hosted many illustrious guests in the past (Henry Ford for example). It's got a great eastward vista at night (Uniontown) and the Laurel Caverns to explore nearby. There's so much to love in the Laurel Highlands. In Somerset county, the Great Allegheny Passage winds through old railroad tunnels and over the Salisbury Viaduct (the old Western Maryland railroad engineering marvel of a bridge) just miles from my relatives and my childhood home. I always enjoy my time in the area.
It's even Steven for me. 20 countries (not counting my own) and 20 provinces/states/territories. After next month, it will be 22 countries, though, I hope.
Well, since everyone is talking about where they've been in stead of What They Have Not Seen ,..
I saw a Bald Eagle in flight.
What could possibly be left after that!
(as the late John Deutschendorf sang, "he'd be a poor man if he never saw an eagle fly"
@GoWest Seeing Gorillas in the Mist.
OP visited Yellowstone in early May years back for my 50th. Had been a huge snow season. Drove LA to Wyoming. Stayed overnight in the 49 Inn in Jackson Hole. Enjoyed learning about Moose Drool beer. Drove into Yellowstone and was the only vehicle on the road. Saw moose, fox and elk. Only One other person at Old Faithful.
For years because of work schedule travel months were May, November, December. I would never ever travel anywhere during Summer months.
Trust me walking from the Lodge in Yosemite to Yosemite Falls without the hordes is wonderful. Same with strolling along the London’s Thames path, across Piazza Navona in Rome, along the Malecon in Havana, hiking in Bryce Canyon….traveling off season will remain my focus in retirement.
This year thanks to friends I’m getting to see the Women’s Final at Wimbledon. Certain London in July will differ greatly from my usual November sojourn. Am I taking sunscreen? No.
Yea Aimee. "another moose". I get it. Move along folks, nothing to see here.
I've seen Great Migrations on the Flyways, and all the animals you mentioned, and then some. Even roosting Turkey Buzzards in my back yard. Bald Eagles aren't as rare as they once were. But seeing one soar, ... Only thing close to it was watching the sunrise over Grand Canyon from within.
Happy Travels!
Question: do they still have all the "sites" from the 1959 Earthquake in Idaho?
Silas I forgot about Kentucky Knob. You reslly know the area well. I’ve been to some of the places you mentioned, but not all. Thanks for the suggestions!
Carroll, you're welcome - I think you would enjoy Kentuck Knob and it's sculpture garden too.
we'd see cars pull over, they'd get all worked up but after us craning our necks, their constant refrain became "OH. It's JUST ANOTHER MOOSE"
Magnificent creatures, the tallest beings in North America, and not something you want to anger, nor take for granted. Last year, on U.S. Highway 40 in Grand County, Colorado, in the mountains an hour and a half’s drive west of Denver, there were cars pulled over on both sides of the 2-lane, 65 MPH road. I was passing through, and it’s too narrow, with traffic going too fast, for casual parking, but there wasn’t any sign of an obvious accident - certainly no carnage in the middle of the road. I phoned the sheriff’s non-emergency number to report something unusual they might need to investigate. I got a call 20 minutes later, saying it was “A Moose Jam.”
I have had a bald eagle fly next to me. I was sitting on our raised deck out on acreage in Washington. I heard what sounded similar to a quiet helicopter and about the time I said, “What is that sound?”, it flew right next to me and towards the forest. About the time it registered what had happened, a second one followed in pursuit. It was amazing!
And to directly answer the question, we lived in the Seattle area for 30 years, and I never went up the Space Needle - hate open heights.
I grew up in Iowa and never saw Mt.Rushmore, but we did go to several other states - not enough interest to just gaze & leave to justify the drive.
One outstanding thing many of us haven’t missed seeing at home is magnificent wildlife. I’ve seen a couple exotic chamonix in Switzerland, and tons and tons of domestic sheep in many places in Europe, but haven’t been to places where many wild animals were obvious. Certainly nothing as big as moose, bison, or bears.
Then again, I sure haven’t seen seafood in Colorado to match what’s available in countries where the ocean is closer than 1,000 miles.
Maybe the Winnipeg Folk Festival someday?
Oooh, Tom! It's been a number of years now since we've done it but made four trips to that one and had great fun! We didn't camp - stayed downtown and drove out to Birds Hill Park every day - but that was personally a good choice for us the year it was chilly and poured rain for most of 4 days, and another where it HAD rained for a long time and it was really muddy out there. Hotter than blazes another year. Anyway, a hot shower and/or air conditioning were welcome!
Nancy, Acadia was great. Parts of it reminded me a lot of Minnesota's North Shore.
We're big fans of the Utah/Northern Arizona/Northern New Mexico parks and scenery but the next visits won't be until an off-ish season. They've just gotten too busy. Would love to see Yosemite and Yellowstone but same problem: they're reported to be so overrun much of the time. Bisti Wilderness, White Pocket, and Death Valley are on the list, and Big Bend looks pretty interesting too. (Aimee, is there such a thing as snake-proof gaiters?) Southern Idaho looks beautiful... too many places!
Washington DC is also on the city list as my DH has never been, and I was only there very briefly as a teenager. Oh, and Boston.
OMG, well, if we want to talk stupid.
I live a 1-hour drive from Banff National Park, so I've spent a LOT of time there. The stupidest thing I saw was people getting out of their car, with kids in tow, to try to get photos of a sow bear and her two cubs on the side of the road. The bears were trying to move along, parallel to the road, and these people were keeping pace with them, not taking the hint. And, of course, if the bear had attacked, it would have been she who would be put down. The park rangers are a lot stricter now about "bear jams" and they prohibit people from stopping along the highway if a bear is known to be in the area, and will nicely ask people to move along on secondary roads. Speaking of which, 2 years ago, we had the great good fortune to come across a male grizzly scarfing down dandelions in a field. We stopped to get some photos, and we weren't the only ones. We stayed in the car, of course, but had the window open. The bear was about a football field away, but when he grunted, I could have sworn he was right beside our vehicle. I looked around more than once to see if there was another bear there. Of course, some bozos got out of their vehicles for a better pic, which meant that someone else called the rangers (good!), who came along and (nicely) shooed us all away.
Then there was the tour bus driver who was fined for baiting bears so his international tourists could see them....
Non-animal related, I still chuckle about the tourists who were walking behind us on the asphalt path that goes partway around Lake Louise. They were speculating on whether the path was natural or manmade. :/
Oh, my gosh, Aimeee!
If you can "bear" another anecdote, a bear was trapped in the field right behind my kids' preschool.
Kathy, Best time for Yosemite is April. Californians are finicky and won't go places "off season". Of course, if you want to camp it will be more of a problem. By April the weather is mild. And the waterfalls are flowing, Abundant snow at the elevations.
Just say the Parks in 4 Corners regions are ugly. No need to visit. (Wink!).
When I first came to Eugene Oregon, It felt more like home than my original birth state in Annapolis Maryland.
I think it was because they seemed 50 years in the past. And my older relatives in Maryland had stories of what Maryland use to be, and was no longer. I bought a small motorcycle, on first moving to Oregon, a SR 500, and for 15 years decided I would experience every mile of Oregon: Which I did, for 15 years. Not just the major roads, but all the little in between forest roads and many of the eastern desert roads. Being in the middle of nowhere, is a good feeling.
I have to say that this was an extraordinary experience that one state could be so diverse and interesting.
There is nothing more immersive than a motorcycle adventure trip. :)
@ Nancy in Corvallis.
I encourage you to research the tours available in Yosemite. I did so a couple if years ago for a mobility-challenged friend. These were not commercial, but organized through the park, done in open vehicles. She and her travel partner were very pleased.
The Yosemite landscape is so awesome; Half Dome, El Capitan, waterfalls!
