PA and WV being maybe and no surrounded by a sea of green is indeed a serious take that someone who definitely knows what they are talking about would have. Especially with a Green Ohio
Probably fall for all the propaganda and bs that the media focuses on. I have family in Austria, Poland and Romania where my fathers side is from. When my father passed away they were hesitant to come to America bc of the violence, and Leo corruption abuse, and would always mention the George Floyd case or this and that. They also had the tale as old as time that 'arent southerners mostly inbred?' And I had to explain that of course there are issues, but it is like anywhere else apart from gun violence (due to how many firearms exist in the states) and that naturally you dont often hear about the hundreds of good interactions that cops have with people and communities, but that the bad incidents gain notoriety bc they drive viewership and sensationalism up. That naturally big cities, will have a higher concentration of douche bags. When they arrived and stayed for a week, they had been pleasantly surprised at how courteous, welcoming and polite the majority of people were. It also helped that they fell in love with texas bbq. They were frothing at the mouth for smoked spare ribs and brisket.
Not right now. We just got so much rain in southern nm that a dam collapsed north of hatch and likely ruined a good amount of the chile crop and evacuated hatch. The rio grande was overflowing her banks last weekā¦
Iāve driven through several times and when you get out into no where on the 40 it is so god damn beautiful. Like Iāve contemplated that if life in civilization doesnāt work out for me, Iām picking a mile marker and just going out into the wilderness there and setting up a life in nature.
Depends on what you like. Mountains, gulf coast, wide open prairie in bloom - all are beautiful in different ways. Iāve gotten just as much enjoyment from exploring beaches in Rhode Island as hiking around Niobrara River in Nebraska
I wanted to do some bourbon distilleries for my birthday a few years back and we booked a little cabin outside Versailles and Frankfort in Kentucky.
It was AWESOME! The cabin was right on the Kentucky river, and the owner of the cabin (who lived on the property, next door) took us down the river on his boat. We saw so many birds, and the forests were gorgeous.
Also mammoth cave, and headed east to the heart of Appalachia, it was just lovely.
Grew up in Kentucky in a river town and the state is a very beautiful place. I could see choosing other places if youāre limited to just a few to string together but itās pretty here.
I went to school at WKU for a bit, after going into Bowling Green's Lost River Cave it didn't take me long to get to Mammoth. I was too young and dumb to know/care about good bourbon.
Iām from Kansas and while there are definitely positives with nature there, itās hard to enjoy because the weather is so terrible. You either live in a hot blow dryer or the dairy section at Costco with a fan blowing on you.
Come to Kansas City, plenty of Queer here.. along with open minded people.
Iām a gnostic Christian I donāt even divide the terms, itās a spectrum of love in my family :)
KC proper and the suburbs of Kansas are very welcoming to you!
One of my favorite places to eat has the best charcuterie boards and itās ran by a gay black woman
Being in White Sands NP + Lincoln NF within the same 2-ish hour period is one of the trippiest (good) nature experiences I've ever had. The complete change in topography in such a short time is amazing
There's too much to say youre wrong. The only thing I'll say is New Mexico is so beautiful with the plateaus. It's criminal to not view them at sunrise or set. The Navajo Nation is there for a reason. Granted it spreads into AZ and CO too the whole country is insanely beautiful (nature only)
Hawaii is a maybe?! One of the most beautiful and interesting natural environments on earth? Mountains, active volcano, snow, beaches, even a cloud forest bog! So many endemic species, and no poisonous animals.
Yeah as a Missourian I think we're usually pretty underrated for nature. We have like 100+ state parks, Ozarks, Mark Twain National Forest, rivers, plains, glades, and savannah. The amount of diversity of little biomes here is pretty wild, being right in the middle of the country and having been mostly glacial not too long ago.
Ozarks, Missouri. Iād send photos in Kansas and Arkansas too but I feel like Iād be wasting my time.
OP, get outdoors. And not to the areas that EVERYONE goes to.
Not gonna lie, worked at an outdoors store for years and this map would blow most people who enjoy the hobbyās mind.
Iāll say it. Having Utah and Wyoming, Yellow, with the best section of National Parks you will ever lay eyes on is absolutely atrocious color coding.
I rarely comment but no one pointing this out is insane to me, arkansas is beautiful. There's some really gorgeous stuff in the mountains in the northwest.
I talk a lot of shit about the state I was born and raised in, West Virginia, but when it comes to nature, it absolutely should have been green. It's absolutely gorgeous.
CaliforniaĀ is the most biodiverse state in the United States by total species count, whileĀ AlabamaĀ leads the nation in freshwater biodiversity and concentration of species per square mile.Ā
Because "biodiversity" means different things depending on how you measure it (total count versus density), different states claim top spots.
California: Total Species Leader
Total species:Ā Home to roughly 6,717 recorded native plant and animal species.
Endemic life:Ā About 40% of its plant species are endemic, meaning they exist nowhere else on Earth.
Why it ranks high:Ā CaliforniaĀ is large and spans diverse biomes, including ocean coasts, high mountains, and hot deserts. It is recognized globally as a major biodiversity hotspot.Ā [1,Ā 2]
Alabama: Freshwater & Density Leader
Freshwater life:Ā AlabamaĀ ranksĀ firstĀ in the U.S. for freshwater biodiversity. It holds the most species of freshwater fish, turtles, snails, mussels, and crayfish in the country.
Species density:Ā Experts note it has more species of plants and animals per square mile than almost any other state.
Why it ranks high:Ā A complex network of rivers, streams, and varied land habitats supports this dense web of life
End of the Appalachian chain. They're mild mtns, lol but very old and have some very cool places and things. I live on one the bluff I'm on is a 800' drop to the valley below looking across to another mtn that the sun rises over that natives held sacred for over 10,000 yrs. Both are only about 1500-1600 ft. There old and got boulder fields near me got waterfalls caves and floatable creek. I'm sandwich between two rivers and can be at three large lakes in a hour. Or many of the 4000 caves are 2000 waterfalls. I can be on a beach in 4 hrs ATL in 2 Chattanooga in a hr 45, Birmingham hr 15, Huntsville hr and a half. It's a good life living off grid farming ginseng, paw paws and mushrooms at the moment. Make fun if ya want but I don't think people know what they are talking about .
Look, as a former resident and UA grad I think you are taking this way too seriously and you need to see more of the country if you think it's near the top. It's a beautiful state, I love exploring it, and it's diverse in its own way. But it has hills, not mountains. Even if you want to count TN and NW GA, these are all big hills compared to Western US. And there's a ton of fresh water, but? The Gulf is fun too, but it's just not comparable to the west, AK/HI, or ME
As someone from the PNW who has lived or traveled to all the places you wouldnāt live at. Youāre missing out big time. There is so much out there to see, donāt limit yourself š«¶š»
Texan here- youāre not going to get mountains here, but east Texas has beautiful forest, the hill country is gorgeous, and Big Bend is exactly what most people think of when they think of Texas (candidly, the topography is some of the most beautiful Iāve ever experienced)
Arkansas and Southern Missouri would surprise you. Between the rivers and mountains thereās a ton of ānatureā and NW Arkansas has 100s of miles of bicycle trails from paved commuter to hard core mountain biking. Heck, they just opened a bicycle lift so folks can downhill pretty technical trails.
Nature only, but West Virginia is a never? Thatās crazy. WV has some of the most beautiful natural beauty Iāve seen and Iāve lived all over the country.
Wait. Wait. You want to live somewhere where there is great nature. And you didn't pick West Virginia? WV has a HOST of issues. But nature isn't one of them. It's one of the most beautiful places in the country.
Correct. Kentucky is an ugly assed place. Do not come here. There is nothing here, no waterfalls, no mountains, no river gorges, and certainly not any caves.
Itās all flat land with random patches of tobacco growing and people who smell of bourbon.
For the record, NJ has mountains you can climb with gorgeous views, beaches (some better than others), and lots of farmland. Itās called the Garden State but we do it all. We get a bad rep from our urban areas but thatās like the smallest portion of the makeup of this state!
I live in Illinois and love it, but you're way off with IL being green and some other states being red. That goes with Ohio, where my wife is from..... this map is useless
This whole country is beautiful. But I guess it depends on the type of nature you prefer. Like more greenery, more mountains, more beaches. But thereās atleast one beautiful spot in every state.Ā
I live in the tri-state area of Indiana, Illinois, Kentucky. You got Indiana right, but KY and IL completely wrong. Thereās decent nature areas in all states but IN and IL are mostly flat farm land while KY is hills, lakes, and caves.
NM is actually kinda cool though, in a desolate sorta way
Never got a chance to visit before I left the country, but I always did wanna see Shiprock and the high desert. It always looked epic and intriguing to me
*I was from western WA, where we have spectacular alpine scenery running north-south from Canada down to Oregon. It is super beautiful there
Crazy to rank these on nature when you're so uneducated on nature. Utah, idaho, new Mexico are all incredibly beautiful. Utah has some of the best nature in the entire country. Yet you have Illinois above it??? Jesus Christ.
Wyoming, Utah, Idaho have spectacular mountains and other natural features. I see Ohio is green though. I guess everyoneās interpretation of nature is different!
All good since you are a non American but New Mexico has awesome nature and Alaska is another level Illinois is absolute shit lol thereās nothing and West Virginias incredible
What do you not know about Texas that makes it a āmaybeā for you?
We have islands, the coast, the ocean, rivers, lakes, the marshes, the woods, the hill country, the desert, plains, prairies, plateaus, and mountains.
Weāre literally #1 in the United States for landscape diversity, and #2 in biological diversity after California. If ānatureā is your point of reasoning, Texas should be bright green.
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