If we moved back to TX, we’d go for the Hill Country, but avoid both San Antonio and Austin. Both are too big for me. We’d choose Fredericksburg or Kerrville. Although real estate in both has gotten expensive. If we had to live near El Paso, I’d take Las Cruces, NM. Too bad neither location has good football, even with NMSU going bowling and winning their bowl game this year.
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Las Cruces is highly underrated, IMO.
- close to White Sands, interesting, historic and photogenic
- an hour away from Alamogorda and the Sega game archeology digs
- an hour away from Truth or Consequences, a great place from which to send postcards to people who annoy you.
- less than an hour from El Paso & Juarez, if you want an adrenaline rush and/or are bored and want to pick up extra work as a coyote.
Seriously, I’m a western guy, so I’d take Las Cruces or El Paso over just about everywhere else mentioned recently in this thread. Something about mountains & desert I’ll take every time, if I have the choice.
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I’d agree. Dallas is good for art scenes, eating, and.shopping. I don’t consider White Rock Lake real outdoors. Haha
Oddly my family in the late 1800s and Early 1900s was all over that area. Something about desert & mountains feels like a great spot to be. I also didn’t expect to love ABQ as much as I did. I am not pretentious in terms of art galleries to hang in Santa Fe.
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Completely agree about western landscapes being enchanting.
@Steggys_Mixtapes and I had a great discussion about the timelessness and serenity of the Great Basin, and I think we kind of threw off Bryson Barnes in asking detailed questions about, and showing knowledge regarding the Milford area.
“I really didn’t think many people actually came out there”
That’s actually one of the principal reasons people explore those areas - Unmatched solitude and serenity.
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Agreed… definitely western landscape. That said, I need some trees. Just can’t do the 100% desert thing.
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Trees are good. They can be some pinion and juniper, or cottonwoods.
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I’m not ashamed of my parents moving me from Los Angeles to the I.E. as a kid. I loved growing up out there and I’m torn between moving back to LA (Probably Pasadena) or to Claremont. I never get the 909 hate.
Hell, I’d probably be happy in Fullerton or Santa Ana down in Orange. Lol
Jeez. You’re fast. I deleted within 30 seconds.
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Nah. Just smart enough to hit the button that shows what you deleted. Proof Californians who attend Private Universities are brilliant.
I tried to figure out where that was with google. stunning view. I love mountains.
I can do both.
There are definitely “islands” in the Great Basin. Mahogany, Juniper, Pinion, Douglas Fir, Aspen, Cottonwood, and of course the crown jewel, Bristlecone Pine, which can grow 5000 years old. (Still have problems wrapping my mind around the idea of an individual tree that began life nearly 3000 years before Jesus was born. Amazingly adaptive biology to live that long.)
Deep Creek Mountains
Mount Moriah, Nevada, from about 35,000. Both these ranges had glaciers in the Ice Age.
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I have a BIL who was raised in Ibapah, Utah, on the western edge of the Deep Creek Mountains. I’ve spent a bit of time out there in that last 30 years with him visiting family and I would never have believed how beautiful the area is, particularly the Deep Creek Mountains.
EDIT: to say, it is a very isolated place that not many people know about. I remember first hearing about Ibapah sometime in the mid to late 1970s, when the community got their first telephone.
Oh…I would like to have access to some real rivers. Having also lived Pittsburgh, I’m a fan. So, in the western states, that would mean Idaho, Montana, and a few regional areas.
If Canada would accept this American, then here I come. Ha
I remember that news story, was amazed it took that long to get phone service out there.
Is your BIL in one of the ranches north of Ibapah? I’m familiar with the Goshutes out there.
Explorers, Settlers, Pony Express, Donner Party going across the Salt Flats, the Air Force overhead, they’ve seen a lot, but just a slice of their timeline.
Jedidiah Smith’s journals talk about encountering Natives in the 1820s, Stansbury and Gunnison encountered some 15 years later. I wonder if there’s an oral history from the Goshutes and Shoshone, the alternative view.
In the Mt Moriah photo above, it’s looking north and the Deep Creeks are to the right in the distance, Pilot Peak / Waahkai is in the center in the distance, very faint.
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The Deep Creeks are a beautiful mountain range. There is a remnant population of Bonneville Cutthroat Trout in one of the tiny streams flowing out of one of the canyons. They were thought to be extinct for a while before they were discovered out there.
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Interesting aerial photo, which starkly contrasts the beautiful mountains with the barren flat lands.
My BIL lives in Montana, but was raised out there and whenever they come to SLC to visit with my wife’s family, they go out to Ibapah to visit his family. His father was born and raised there, lived there his whole life, and passed away at the age of 99 about 5 or 6 years ago. The family name is Cook, and I think the family has been there for several more than the 4 generations I know of.
Their ranch is just a little south of Ibapah closer to the Goshutes. My BIL has 3 siblings that still live in the area, one on the original homestead/ranch.
You’ve got me curious now about the history of the area and his family. He doesn’t ever really talk about it, but next time he’s in town, I’ll have to ask and see what he knows…
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Anyone watching the river coverage of the Colorado? I really want to move back to California but maaaaaan. The water situation has me concerned.
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You’re worried about Lake Powell being 24% of capacity? C’mon.
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