Connecticut is a beautiful place to live. I live in the Northwest corner of the state and the nature here is amazing. So many places to swim, camp, hike, etc. And all four seasons here are gorgeous!
If you are looking for less populated outdoor areas, places like Minnesota, Michigan, Wisconsin are beautiful and not as crowded as Oregon, Colorado, etc. I grew up in Oregon but have found northern Minnesota to be my favorite place. All those lakes! The big open sky. It’s lovely.
Gators are not scary at all. Grew up in FL and never in my life had a gator come at me or was defensive towards me. I grew up in the swamp. Not tampa or Orlando. I'm a huge water bug and live by the water and swimmed in plenty of gator filled waterways. You just have to learn about them and understand when yo give them space. FL is my favorite place to hike and camp.
@Becca yea, gators would scare me more also!!
@Sarah we have bears where I live but gators would scare me more, I can't even imagine!
@Grace interesting I've never thought about Minnesota!
So we've lived kinda everywhere; Virginia, Idaho, California, Minnesota, Iowa. By far, my favorite has been Minnesota. We lived on the North Shore. It's cold as all get out during winter, but it's so freaking gorgeous. Like all year long, there's stuff to do, from ice skating and cross country skiing to hiking and mountain/fat biking and all the water activities. We did so much camping and had a nice large trail system at the end of our street. And wildlife was everywhere,we had someone a few streets down with a bear trying to make a den under their deck😅
PNW either not far from Olympic NP/Outside Seattle or outside of Portland. We're on the east coast but try to get to the PNW whenever we can and are hoping to buy a second house there to expose our daughter to it as much as possible on school breaks!
We moved to Greenville SC to take advantage of a really lovely city park layout and even better state park system in upstate SC and western NC. This area isn't "undiscovered" and the recent growth is somewhat stressing the local economy but our reasons for moving here have all held up.
I’ve also lived in Hawaii and Texas, and my second choice would be Hawaii but I cannot afford that now 😅
Great post! My hubby and I left Chicago to find a better place to live, but we got pregnant and sort of stuck in Louisiana. I want to find a better place for hiking and outdoors stuff for the family also. I am worried about hiking in gator country!!
@Becca I stand firm on “west coast is the best coast” 🙌🏻🙌🏻
Thanks everyone! For more context I'm from Oregon but been in Montana for the last 5 years, but now that we have a kid we're trying to find the best place for him to grow up! Everywhere I want to live has been discovered and is way too crowded and expensive now, so I'm wondering if there's anywhere else I've never even thought of!
@Shay same!
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@Olivia I am from Oregon actually and love it too! Thinking about moving back but can't afford it right now
@Katelyn oh not Mormon either but I love Utah!! Salt lake is where I'd be if I could afford it 😂
Florida. Summer year round so you can hike and camp year round!! I grew up in FL and now moved to SD. For someone who can be tent camping on Christmas to wake up and go hunt without 20 layers of clothes on. I miss FL more than anything and will definitely be moving back. Most likely the pan handle some where. That way we have a short drive to the mountains for serious hiking and camping.
Living in the foothills of the smokey mountains in Tennessee was life-changing for me after growing up in south FL. You've got the hilly farmlands, mountain hikes, Knoxville city life and Dollywood theme park all nearby. I'm biased and love it. So much for our kids to do.
@Shay my husband lived in Oregon for about 7 years and loved it, we plan to move there some day. Outside Portland to be specific
Colorado front range, particularly boulder or Golden have tons of nearby hikes, beautiful scenery, and kid friendly! But it's expensive. :(
The PNW but I’m biased!
I’ve lived in California most of my life, it has everything I need! And if it doesn’t, Oregon, Washington and Nevada do and it’s cheap to travel there!
Tucson AZ. The amount of hiking you can do in just Sabino Canyon alone is amazing. There’s so many different trails to take. And then there’s Mt Lemmon, Picacho Peak, Gates Pass, and Seven Falls in Bear Canyon. Desert hikes are unbelievable!! Just don’t go in the summer!
Off the grid lol this world is crazy
So I'm going to start by saying I'm not mormon. But I love living in Utah, specifically the salt lake valley. The hiking is absolutely insane and soooooo many trail heads. I feel like colorado you have an hour drive just to get to a few trail heads. Here most of the valley is within 20 minutes of a ton of options. And there's also an aquarium, red butte gardens, the zoo. Lots of kid friendly activities!
I’ve lived in Hawaii and currently living in Alaska and there’s so much outdoorsy stuff to do here! I love it