This is what fricking kills it's enjoyment >winter happens
All the snowbirds come in and clog up bars/areas >spring happen
Baseball training season begins fricks up shit >summer happens
too fricking hot to go out most places, bars and event halls are crowded to shit >fall happens
few weeks where it's kinda nice depending on which way the wind blows that day
Caligays moving in has completely fricked the valley, at least we got the 202 bypass done for traffic but it's still not great.
The 17 can be shut down any day of the week because some drunkass from flagstaff coming down.
The amount of actual boomers who close highways down for driving the wrong way, straight up drunk, or fall asleep on the highway is massive
Cost of living went from decent to completely fricked, I hope you're at least making 55k moving here.
Tech is up and coming big time from everyone moving out of cali, that's a good and bad thing. The problem is with the high cost of living PHX lost most it's appeal that you could look past it's mistakes and pitfalls. Summers sucked but yeah where don't they, at least it was cheapish living that for 3-6 months you could bite it out at the bar or such. Most people I know that don't have to return to an office or don't have kids yet are moving out now.
Flagstaff is a liberal shithole
Sedona to Prescott is nice but gridlock in/out most summer months
Camp Verde is blow your brains out boring
Tuscon is just plain dirty
Yuma... exists.
Bullhead/Needles is ultra boomerville
Saguaro cactuses are neat. I went to the national park near Tuscon.
Also the Petrified Forest National Park was neat too. There's lots of neat stuff in Arizona. I'd never want to live in a desert but it's a comfy state to visit.
Can't see anything at night. My shitty minivan looks native anyway, kek. It's not Mexico, there's not going to be a sketchy checkpoint of thuggish-looking "police" wearing luxury watches, gold chains and mismatched uniforms, kek.
>It's not Mexico, there's not going to be a sketchy checkpoint of thuggish-looking "police" wearing luxury watches, gold chains and mismatched uniforms, kek.
I think you're missing the point of what he's talking about anon
Any rez is like that. It's a place where you can commit a major crime and prosecuting it is up to someone you probably get shitfaced drunk with regularly. >be me >17 years old >summer job dropping off construction supplies >get a long haul way down to northern New Mexico >come pulling up, turns out it's a rez >neat.jpg >pull into "town" >basically a bunch of trailers and sheds placed loosely around a wellhead >see a worker >only white dude around >only person really doing anything at all >tells me where to drop all my building shit >tells me to lock my truck >"I'm not gonna be more than 10 feet away from it, bro" >"Just lock your truck, I'm not responsible for it or for you" >umm k >lots of dudes milling around, literal zombie walks >people sleeping on the ground wherever there's shade >legit and major post apocalyptic vibes >get told I have to find the chief to get my paperwork signed >get pointed to a big metal building in the middle of town >walk in and instantly get this odor of chemicals .... and ... >and .... >pine trees? >walk into a room and there's probably 20 guys sitting around >they're taking cans of Pine Sol cleaner >turning them upside down and spraying out all the propellant >then cutting the can open and drinking the cleaner
I went back to my truck and explained the situation to my home office and got the frick out of there. I'm honestly kind of surprised there isn't more misery travel to American reservations.
>I'm honestly kind of surprised there isn't more misery travel to American reservations.
It's not reported on much how bad they are. In Arizona there's reservations all over the place, including right up against major cities and you wouldn't believe the shit that happens, there's only a few thousand people that live on them (usually) and they have crime that you'd expect for South Chicago.
And its also kind of a bad idea. They really don't like you getting off the highway and exploring the areas where they live on the rez, and will prosecute you for trespass. Meanwhile they have longstanding feuds where the dudes from one place go pop some dudes in some other rez and nothing will happen. I won't do urbex stuff on any rez for this reason even though there's a lot of cool shit on some of them.
Lots of mountains. It's big. Monsoon season is really cool. Southern Arizona is my home and I love it.
Really, we have a lot of natural beauty. Biggest thing is no real really good water features. Even the bigger lakes aren't that big.
Saguaro cactuses are neat. I went to the national park near Tuscon.
Also the Petrified Forest National Park was neat too. There's lots of neat stuff in Arizona. I'd never want to live in a desert but it's a comfy state to visit.
Mogollon Rim, picrel. Anyone from the state will tell you that.
Bad things happen at the Tohono Oʼodham Indian Reservation
Bad things happen at all the Rez frankly
More just sprawl than a real city
Are LA and Vegas like that as well? I was born in Phoenix and spend lots of time there but I've never been to either of those areas. Phoenix is insane to me, you'd think it has more people than Tokyo judging by its sprawl alone.
>Are LA and Vegas like that as well
Kinda. La is like London where a bunch of smaller cities merge into a sprawl. Vegas is bizarre because the strip and it's large building aren't near the downtown. Vegas is similar to Phoenix but not close in scale
Grand Canyon has some great hikes that are pretty seldom hiked. Like 99% of people stick to the rim and then 90% of the ones who hike down use the same three trails (south and north kaibab and bright angel) but there's like a dozen trails at least that go down into the canyon. I've wanted to do deer creek, thunder river trails but I always time my southwest trips for winter or early spring so the north rim is never accessible. also not sure my car can even get to the trailhead anyway
it's kind of lumped in with Utah but the Vermillion Cliffs Paria Canyon area is excellent. As is Lake Powell, though that's mostly Utah
Sedona is nice but crowded. Saguaro, Petrified Forest, Chiricahua, Canyon de Chelly are some other cool places I've been.
Pre covid you could have gotten a decent house and good paying job with a surprisingly good salary to cost of living balance if you had any skillset above burger flipper. I feel like a moron for not taking some of the first time home buyer programs up and getting a 3br/2ba for ~110k back in 2016. It would be worth about 3-4x that now. Winters are good because you can head up to the rim and get your winter fix in with snow and such.
What sucks is the amount of silicon valley jobs and californians that fricking flooded in during covid. The housing market ballooned, you'd have to go to tweak town apache junction for anything sub 250k now. Also enjoy those HOA's because they are fricking everywhere now, prices for everything have gone LA tier only we have shittier weather. The job market has become saturated with everyone moving in, many places are going full back to office to avoid stupid taxation rules the cities are now putting in to avoid a real estate frick up.
Water is going to be a huge issue soon with all the influx of people and the chip fabs coming here, I think they are building another dam soon to help but meh. I'm just moving out since I have remote work and it's not worth the cost of rent here anymore.
If you want real adventure, drive El Camino del Diablo from Organ Pipe to Yuma. You'll need a permit from the US military which basically says "if we drop a bomb on you, we are not liable". You will be transiting a major human and drug trafficking corridor, as a major highway runs along the Mexican side of the border. Arizona has some of the best open-country offroading in America, and SxS vehicles are allowed to drive on public roads.
Shot an M2 Browning, .50BMG and a ton of full autos on my way through there to Yosemite from Ouray.
Other than that it was just a lot of desert.
Great for a think-and-drive. Makes you reflect.
They have a big machine gun shootup in Wikieup every fall, and I think every spring as well. Big Sandy it's called. First time in the state I worked at a riparian reforestation project in the area, it's got some cool hikes and hot springs but is otherwise desolate & rough country.
There is a lot of “one off” art towns. depending on what you like and your attitude your mileage may vary. Personally I liked visiting arcosanti, Jerome, tubac and tombstone. Golfing has jumped the shark there, at least in the Phoenix area. the SighSeeing is still great. There are some absolute gems of hikes that are nearly deserted. Devils' Chasm Trail is a hit for me.
Always has been
The Petrified Forest National Park is also pretty cool.
Yeah, stay away there’s nothing here at all besides the Grand Canyon
Went to Phoenix last january. Perfect weather but the city is huge.
More just sprawl than a real city
Phoenix is huge but the areas you actually want to be in are small. So many fricking boomers plugging up places.
This is what fricking kills it's enjoyment
>winter happens
All the snowbirds come in and clog up bars/areas
>spring happen
Baseball training season begins fricks up shit
>summer happens
too fricking hot to go out most places, bars and event halls are crowded to shit
>fall happens
few weeks where it's kinda nice depending on which way the wind blows that day
Caligays moving in has completely fricked the valley, at least we got the 202 bypass done for traffic but it's still not great.
The 17 can be shut down any day of the week because some drunkass from flagstaff coming down.
The amount of actual boomers who close highways down for driving the wrong way, straight up drunk, or fall asleep on the highway is massive
Cost of living went from decent to completely fricked, I hope you're at least making 55k moving here.
Tech is up and coming big time from everyone moving out of cali, that's a good and bad thing. The problem is with the high cost of living PHX lost most it's appeal that you could look past it's mistakes and pitfalls. Summers sucked but yeah where don't they, at least it was cheapish living that for 3-6 months you could bite it out at the bar or such. Most people I know that don't have to return to an office or don't have kids yet are moving out now.
Flagstaff is a liberal shithole
Sedona to Prescott is nice but gridlock in/out most summer months
Camp Verde is blow your brains out boring
Tuscon is just plain dirty
Yuma... exists.
Bullhead/Needles is ultra boomerville
Saguaro cactuses are neat. I went to the national park near Tuscon.
Also the Petrified Forest National Park was neat too. There's lots of neat stuff in Arizona. I'd never want to live in a desert but it's a comfy state to visit.
cactuses are stupid
Bad things happen at the Tohono Oʼodham Indian Reservation
I've driven through on AZ-86 a few times, it is very desolate but also calming.
Did you go at night
Can't see anything at night. My shitty minivan looks native anyway, kek. It's not Mexico, there's not going to be a sketchy checkpoint of thuggish-looking "police" wearing luxury watches, gold chains and mismatched uniforms, kek.
>It's not Mexico, there's not going to be a sketchy checkpoint of thuggish-looking "police" wearing luxury watches, gold chains and mismatched uniforms, kek.
I think you're missing the point of what he's talking about anon
Any rez is like that. It's a place where you can commit a major crime and prosecuting it is up to someone you probably get shitfaced drunk with regularly.
>be me
>17 years old
>summer job dropping off construction supplies
>get a long haul way down to northern New Mexico
>come pulling up, turns out it's a rez
>neat.jpg
>pull into "town"
>basically a bunch of trailers and sheds placed loosely around a wellhead
>see a worker
>only white dude around
>only person really doing anything at all
>tells me where to drop all my building shit
>tells me to lock my truck
>"I'm not gonna be more than 10 feet away from it, bro"
>"Just lock your truck, I'm not responsible for it or for you"
>umm k
>lots of dudes milling around, literal zombie walks
>people sleeping on the ground wherever there's shade
>legit and major post apocalyptic vibes
>get told I have to find the chief to get my paperwork signed
>get pointed to a big metal building in the middle of town
>walk in and instantly get this odor of chemicals .... and ...
>and ....
>pine trees?
>walk into a room and there's probably 20 guys sitting around
>they're taking cans of Pine Sol cleaner
>turning them upside down and spraying out all the propellant
>then cutting the can open and drinking the cleaner
I went back to my truck and explained the situation to my home office and got the frick out of there. I'm honestly kind of surprised there isn't more misery travel to American reservations.
>I'm honestly kind of surprised there isn't more misery travel to American reservations.
It's not reported on much how bad they are. In Arizona there's reservations all over the place, including right up against major cities and you wouldn't believe the shit that happens, there's only a few thousand people that live on them (usually) and they have crime that you'd expect for South Chicago.
And its also kind of a bad idea. They really don't like you getting off the highway and exploring the areas where they live on the rez, and will prosecute you for trespass. Meanwhile they have longstanding feuds where the dudes from one place go pop some dudes in some other rez and nothing will happen. I won't do urbex stuff on any rez for this reason even though there's a lot of cool shit on some of them.
Lots of mountains. It's big. Monsoon season is really cool. Southern Arizona is my home and I love it.
Really, we have a lot of natural beauty. Biggest thing is no real really good water features. Even the bigger lakes aren't that big.
Where's the Best hikes? Sedona?
Mogollon Rim, picrel. Anyone from the state will tell you that.
Bad things happen at all the Rez frankly
Are LA and Vegas like that as well? I was born in Phoenix and spend lots of time there but I've never been to either of those areas. Phoenix is insane to me, you'd think it has more people than Tokyo judging by its sprawl alone.
>Are LA and Vegas like that as well
Kinda. La is like London where a bunch of smaller cities merge into a sprawl. Vegas is bizarre because the strip and it's large building aren't near the downtown. Vegas is similar to Phoenix but not close in scale
so is phoenix not like la/ london? it's just one 'city' with endless sprawl?
I like the Chiricahuas a lot.
Grand Canyon has some great hikes that are pretty seldom hiked. Like 99% of people stick to the rim and then 90% of the ones who hike down use the same three trails (south and north kaibab and bright angel) but there's like a dozen trails at least that go down into the canyon. I've wanted to do deer creek, thunder river trails but I always time my southwest trips for winter or early spring so the north rim is never accessible. also not sure my car can even get to the trailhead anyway
it's kind of lumped in with Utah but the Vermillion Cliffs Paria Canyon area is excellent. As is Lake Powell, though that's mostly Utah
Sedona is nice but crowded. Saguaro, Petrified Forest, Chiricahua, Canyon de Chelly are some other cool places I've been.
Yeah I figured about the grand canyon but OP was talking about everything besides GC
Pre covid you could have gotten a decent house and good paying job with a surprisingly good salary to cost of living balance if you had any skillset above burger flipper. I feel like a moron for not taking some of the first time home buyer programs up and getting a 3br/2ba for ~110k back in 2016. It would be worth about 3-4x that now. Winters are good because you can head up to the rim and get your winter fix in with snow and such.
What sucks is the amount of silicon valley jobs and californians that fricking flooded in during covid. The housing market ballooned, you'd have to go to tweak town apache junction for anything sub 250k now. Also enjoy those HOA's because they are fricking everywhere now, prices for everything have gone LA tier only we have shittier weather. The job market has become saturated with everyone moving in, many places are going full back to office to avoid stupid taxation rules the cities are now putting in to avoid a real estate frick up.
Water is going to be a huge issue soon with all the influx of people and the chip fabs coming here, I think they are building another dam soon to help but meh. I'm just moving out since I have remote work and it's not worth the cost of rent here anymore.
Also FRICK the seasonal snowbird drivers
If you want real adventure, drive El Camino del Diablo from Organ Pipe to Yuma. You'll need a permit from the US military which basically says "if we drop a bomb on you, we are not liable". You will be transiting a major human and drug trafficking corridor, as a major highway runs along the Mexican side of the border. Arizona has some of the best open-country offroading in America, and SxS vehicles are allowed to drive on public roads.
You can shoot big ol' guns there too
Shot an M2 Browning, .50BMG and a ton of full autos on my way through there to Yosemite from Ouray.
Other than that it was just a lot of desert.
Great for a think-and-drive. Makes you reflect.
>Shot an M2 Browning
Neat where at?
Idk where he went but there's ranges all over Arizona that offer 50 cal, AK, Thompson machine gun and other nfa weapons. Not cheap though.
They have a big machine gun shootup in Wikieup every fall, and I think every spring as well. Big Sandy it's called. First time in the state I worked at a riparian reforestation project in the area, it's got some cool hikes and hot springs but is otherwise desolate & rough country.
There is a lot of “one off” art towns. depending on what you like and your attitude your mileage may vary. Personally I liked visiting arcosanti, Jerome, tubac and tombstone. Golfing has jumped the shark there, at least in the Phoenix area. the SighSeeing is still great. There are some absolute gems of hikes that are nearly deserted. Devils' Chasm Trail is a hit for me.
Phoenix is the best city in America
There are good outfitters there to do horse rides and hunts. Other than that, it’s kind of boring.
Lot of blonde giga bawds at and around Scottsdale.
You could go hunting for skinwalkers, I hear they're all over the place there