1. Montana

Wow. My last state. I can’t believe I actually made it here.

If you know me pretty well, this probably isn’t much of a surprise. There’s also a good chance you got to experience why I love this state so much last year. But why is it that I love Montana so much?

Montana always served as my home away from home. It’s the only place outside of Missouri that I have been connected to my entire life. My Montana journey began when I was just a few months old. My parents decided to bring me on a road trip up to Polebridge to visit a friend and somehow managed to stay sane with a 3-month old in the car. Then when I was 5, I got to have my first conscious visit to the state after my dad bought the cabin he still has to this day.

Polebridge is such a great little place. Nestled in between Glacier National Park and the Whitefish Mountain Range, it sticks out as the only population center for 35 miles of dirt road. Being in between two mountain ranges makes it so it doesn’t matter where you look, you’re going to see something beautiful. Polebridge is located on the North Fork River, one of the cleanest bodies of water you will be able to find in this country. Untouched except for when we all float down the river.

I always got to spend a few weeks in Polebridge every summer. It was a very wild place to be a child since it’s not like there were many kids there (there weren’t many people in general), but the people who did tend to live there had young hearts. A group of fun loving adventurers who found this place and decided to leave nearly everything else behind. Most people probably don’t associate Montana with this kind of place, but for me, the two have always gone hand in hand.

But as a kid, it was a place so far from civilization that it gave me so much freedom to go out and explore on my own. Maybe it wasn’t technically the best to let a little kid roam the streets when there are bears and other wild life, but it gave me a sense of independence that I don’t know if I could really get anywhere else in the country.

Polebridge is the reason why Montana ranks at number 1. It’s where I’m at right now. Things have definitely changed a little bit since I was younger. There’s way more people visiting than there ever was before, and now more than a couple people actually live in the North Fork year round. The population has also changed quite a bit too. But for the most part, similar types of people are still coming for similar reasons. But, it’s also hard to tell because people seem a little different when you’re a kid. But regardless of technological developments up here. Life still finds a way to stay pretty simple, away from the troubles of the “real world” for the most part.

Montana is more than just Polebridge though. Of course there is Glacier National Park which is widely considered to be one of the best national parks in the country. I used to think that Glacier wasn’t much more than Going to the Sun Road, which, don’t get me wrong, is incredible. But being able to live here for two months now, there are so many places in the park that you can go that are just as, if not more, amazing. There’s hikes scattered along everywhere you can go in the park, and if you stay away from the busiest areas, you’ll probably get a pretty private moment in nature especially when not in the busiest season.

Glacier has Avalanche lake, a gorgeous hike through a rainforest that opens up to a lake enclosed by mountains with massive waterfalls when the snow is melting. Many Glacier is another well known spot that has a massive historical lodge and a much different pace of scenery to the west where you get to see where the mountains end at the prairie. But Bowman and Kintla lakes are the real stars of the show. You can’t put a price on those views and color of water (except maybe the price to fix your car from the roads!). Ah it is just such a perfect location up here.

Outside of northwest Montana, the state is scattered with small towns, which all have something to say. I have had the pleasure of touring much of the state while my dad played his shows so it’s been pretty special to see so many towns. So many of Montana towns are old mining settlements, and that makes them pretty old. And the thing about pretty old settlements is that they were designed with walking in mind so nearly all of these places have wonderful downtowns with rich communities. Outside of the largest cities in Montana there isn’t much sprawl so it really feels like a richer community. Livingston is of course a highlight for me. There’s not many towns of its size in the country that feel as urban and walkable as it is. Being able to walk and bike down safe streets on my way to work when I was 15 was something really cool, and it’s a bummer that there’s not as many places in the US as other countries that you can feel that way.

I haven’t talked about Eastern Montana yet, and that’s for good reason. It’s not as, how should I put this, jaw dropping as the rest of the state. But that doesn’t make it bad by any means. It’s kinda comparing one of the greatest places in the world to a place I simply enjoy. It’s not the highlight by any means, but the open prairies of Eastern Montana stand out above similar environments in the country to me. You constantly are going over these massive, wide rolling hills which makes the world feel so much bigger. It’s because you can realize how far away what you’re seeing is. Montana is referred to as “Big Sky Country” and it’s kinda hard to explain how accurate it is. There are so many parts of the state that when you’re there, everything around you feels massive, especially the sky. Wyoming definitely gets some of this too but not quite to the same degree.

Montana is the type of place that makes you realize just how small of a part of the world you really are. This is not a bad thing at all. It gives me the perspective that all my problems just feel so miniscule. Why give them all the worry I am when it is just one small piece of my life, and I am just one small piece of this grand country. And when I realize that, most of my worries start to melt away. “Realize where you are right now. You’re in one of the most amazing places on earth.”

I love Montana with all my heart. Sure I don’t live here other than these 5 months I’m here now, but that doesn’t matter to me. The fact I can come back nearly every year of my life and be wowed by something new is what makes the state number 1. Sure Montana has some not great political leanings. But you know what, it’s the people who live and love here that are the real ones who know how important the conservation of our nature is. Nearly everyone is here because they fell in love with the wonders achieved through keeping much of the state untouched. And in the long run, I think mother nature wins. And as long as that is the case, Montana will always be my favorite state.

So that’s a wrap! Or is it? You may have noticed that I suspiciously timed this ranking to end the day before Independence Day. And that was very intentional. I still have 2 more blog posts planned over the next two days. The first will be all about my feelings of America at 250 and how I grapple with being patriotic despite seeing how many things are going wrong with our country. I swear, this is going to be an optimistic post despite how hard that may be. And then on the 5th, my final post will be somewhat of an epilogue to this specific blog. I’ll be going over my thoughts of my time doing this ranking and what I may have done differently if I got to start over. I’ll also go into what I’ve learned about the country and myself through this journey. So I hope to see you all tomorrow for my penultimate post.

America at 250

2. Alaska

The Autumnal