39. Arizona

And we finally enter the 30s with what I think might be one of the most overrated states in the country.

“Beautiful” Petrified Forest National Park

People, please stop moving to Arizona! I get it, you want to live in a place that never gets cold, but eventually the environment won’t be able to handle the 10 million air conditioners and golf courses everywhere. Arizona is hot. Too hot some might say. It might be nice in the winter, but otherwise, I would refer to it as unlivable. Like I think most people could not last more than a few hours outside in the summer. 

I’m gonna come out and say it! Phoenix makes me uncomfortable! There are nearly 5 million people that live in the Phoenix area. It is all because people won’t stop moving to the region and there has been so much land to expand the suburban areas. But the city has sprawled too far. Now it’s getting to the point the Phoenix cost of living isn’t that good anymore, and yet somehow people keep moving there. There’s probably some of these suburbs you’ve never heard of that are bigger than famous US cities. Have you heard of Gilbert, Glendale, or Chandler? Chandler just became bigger than the city of St. Louis by the way. Mesa, Arizona is larger than the cities of Miami, Omaha, and Minneapolis. I wouldn’t spend this much time on Phoenix if it weren’t for the metro area accounting for nearly 70% of the state’s population. 

Grand Canyon viewed from the east

You go out of Phoenix though, and you can see some pretty neat scenery. I would love to go to Tucson or Yuma. But so much of the desert in Arizona is so barren and so little to look at. It kind of makes you appreciate the state because of how vast it is, but unfortunately it just doesn’t, for the most part, match up to its neighbors. To be fair, there is some really stiff competition. I won’t get to Utah for a little while, but during my March trip, going from Utah to Arizona was night and day.

But even if it doesn’t match up to some of the other desert states, there is still a lot to appreciate. I can’t not give the Grand Canyon a mention, even if while there it felt like I was in the most crowded place on earth. And I’ll leave you with one of the truly beautiful sites I got to experience as the sun set on one of the coolest, widest landscapes I’ve ever seen.