How far do you drive?

How far do you drive?


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wsp_scott

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Something running through the back of my head for the last couple of years ...

How far do you have to drive to get "outside"? Outside can mean what ever you want, like a nice dayhike or a 7 night backpack or something in between, feel free to fill in the details in the comments.
 
I'll go first.

For perspective, I live in Lexington KY

I said 1 - 2 hours because that will get me to a large chunk of the Daniel Boone NF for dayhikes or a couple nights backpacking.

I also said 4 - 6 hours because that will get me to a large chunk of the SE Appalachians (Smokies, AT, WV, other national forests, ...) for longer backpacking or just something different.

after a drive of about 6ish hours, I would start thinking about flying somewhere.

How about you?
 
For local outside activities here in Nebraska, I usually keep it under 1.5 hours. There's little reason to drive much further for short day trips, can't get to anything appreciably different than what's close to home. Sometimes I will do a trip to the Sandhills, maybe the panhandle, that's 4-7 hours depending on where I go. That's a rare trip though. For proper backpacking, 10+ hours to get to anywhere in the Rockies (about 13-14 hours to the greater Yellowstone area). I hate flying (unless it's in a bush plane).
 
For dayhikes I can focus on close to home. Backpacking takes me to the Sierra (3-6 hours away, depending on route and destination). And then there are trips to Death Valley, the Southwest, etc...

And that doesn't count flights to Peru, Argentina, New Zealand...

Why is this a poll?
 
I often follow a rule "don't spend more time driving than hiking" but don't mind breaking it sometimes. Like for example a few winters ago one of my kids and I were bored so we drove from SLC to Crack Canyon, hiked down and up it, and went home. So that was probably twice as much driving as walking, which is fine as long as one has some good music, good conversation, or a book to listen to.
 
I live in western Washington. 2 hours gets me to the ocean, the Olympic mountains or the Cascades. I live within walking distance of a wildlife preserve or a 10 minute drive to a private forest that allows foot traffic if I want a quick fix.



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I tried to put all of them but the survey limited me to 3 options. I can walk two blocks to a peat mine that has several wetlands that have been created by the peat mines filling in with water as the permafrost has melted. Great area for waterfowl, beaver, moose, muskrat, and last night my son and I found a killdeer nest. It's an hour or so to the White Mountains NRA, a little more than 2 hours to the Alaska Range and Denali NPP, or the Denali Hwy on the south side of the Alaska Range, ~6 hours to the town of Chitina, where we dipnet for salmon, 6-8 hours to the Brooks Range or Kluane Lake, and more than 10 hours to the Whitehorse area and beyond. I fly to any trips in the lower 48, but I've been discussing a road trip with my 16 yo son, which is an awesome drive.

The longer trips have been falling off the radar the last few years.
 
i considered checking all also. there are trailheads for good day hikes right on the edge of town. definitely get me outside. but i've driven more than 10 hours to the grand canyon multiple times. and there have been some other long trips. so i checked every other option. there aren't a lot of places i'm interested in that would make much sense to fly to and still have to rent a car there. those kind of trips are still outside my price range.
 
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Boise and SLC are both relatively centrally located in the West. i doubt many people in either would opt to fly most any where out here, especially when many backcountry destinations don't have an airport right next to them. i think i'd probably always prefer to drive to Colorado, or the Sierra, or the Grand Canyon. i kind of enjoy the driving out here any way.

i guess if i ever had any reason to go out i East i might fly, same for say Hawaii or Alaska. but even going to Jasper of Banff i'd probably consider driving, just because it would be a nice drive any way.
 
Why is this a poll?

I put a poll in because I was curious if most people were lucky enough to have something really close (like 2 hours to the Pacific or the Cascades) or more like 10 hours to Yellowstone. Living in the SE, it is easy to forget how big the West is and how much driving it takes to get to places. I say that having driven from FL to CA and back and from FL to AK to KY. The US is big, especially out west :)

Thanks for the responses so far, makes me feel better about some of my relatively short drives, but 15 mins to Yellowstone like @Bob has makes me jealous
 
You also have to consider that, while it may be a several-hour drive to a destination in the West, the drive is almost always more pleasant than back east - no traffic, just open roads at high speeds. I never would have considered driving 6 hrs for a weekend backpacking trip when I lived in the midwest - but in the west, just grab a huge slurpee, crank some tunes, and have a nice relaxing scenic drive.
 
Way too far. Drive time between my place in Maine and the Winds in Wyoming is 35hrs says the app. Driving is cool now and then. Long drives are totally their own adventure. I can get into it but I’m glad when it’s over. There are local options within 1-4hrs but I almost never go. I live way out in the woods on the shore of a big pond and get most all the local nature I want right out the door. Plus when I’m home I often look after an aged dog and that is limiting.
 
15 minutes to some great backcountry that you can get lost in the Thompson Divide, 1 hour to the Conundrum Creek trail, which is the closest access to the high country in the White River National Forest. 1.5 hours to the Dominguez Canyon Wilderness, 3 hours to Moab, 5 hours to Cedar Mesa.
 

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