Is West Better?

I grew up in the rural blue ridge mountains of Virginia a couple miles from Shenandoah NP so I have a natural affinity for the Appalachian mountains.  I think there is nothing so serene as a stroll through the eastern forests of dense oak, poplar, spruce, maple, hickory.  The fall foliage is incomparable for its beauty.  There is something about being in the dense canopy that is surreal and encompassing. 

I am leaving tomorrow for a long weekend at my favorite camping spot in the foothills beneath the Blue Ridge Parkway.

That said, I took my first big RV trip west this year after years of flying out for vacations and the beauty and vastness is breathtaking.  The panoramas out west cannot be beat.  The best thing out west are the boondocking opportunities.  It is hard to find places to put a 35' coach in the Eastern national forests, but out west, you can pull over just about anywhere on BLM land it seems.  Interestingly, I found the roads equal to or worse than eastern highways.  They weren't as busy, but conditions were not great.  Also, I found it considerably more expensive for fuel and food west of the Mississippi.  I loved it and will be back often, but after three weeks, I missed the deciduous trees of the east!  Even with more people in the east, you can feel more isolated due to not being able to see as much from the ground through the trees.  Often you have to be almost on top of something before you know that it's there.  I'll post some pictures from this coming weekend that are sure to make you appreciate what the east has to offer.

I like both and will continue to enjoy both as long as I am able.  It's kind of like food, you can't have too much variety and too much of any one thing will put you in a rut but "its all good."  ;D

I can't do a comparison of eastern Canada to western Canada; but I can sure tell you when we crossed over in Montana from Saskatchewan, the fuel prices were less; but the campgrounds were a lot MORE in the States.  We found the food at the grocery stores to be about equal in eastern Canada; as well a eating out, maybe a few dollars more, but not much. 

When we entered Canada in early June, the Canadian dollar was 87 cents to our dollar; but begin to creep up.  When we left it was about 91 cents to a dollar.  So we were getting about 10% on the dollar.  At most of the campgrounds we were using a "Good Sam", FMCA or AAA discount of 10%, so at some places we were getting 20% off of an already lower rate than the campground in the states, so we were pretty pleased.  We used our charge card for everything; because the exchange rate was calculated in at the time of the charge.  Fuel  was the only thing that was noticeably higher; but I kept thinking of Russ, Betty and Terry and their high fuel costs when they visited the Maritimes the year before.  So we felt we had made a good decision to go this year.

When we got home and I glanced at the cod that was for sale at Vons, I could have fainted.  We got fabulous cod, mussles and scallops for nearly nothing right off the fishing boat in the Maritimes.  In the supermarket, it was exorbitant!!  Now I could kick myself for not filling the freezer full of seafood on the way home.

Marsha~

carson said:

DonTom, 
  I think you meant GST; (Goods and Services Tax) in Canada.

I'm just nitpickin'

carson FL

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I've always had trouble trying to keep up with the countless acronyms and what they stand for. But the real problem is the countless repeats. For one  example, "ALC" Alarm Cut Off (used in some microwave systems) or can be Automatic Level Control in countless other gadgets.

However, in the case of HST, please see here.

DonTom said:

Is it the Channel Islands or the Everglades that is not in the east? ;D

The other eight  I have been to many times.

The Everglades is on my wish-list.

-Don- SSF, CA​

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The Everglades are located in Florida, the very tip of Florida just above the Keys. The Channel Islands are located off the California coast. There are 8 islands in the chain, but only five are part of the National Park. They stretch from Santa Barbara to about San Clemente. Santa Catalina is probably the only one you have heard of and it isn't in the park. To appreciate the Islands in the park you must scuba dive. It is some of the best scuba diving in the world. Much better than Hawaii and the equal of the Caribbean. The Great Barrier Reef might be better, I don't know, I haven't been there yet.

BernieD said:

Tom

Not much land left in the east to turn into National Parks by the time they started to develop :-\

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I have given this subject many hours of contemplation. Imagine if the US had been settled west to east. Yosemite Valley would have more neon than Las Vegas. The Grand Canyon would have condos on every inch of the rim.

Personally I feel the west has 1000 times more natural beauty than the east. But the east has all the best man made structures, like Manhattan, Disney World, Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago, Smithsonian Museums, the White House, etc. So both are beautiful for different reasons.

Grizzlie Bears, Brown Bears, Black Bears, Prairie Dogs, Pronghorns, Elk, Mule Deer, Mountain Goats, Big Horn Sheep, Coyotes, Roadrunners, Golden Eagles, Condors, Moose, Pikas, Bison, are all reasons we are fascinated with the West.  We don't have to go to a zoo to see these in abundance, and not necessarily in National Parks, either!

Part of the fun of traveling the West is not knowing what you may see around the next curve or over the next hill -- it just might be any of the above.

And I can't think of anywhere in the East where you have hundreds of opportunities to have 50 to 100 mile vistas as you top the next rise......

Born and raised in and still a resident of the East, I know there are many beautiful areas, but I find the views of the west elicit WOW!s while those in the east elicits Aahs.

Don Nesbitt
Cary, NC

seilerbird said:

The Everglades are located in Florida, the very tip of Florida just above the Keys. The Channel Islands are located off the California coast. There are 8 islands in the chain, but only five are part of the National Park. They stretch from Santa Barbara to about San Clemente. Santa Catalina is probably the only one you have heard of and it isn't in the park. To appreciate the Islands in the park you must scuba dive. It is some of the best scuba diving in the world. Much better than Hawaii and the equal of the Caribbean. The Great Barrier Reef might be better, I don't know, I haven't been there yet.

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Yeah, we have been to Santa Catalina, many years ago,  on a cruise boat. I must have forgotten about the CA Channel Islands. Never been there and don't scuba dive.

I just looked up the CA Channel Islands here.  But I was first thinking about the Channel Islands shown here.

I do my best to stay away from Southern CA. This area near SF is crowded enough!

But I assume those islands don't have much of a crowd.

gmsboss1 said:

Grizzlie Bears, Brown Bears, Black Bears, Prairie Dogs, Pronghorns, Elk, Mule Deer, Mountain Goats, Big Horn Sheep, Coyotes, Roadrunners, Golden Eagles, Condors, Moose, Pikas, Bison, are all reasons we are fascinated with the West.  We don't have to go to a zoo to see these in abundance, and not necessarily in National Parks, either!

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I think I heard that coyotes can now be found in 49 states. Not sure about Hawaii!

I have yet to see a Grizzly bear (a type of Brown Bear) or Big Horn Sheep anywhere in the west, but I have been in their areas countless times. The rest of your list I have seen, and more. And my dogs once made the mistake of trying to chase Pronghorns, which look like rabbits at a distance.  Boy, did they get confused when they started to get chased at the same time I was screaming a big fat "no!".

I saw my first wild Mountain Goats just two weeks ago, in Jasper National Park. Here they are:

gmsboss1 said:

Grizzlie Bears, Brown Bears, Black Bears, Prairie Dogs, Pronghorns, Elk, Mule Deer, Mountain Goats, Big Horn Sheep, Coyotes, Roadrunners, Golden Eagles, Condors, Moose, Pikas, Bison, are all reasons we are fascinated with the West.  We don't have to go to a zoo to see these in abundance, and not necessarily in National Parks, either!
Don Nesbitt
Cary, NC

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Don, you forgot horses, pigs, domestic sheep, cows, burros, domestic goats, roosters, turkeys, and skunks.

    Marsha I'm sorry but we don't have a large enough freezer to bring you a winter's supply of fish.  However, I did warn you that you would become addicted to its taste.  ;D
    I say again, east, west, north or south diversity is the spice of life and if all of us didn't want to enjoy the different areas of the continent we would sit in our stick houses watching the boob tube instead of RVing

Ed,  Drats I thought you could load me up.  ;D  Actually I was wondering if a Maritimes fish distributor could overnight drop ship fish packed in dry ice.  However, I'm probably not going to be able to do that.  I'll just have to drool like Tom J. does when you Atlantic Canadians talk about your great fish. 

Marsha~

seilerbird said:

Don, you forgot horses, pigs, domestic sheep, cows, burros, domestic goats, roosters, turkeys, and skunks.

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He also forgot ring-tailed cats, coati-mundis, and bobcats.

Carl L said:

He also forgot ring-tailed cats, coati-mundis, and bobcats.

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Don't forget dogs, cats, ginnea pigs, mice, rats, hampsters, beatles, mosquitoes and snakes. No wait, they have world record amounts of mosquitoes back east.

I agree with Ed. We have RVed in 49 states, the 10 Canadian provinces and two of he territories. We have enjoyed all of them.
Many of them many times and all have their great points and some not so great points. The thing is to get out there and see for
yourself all the great things these two great countries have to offer.

Dave

Marsha
Costco now sells PEI mussels and they are very good and reasonable

gypsy-jim said:

Marsha
Costco now sells PEI mussels and they are very good and reasonable

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Wahoo....Thank you!!!  I'll be sure and look for them!

Marsha~

I spent most of my 60 ears i the east, subtract out 4 years in the Air Force, add back the 1 1/2 in NC.  The West is fantastic!  We are heading back east for winter, but already talking about the route back here next spring. 

National Parks, I am embarrassed to say while living in New England we never got to Acadia.  Since being out west, we have only been to Zion and Yellowstone, but ext year we will do better. 

This year we were in a hurry and a tight budget.  In2 years we will have our pass, then watch out.

I am surprised Ystone is so far down your list.

Never mind the ranking, you, being a birder I see your priorities. 

For me, having been in only 2 of the NP's Ystone is top of my list.  Zion was beautiful, but a month there you would prety much see it all.  A summer here d we have just scratched the surface. 

Still want to get to te rest, list may change, but there is such a diversit of birds, animals, lndscapes etc here.

PancakeBill said:

Never mind the ranking, you, being a birder I see your priorities. 

For me, having been in only 2 of the NP's Ystone is top of my list.  Zion was beautiful, but a month there you would prety much see it all.  A summer here d we have just scratched the surface. 

Still want to get to te rest, list may change, but there is such a diversit of birds, animals, lndscapes etc here.

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Excuse me, but there are a lot more birds in the east by a long shot. The west is mostly desert.

seilerbird said:

Excuse me, but there are a lot more birds in the east by a long shot. The west is mostly desert.

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Not exactly.  A lot of the West is mountains, coniferous forest, rain forest, coast, savannah, plains and urban development.  Desert there is, but even then the desert is broken up by mountain ranges many of which are heavily forested.