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What are your favorites parts of the Four Corners Region? Here is some criteria.
Mountains All four states fare wonderfully in this regard, so it's so hard to choose. I'll choose Utah only because of the amazingly close accessibility to the Wasatch Mountains from the metropolitan Salt Lake City region, as it's even more impressive than Colorado Front Range's accessibility to the Rockies.
Scenery All four fare wonderfully here, too. I'll leave it at that.
National Parks Utah. Just the variety and number of them.
Urban areas Utah overall for Salt Lake City, as it offers much of what Denver has to offer but on a smaller scale and at a lower cost of living (for now). Arizona fares well for smaller urban areas, but Tucson isn't that great beyond UofA and the urban core and Phoenix just isn't that great at all. I really like Albuquerque, NM for its local culture and friendliness, but the crime rate there is through the roof, and nearby Santa Fe is lovely but a touristy, artsy bubble. Colorado Front Range cities honestly seem to be the most bland of the major cities in these four states, and very full of people hostile to one another and visitors alike based on my experiences (though Fort Collins and Colorado Springs are a little better than Denver and Boulder).
Historical Areas While all four states have deep natural history, and Utah has quite a story with the growth of the Mormon church, my vote here is for New Mexico. The Native American history in NM is the most instrumental in that state's culture out of arguably any state in the union.
College towns Arizona, as Tucson, Flagstaff and Tempe are all there, and the vibes around those towns are just different than the rest of the Southwest, maybe because Arizona has put a little more emphasis on the "college town" concept than some surrounding states and it draws a ridiculous amount of students from Californa. Sure, Utah has SLC, which is nice but not a real college town, and Provo and Logan just aren't typical "college towns" exactly. New Mexico has Albuquerque, but there's no real college town vibe there. Colorado has Denver and Colorado Springs, which don't exactly have "college town" feels, but it has snooty, pretentious Boulder. Fort Collins seems fine. (Disclaimer: I no longer really care about the college town vibe thing, except only inasmuch as the vibe and "feel" of a town can be a reason to visit if I'm in its area.)
Winter recreation/skiing Colorado, only because of the breadth of its offerings and the well-developed tourist infrastructure
Culture New Mexico, for its influences of native, Hispanic, and Western cultures. I also like Utah's culture, too, even if it is slightly more conservative than I'm used to; the kind nature of Utahns, generally, really sets a positive tone in the state. Arizona is fine once you're away from Phoenix, and even Tucson is becoming a mini-Phoenix (albeit a more growth-controlled one) these days, culturally. Frankly, Colorado is stellar to visit, but would not be the best place to live because of the seemingly standoffish (or otherwise severely misunderstood) nature of many of its locals.
your favorite state out of the four, and anything else you can think of.
In order:
1. Utah (my vote)
2. New Mexico (a close second!)
3. Arizona (a very respectable third, but it could be second if it weren't for Phoenix)
4. Colorado (definitely at the back of the pack, primarily due to my opinion about the Front Range region)
I know this is an old thread, but I'll take a stab at it. See my responses, above, in red.
What are your favorites parts of the Four Corners Region? Here is some criteria.
Mountains
Scenery
National Parks
Urban areas
Historical Areas
College towns
Winter recreation/skiing
Culture
your favorite state out of the four, and anything else you can think of.
Mountains: Utah
Scenery: Utah
National Parks: Utah
Historical Areas: Utah
College Towns: Arizona
Winter recreation: I am not a fan of winter, but if I would prefer Flagstaff for a winter city
Culture: Arizona/Utah
Out of the states of the four corners, I prefer Arizona. Arizona just has so much to offer with a huge variety of cities, cultures, climates.
Utah is extremely underrated. It is a vibrant state with a large variety of mountain topography with lots of different topographies. I like the different urban areas in Utah, each one of the different cities in the state are very unique. They have alot of college towns in Utah also.
New Mexico is underrated in a few areas. A large percentage of the state has good weather overall. It is also the least expensive state I have ever been in overall.
You'll be happy to know that the University of Colorado @ Boulder has a very active College Republicans chapter, which more or less controls that school's student government. And if you're a Republican (as your name suggests), then you'll love Colorado. It's not Utah, but it is a pretty conservative state.
My experience with the CU system was that there was a huge amount of resentment against Affirmative Action in the law school and medical school. The white Republicans held an anti-AA "bake sale" at CU Boulder. I had thought the mostly white state would outlaw Affirmative Action in a vote like others had done (e.g. Florida, California, etc).
But the state voters in CO chose to keep Affirmative Action which REALLY surprised me. So, it seems like Colorado is in the middle politically. The white Republicans at CU were unable to pull off the policy change. Most of them didn't strike me as racist - it just seemed like they didn't like the policy. I am a brown Native American and lived in FL for a long time where AA was outlawed. I never heard a minority in FL complain about AA being gone. By contrast, in CO the accusations of racism from many minorities towards white Republicans were very frequent and intense. Personally, I didn't agree with that assumption. As I stated, I thought many of the white Republicans were just against the policy and were not racist. But it was controversial with protests and counter-protests - another red/blue depolarization.
As for me, I prefer NM but have to admit the job market for software engineers is far better in Denver and Phoenix. Albuquerque just has the Sandia Labs and a few other sparse choices for IT jobs. By contrast, Phoenix and Denver are loaded with jobs and a severe shortage of IT workers. I had multiple offers.
I said phoenix metro:
Phoenix Metro has - 4,192,999 people
Utah- 2.9 million
New Mexico- 2.0 million
Denver-600,000
Denver metro- 2.6 million
You are correct actually, I misspoke. But It does have more people then each place has individually or if you combined Denver and Utah or Denver and NM
That metro Phoenix number was from 2010 I believe but here's where the 2 states and 2 major metros stand in population today.
Metro Phoenix is at 4.9 million
UT population: 3.2 million
NM population: 2.1 million
Denver Metro: 2.9 million
Arizona for scenery. I think a lot of people forgot how flat and bland Eastern Colorado is. They also forgot Northern Arizona which has dense pine forest.
Last edited by Turnerbro; 10-31-2019 at 10:48 AM..
I like all four states but I chose to live in New Mexico. In addition to the categories below, the high desert offers the best four-season climate in the country. It is the fifth largest state with a population of two million.
Mountains -- New Mexico has the greatest variety of mountains. The Sangre de Cristos are the southern section of the Rockies. There are numerous volcanic peaks - Mount Taylor, for example. The Sandias are a huge and relatively young range on the eastern edge of the Rio Grande Rift. There are sky island mountains rising up from the desert floor and the Organ Mountains are true desert mountains.
Scenery -- See Mountains. See also White Sands and the many colorful desert landscapes. See the Rio Grande Gorge and the bosque forests in the fall. The eastern plains, punctuated by mesas and volcanic peaks, offer a special tranquil beauty. The Chihuahuan Desert is the most diverse desert in North America.
National Parks -- There's parks and monuments like Carlsbad Caverns, Rio Grande del Norte, Chaco Canyon, Gila Wilderness, and the Salt Missions...to name a few besides White Sands.
Urban areas -- Only a few -- that's a good thing. There's Albuquerque, of course; Santa Fe (est. 1610); Taos; Las Cruces; Roswell; the other Las Vegas... There's two of the oldest occupied towns in the country: Acoma and Taos Pueblos (c. 1000). There are dozens of small towns, like Abiquiu where Georgia O'Keeffe lived and worked.
Historical Areas -- No contest. New Mexico wins. Period. Chaco Canyon to the Trinity test site and now the Spaceport America. The Santa Fe Trail. Lincoln County War. Coronado.
College towns -- Yes, we have them, too.
Winter recreation/skiing -- I don't ski but many people do at Taos, Angel Fire, Cloudcroft, Sandia...
Culture -- We have three cultures braided into one and it works very well. The diversity is reflected in our food, arts, language, architecture, and many festivals/fiestas. There's also the world class Santa Fe Opera, the International Balloon Fiesta, the National Institute of Flamenco, Meow Wolf, and countless galleries and museums. You may also have heard of our chiles.
Recreation -- Lots of mountain and outback biking trails, hiking trails, rafting, fishing, hunting, camping or RVing, boating. No beach but plenty of sand -- pretty common to all four states.
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