# How far away can you get from anything? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [April 14, 2020, 8:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-far-away-can-you-get-from-anything/851793 "2020-04-14T20:12:53Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![eschereal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eschereal/32/18939_2.png) [@eschereal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eschereal)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2020, 8:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-far-away-can-you-get-from-anything/851793/1 "2020-04-14T20:12:53Z")
Encountering a line in a set-in-19th-century story got me to thinking: the scout rides up and informs the people, “_The nearest settlement is 50 miles away_.” The question is thus framed as, in the part of the US between Canada and Mexico (the “lower 48”), is there a place where you can walk on the firm ground (not wade or sink) that is 50 miles from a town, and by extension, how far can you get from civilization (where you can stand/walk)? For clarity, the lower bound of “town” is a place where people (more than one) live year-round and there is at least one public establishment where a stranger can enter and do business (which can include a church or library, to stretch the definition of “business”). ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2020, 8:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-far-away-can-you-get-from-anything/851793/2 "2020-04-14T20:20:50Z")
[Glasgow Montana?](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glasgow,_Montana) Can’t tell you what’s within a 50 mile radius, but they say it’s over 100 miles to the next city. They do use this language in the wiki though: “…is the most populous city for over 110 miles…”, which likely means there is less population entity not that far away. ---
**Author:** ![AHunter3](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ahunter3/32/368_2.png) [@AHunter3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AHunter3)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2020, 8:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-far-away-can-you-get-from-anything/851793/3 "2020-04-14T20:27:33Z")
[I’ll drop you off here. Hope you like to walk](https://goo.gl/maps/nEBGYfqBVhRSCiUq7) ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2020, 8:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-far-away-can-you-get-from-anything/851793/4 "2020-04-14T20:27:48Z")
The best I can find so far is off of Highway 305 in Nevada between Bald Mt. and Mt. Moses. I think you can get about 40 miles from any settlement somewhere in there. ---
**Author:** ![Beckdawrek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beckdawrek/32/3647_2.png) [@Beckdawrek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beckdawrek)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2020, 8:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-far-away-can-you-get-from-anything/851793/5 "2020-04-14T20:33:02Z")
Dumptruck, Ark. Come visit me. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2020, 8:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-far-away-can-you-get-from-anything/851793/6 "2020-04-14T20:37:51Z")
Glasgow and the Pecos Wilderness don’t meet the OP’s criteria. There are settlements (hell, post offices and LDS churches!) within 10-20 miles of the places cited. ---
**Author:** ![Ulfreida](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ulfreida/32/8014_2.png) [@Ulfreida](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ulfreida)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2020, 8:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-far-away-can-you-get-from-anything/851793/7 "2020-04-14T20:43:31Z")
A hell of a lot of Nevada is 50 miles from a settlement. I am sure that is true in most of the west of the Rockies states, although not to the extent of Nevada. I know someone in Nevada who drives over 50 miles just to get her mail. ---
**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2020, 8:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-far-away-can-you-get-from-anything/851793/8 "2020-04-14T20:45:29Z")
My favorite “empty space” is the area around the OR-ID-NEV border. Playing with Google Earth there seems to be a place in N. Nevada that’s about !~45-50 miles from McDermitt, Tuscarora, Owyhee and Dickshooter. (Myself, I prefer to keep as much distance as possible from Dickshooter as I can.) Said Dickshooter doesn’t seem to be an actual town, so that gives some more room to the N., but the McDermitt-Owyhee axis seems to be the limit. S. of that seems “roomier” than N. of it going into Idaho. ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2020, 8:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-far-away-can-you-get-from-anything/851793/9 "2020-04-14T20:47:40Z")
By road, sure. As the crow flies, nope. (That was in response to **Ulfreida**.) ---
**Author:** ![Xema](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/9de053/32.png) [@Xema](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Xema)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2020, 8:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-far-away-can-you-get-from-anything/851793/10 "2020-04-14T20:48:20Z")
> [@AHunter3](#): > > [I’ll drop you off here. Hope you like to walk](https://goo.gl/maps/nEBGYfqBVhRSCiUq7) I don’t think this is likely to win. It’s indeed wilderness, but only about 12 miles from the village of Truchas NM - home ~500 people and a church, store, library and Post Office. ---
**Author:** ![snowthx](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowthx/32/10660_2.png) [@snowthx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/snowthx)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2020, 8:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-far-away-can-you-get-from-anything/851793/11 "2020-04-14T20:55:55Z")
Looks like [just under 20 miles](https://www.peakbagger.com/report/report.aspx?r=w) is the limit. _18.76 miles. You can drive this distance in 15 minutes on a freeway. But it is also the furthest away you can get in the “Lower 48” US states from roads, machines, and motors._ ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2020, 9:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-far-away-can-you-get-from-anything/851793/12 "2020-04-14T21:10:42Z")
That’s just from a road, not from a town. **ftg** might be right. Just east of the junction of Nevada, Oregon and Idaho is far from anything. The _ugliest_ patch of America to boot. ---
**Author:** ![eschereal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eschereal/32/18939_2.png) [@eschereal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eschereal)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2020, 9:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-far-away-can-you-get-from-anything/851793/13 "2020-04-14T21:30:41Z")
> [@silenus](#): > > Just east of the junction of Nevada, Oregon and Idaho is far from anything. The _ugliest_ patch of America to boot. “Ugliest”? Sounds like you have not been to Butte Montana (home of the famous “White Darth Vader” statue). The south side of Memphis is also a contender. Hell, Las Vegas is quite hideous (primarily the one in Nevada, which is emblematic of everything wrong with the country, but the one in NM is none too pretty). There are many urban areas in the country that are far uglier than the serest stretch of desert in the west. ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2020, 10:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-far-away-can-you-get-from-anything/851793/14 "2020-04-14T22:14:58Z")
I disagree. I’d rather look at Levittown or Hell’s Kitchen back alleys than that stretch of 395. Desert can be quite beautiful. That area…can’t. It’s where God dumped all the ugly that got removed when she made the Grand Canyon and Zion. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2020, 12:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-far-away-can-you-get-from-anything/851793/15 "2020-04-15T00:05:08Z")
I was going to suggest Glacier National Park, but it turns out that there are a few patches of private land in there with families living on them. And of course there are visitors’ centers and the like in the park where a stranger can do business. There are also residences inside Yellowstone, but they’re all at the northern edge. Maybe somewhere down in the southern end would qualify? ---
**Author:** ![RioRico](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/f04885/32.png) [@RioRico](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RioRico)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2020, 12:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-far-away-can-you-get-from-anything/851793/16 "2020-04-15T00:47:51Z")
If McFood is “everything” then look for the [McFurthest spot](https://www.huffpost.com/entry/map-every-mcdonalds-us_n_1084045) in the US. > [@Xema](#): > > I don’t think this is likely to win. It’s indeed wilderness, but only about 12 miles from the village of Truchas NM - home ~500 people and a church, store, library and Post Office. [del]Trout[/del] [Truchas](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Truchas,_New_Mexico) formerly housed a flute museum, too, but I guess it’s gone now. And I donated a nose flute to them! :smack: ---
**Author:** ![dtilque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d6d6ee/32.png) [@dtilque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dtilque)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2020, 1:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-far-away-can-you-get-from-anything/851793/17 "2020-04-15T01:16:55Z")
I thought it was somewhere in the [Frank Church–River of No Return Wilderness](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Church%E2%80%93River_of_No_Return_Wilderness) in Idaho. Based on my road atlas, it certainly looks like there is a place more than 20 miles from any town there. Possibly more than 30. ---
**Author:** ![Whack-a-Mole](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/whack-a-mole/32/141_2.png) [@Whack-a-Mole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Whack-a-Mole)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2020, 2:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-far-away-can-you-get-from-anything/851793/18 "2020-04-15T02:26:50Z")
There are some people looking for this and, as the article notes, defining “remote” can be a bit tricky. The kinda sad thing is, after trying to find these places, they note that nothing ever feels truly remote anymore. There is always some bit of civilization not too far away. > [@](#): > > The Means family have since been to the remotest spot in 33 of the 50 US states. At the time of writing, they are on a trip to add another three (Nebraska, Oklahoma, and Texas). > > Of the 33, the average remote spot was 6.8 miles from a road, and 0.8 miles from a trail. Almost two-thirds had mobile phone coverage. > > In the lower 48 mainland, the place furthest from a road - and therefore the remotest spot on the United States mainland - is in the Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming. > > It is 21.7 miles from a road, and required a week-long, 75-mile hike to get there and back. The spot itself is 0.7 miles uphill from the nearest trail. > > SOURCE: [Where is the remotest spot in the United States?](https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-42104894) ---
**Author:** ![Saint\_Cad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saint_cad/32/18907_2.png) [@Saint\_Cad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saint_Cad)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2020, 2:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-far-away-can-you-get-from-anything/851793/19 "2020-04-15T02:36:13Z")
I would think anywhere around [Canyonlands National Park](https://www.google.com/maps/@38.083007,-109.7962957,11z). ---
**Author:** ![eschereal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eschereal/32/18939_2.png) [@eschereal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eschereal)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2020, 5:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-far-away-can-you-get-from-anything/851793/20 "2020-04-15T05:23:44Z")
> [@Saint\_Cad](#): > > I would think anywhere around [Canyonlands National Park](https://www.google.com/maps/@38.083007,-109.7962957,11z). Moab, Green River, Monticello, Hanksville, Torrey, that area is pretty well pocked with towns. On foot, getting to them might be rather brutal, but none of them are more than 30 miles from the most remote centerpoint. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-far-away-can-you-get-from-anything/851793.md?page=2)