Saskatchewan is SO flat! How flat is it? It’s so flat that if your dog runs away you won’t lose total sight of it for 3 days. (da boom tisss)
Like pkbites, I’ve been to all 50 and I also think North Dakota is the most boring, whole state considered. Yes, a lot of Kansas, Nebraska, Western Texas and I-80 in Pennsylvania are interminably long and boring, but the more interesting parts of those states make up for it. North Dakota? When my wife and I planned our trip that included ND, we had to settle, tourist attraction-wise, for one of those rural pioneer museums that so many small midwestern towns have, and we arranged a tour of pilot training facilities at the college in Grand Forks. We did drive through Theodore Roosevelt National Park, but having seen the South Dakota Badlands the year prior, we weren’t overly impressed.
So what the heck, you’re welcome, Glad to have you with us, Even though we may not ever mention it again
Texas is only debris washed down from New Mexico.
The Dakotas are what’s left after a glacier invasion.
The Mississippi Basin drainage is a fractal turkey track.
Some states would seem boring except they’re vicious.
“May you live in exciting times” is supposedly an old Chinese curse. I’ll take boring, thanks.
Or hiking, camping, white water rafting/kayaking/jet boating, hunting, shooting, camping, skiing, exploring ancient lava fields, going to small venue concerts, going to large venue concerts, going to concerts held in botanical gardens, the food scene isn’t there quite yet, but it’s getting there, I’m partial to the Ethiopian/eritrean restaurant ran by an Ethiopian family, had a cajun place for a while that was opened by a hurricane refugee from LA, until he moved back to Louisiana (truly was a terrible loss, his food was excellent). Nah, Indiana, only has one thing going for it, a frigging car race, for formula cars, so not even so called “stock car” racing.
To late for edit, but sorta ninja’d by muffin
And mallard, :rolleyes:
And wikipedia is objectively wrong.
Head east out of Arkansas City on U.S. 166, and the topography gets rather interesting, 
My vote is for Kansas. Drove across the state once. Stopped for gas at some small town and got back on I-70. Drove for 45 minutes and thought I had started heading west instead of east. Everything looked the same.
Stumbled across the highest point in Illinois once. Could see much, some low growing bushes blocked the view.
I’ve had very limited experience with Kansas… but I was on a bus heading West across Kansas, so I was pretty sure I hadn’t accidently turned around. And I had the damnedest impression I was heading the wrong way.
I’m used to the southern hemisphere. The shadow was on the wrong side of the bus.
Here is how they compare: we crossed much of Kansas on 2-lane highways, coming from [del]Kans [/del] Colorado, where the dividing line is quite subtle. Then, 'round about Manhattan, we turned north, toward Lincoln. The state line between Kansas and Nebraska is somewhat less subtle. Kansas is, I guess, a pretty state, if you like that sort of thing. Nicely groomed. Nebraska looks like people live there.
Here are some of my criteria:
- A state with mountains isn’t boring. (Note to South Carolina: that’s mountains, not foothills.)
- A state with ocean beaches can be boring, but if so, at least it’s boring in a pleasant way. It’s boring in a way that has redeeming social value, if you will. All other things being equal (though they rarely are), a state with beaches is less boring than a state without them.
- Major cities can be boring, but again, all other things being equal, a state with major cities is less boring than a state without them.
- States that are the home of significant regional cuisine aren’t boring.
If you can get into the city center to partake of the breadth of the urban experience. cities can have a lot to offer. But, for a traveler, that may not be practical, perhaps even not worth the effort, and larger cities can be intimidating to a greenhorn. So, you stick to the outer reaches, or the suburbs: there you discover stultifying homogeneity. Some variety does exist on the edges of cities, but you really have to look hard between the targets and applebees and regals and all the corporate pablum that softly quivers across the country.
MX-1 through Sinaloa state is pretty boring except for the gunfire.
Hey Chefguy! You are always welcome to correct my mistakes. You do it in such a way that I almost always learn something useful. You never put me down for being mistaken. I sincerely wish more people would take your approach when correcting others.
Hear hear, Charlie Wayne!
3 out of 4 of which are in a 25 mile circle just outside Rapid City in the Black Hills.
May as well throw Deadwood/Lead in there since it’s pretty close by, if only for the popularity of the TV show set there.
Much of ND is pretty flat, yes, but up north, near Canada, the Turtle Mountains tower more than a hundred feet over the surrounding plain. More seriously, though, when you get west of Minot, the Missouri and Little Missouri carve some genuine texture into the land. And, of course, there are many towering flames from fracking rigs.
If you cross southern Idaho on I-84, it can be tedious as hell between Fruitland and Burley (the stretch south of the I-86 interchange is easier to take , since it means you are almost out of Idaho). If you leave from Idaho Falls and head toward either Arco or Salmon, there are many miles of the dimmest landscape you will ever traverse (though, near Salmon, we saw magpies, iridescent in the afternoon sun, about ever 200’ up the road). And, quite frankly, US 12, though the hills and trees and river might be pleasing, is turn after turn of exactly the same thing for over 100 miles from Kamiah to Lolo Pass.
Well yeah, suburbia is boring pretty much everywhere. Same with interstate highways. Comparing states by their suburbs and interstate highways would be like comparing national parks by their parking lots and bathrooms.
I really think a lot of these opinions are based on really limited or old experiences. Sure, driving through Pennsylvania on I70 is boring as hell, but Pittsburgh and Philly have a lot to offer.
A few people mentioned Indiana… and specifically the liquor laws… those have been gone for a few years now. You can now buy anything you want in most grocery stores anytime you want. We were just listed in a Forbes survey in the top states to visit. We have the top attendance sporting event (Indy 500), professional teams, we hosted one of the top rated Super Bowls, the top rated Children’s museum in the country (adults love it too), award winning parks and trails, and are frequently mentioned in the up and coming food scene. My suburb has been listed multiple times in various “best places” surveys. We also have the newest National Park.
Again, if you have just driven through or haven’t been there recently you may not have a very good objective. I lived in Kansas when I was 3 but don’t think I could be a very good judge of what it is like now.