"Canada, eh" oh now that's an original. Never heard that before.........

 

Mudblaster,

If you like to ride atv's, Phoenix AZ is THE BEST PLACE ON EARTH to live.
Half the state is national forests or state trust land which are open to riding.
There are some little sand dunes about 3 hours away, I think the're called Glamis. You may of heard of them. Want to ride your quad on the beach? 4 hours away in Puerto Penasco, Mexico.

What makes Arizona the best is the variety. We can ride in the forests, mountains and desert [all within an hour drive of my house]. Dunes and ocean within 4 hours. There probably isn't a McDonalds or a Home Depot within 4 hours of you. j/k

We get all 4 seasons. We just keep them up in the mountains. It's really nice here for 8 months and very hot for 4 months. That's when we drive an hour to Payson where it is 20 degrees cooler.
I grew up and lived on the southern tip of Lake Michigan for 35 years where half the year sucks and the other half it rains too much. We used to make plans and get rained out half the time, that just doesn't happen in Arizona.

The weather and the proximity to cooler weather [and snow] is why Phoenix and Las Vegas are the fastest growing areas in the states.

Last year during Christmas break my family from Indiana was in town and they were busting my chops about having no snow on X-mas. So we drove 45 miles to the top of 4 Peaks [elevation 7600 ft], loaded up the back of the pick-up with snow and drove it back to my house. We then built a couple of snow men next to the pool while we were swimming. Only in Phoenix.

BTW, I've been here 2.5 years now and I have never seen a scorpion, a live rattlesnake, [seen 'em dead on the road outside of town] or a swarm of killer bees. They are here though, I admit.

 

mc donalds is only 30 mins away. and the trails are just across the road. and i ride all year around rain snow sun it dosent matter to me what the wether is like. here in bc there is so many differant kinds of riding conditions i dont have to drive anywhere to go riding i just hop on the quad and go.we got all the rough and tough areas around here and it just across the road. and we even have a huge sand hill that we play on if we want to.but my favorite place to ride is the trails down to the river.because it's a tough trail ride down to the river then it's all sand- rocks and water hole's with lot's of mud. you get it all in one ride. cant beat that for fun.and thats what it's all about isant it. fun. i bought my quad to have fun and for work on the farm and it does both very well. trail riding was the least of my plan's when i bought it. i got it for work in the yard, the trail riding was an added bonus. but i must admit i do more riding then yard work with it.and that dont make the wife too happy, but she understands as long as i do some work with it.[img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif[/img]

 

Grandpa had the best of both worlds. (I say "had" 'cause he left us all for that Big Sand Dune In The Sky last February... and that's another topic, except to say the only thing that should be smoking is a worn-out chainsaw.)
Anyway, for the last fifteen years of his life he was in Arizona all winter, dunes & rocks & desert,
and spent his summers in his native Idaho, with awesome dunes, 6000+ mountains, and 75% of the land in our huge state being public lands, with pretty liberal ATV-access laws.

He needed a riding buddy up here (Idaho), my wife was loving how handy his Yammie was around her over-gardened yard, and we managed to justify two new ATV's "to keep Grandpa happy, and to use around the yard."

She got hooked on the backroads, ya, and the yard's pretty much up in weeds (neighbor's kid mows it, when we nag him) 'cause we're "out there, somewhere."

Guy across the street wandered over yesterday afternoon, wanting to ride. Half-hour later his dirt bike and my Honda were on the trail to the Montana line -- the convergence of three NF regions, spiderwebbed with ATV trails, single-track dirt roads, gorgeous creeks & rivers, and 50-mile vistas from the ridge of mountains along the state line(s), the westernmost ridge of the Rockies.

Eighty miles later, after a 5100 ft. pass, a sandwich & gas in remote Trout Creek, Montana, we were back at the truck. In the length of time it'd take for a CostCo run, we'd tasted some of the most awesome country in the "Lower 48."

So my vote's on Idaho, y'all -- don't get me wrong, it's aweful here so don't come see us, ohno, you really wouldn't like it here....<g>
Did I mention that we met two trucks and a saw a couple of parked Polaris Sportsmen (no doubt broke down, hee hee) in the entire 4-hour ride?
Awesome country, pretty much deserted (except the three big summer holiday weekends) until snowmobile season. Those roads & trails are MINE, whenever I choose to walk out the back door.

And best of all -- ya -- we're close enough to Saskatchewan that one weekend we just might truck up to Prince Albert and torment Winchester -- eh?

 

Isn't Idaho in Canada? Who needs to go to Idaho? All your state has to offer is dunes, mountains and potatoes. [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-wink.gif[/img] We've got dunes and mountains and.....well, so I gotta stop at Burger king for fries.

I've played at Gonzaga and Montana, took the bus between Missoula and Spokane, very pretty country. And you have to respect any University that names it's self the Vandal's.

 

Don't forget the elk-burgers, elk-steaks in our North Idaho restaurants -- they go great with the potatoes!
And you're right -- that Spokane-Missoula stretch of I-90 is one of the prettier Interstate drives in the U.S.

One slight correction: Idaho is NOT part of Canada (for starters, we price things at maybe 40% less).
Here in the Idaho panhandle, I've heard of our neighbors to the North referred to as living in the "Panhandle Annex."

[Help! Help!! Mommy - make that man stop siccing his pet moose on me!! ]

 

I saw a BIG elk last week on the way down from Strawberry which is like 80 miles from here. There are far to many elk - car collisions in Arizona.