Cool Obscure Places

[smartyiak]

I get sent a lot of shitty places for work. In just the last month, I've been to: Victoria, TX; Houston, TX; Gulfport, MS; and Mobile, AL. All of these places kind of suck...I guess I'm not a big fan of the South. Many of these places I'd NEVER go to unless work forced me to.

Well, this week I find myself in Pinetop, AZ. It is appx 3.5hrs east of Phoenix appx 7,200ft in the White Mountains. Yesterday, I arrived in Phoenix to 113deg. Started driving: beautiful drive. By the time I arrived in Pinetop: 76deg. Woke up in the morning and went for a run in the National Forest: cool air, lots of trees, clean air...wonderful run. The whole town smells like evergreen (I guess it was named appropriately).

Sure it's a bit touristy...not sure I'd want to live here...and I would never have come here (never even heard of it) if work didn't make me. But, I would definitely come back for a week of camping or sight-seeing.

Any places you got sent where you thought: WTF??? only to find you thought it pretty cool and glad you went?

-Smarty

[BmillsSkier]

TGR forums.

Midway Kentucky

[4matic]

Petoskey Mi.

[iceman]

I had never heard of McCall ID (obviously plenty of people have though) but I dug it.

[13]

McCall & Hailey, ID
San Luis Obispo, CA

Petoskey Mi.

If you liked Petoskey, you might like Leland, Charlevoix, and Saugatuck too.

[brice618]

Deirks Ar

Torrey Ut

On the super touristy side - Virginia city, Mt

I found the Museum of the Future in some tiny town in eastern Nevada. It was a dilapidated cedar shack, dry and twisted, windows broken, no doors.

[Steven S. Dallas]

SLO is cool.

I like Keene, NH and Stonington, CT a lot too.

[toast2266]

Maybe a slightly more specific location than you were looking for...
http://www.ohairemotorinn.com/?p=sip-n-dip

[milton]

Petoskey Mi.

Walloon Lake is pretty sweet!

[Tippster]

Shepherdstown, WV,

[Tech Tonics]

Fayetteville WV

[bagtagley]

Staunton, VA
Lexington, VA
Davis, WV

[Meadow Skipper]

Just off the top of my head: Sand Point ID, Eagle AK, Wisdom MT, Alpine WY, Markleeville CA, Arcata CA, Bisbee AZ, Lamoille NV, Brianhead UT, Florence OR, Ashland OR, Paonia CO, Methow Valley WA. Of course, now they're all ruined.

[The Reverend Floater]

Idaho in general.

[systemoverblow'd]

I was sent to Durango once for work. No other places I liked or didn't really know about prior.

The girl got sent to Coeur d'Alene. She thought "Idaho? WTF mate!" and I told her to wait and see for herself. She loved it.

[bendtheski]

Where I live. Does seem to attract a ton of gapers, especially in the Summer months.
I fit right in!

The County building was remodeled last year. Lots of old B&W photo enlargements on the walls now from mining days.
This one's my favorite. Check out the ladies on top of the big rock outcropping on Gray's. I've been here and the pucker factor is pretty extreme, these chicks climbed it in dresses=badass!



This one's pretty cool. I ride by the Hotel de Paris on my way to and from work every day.



I know most people think of Georgetown as a crappy gas stop, but it's got a lot of history and a pretty cool downtown historic district, Energy Museum and of course the Loop.



Kind of a Norman Rockwell feel around the holidays and nowhere near the shit-show of Denver-Metro or Summit, although I suppose that depends on your definition of shit-show; you still have to drive I-70 to get here.

For the record I in no way represent Georgetown businesses or tourism, but if you're visiting I will gladly tell you to get off my lawn.

[Meadow Skipper]

Oh, I forgot Marfa TX, and there are no cool obscure places in NM.

[GiBo]

I had to go to Butte, MT for my niece's track meet. Not an extremely obscure place, but I never would have otherwise gone there. We stayed in the downtown at the Finlan. Downtown was deserted, but I found the architecture and history of the place fascinating. The people we're really cool too. My niece and her other Billings friends called it Butt, MT, but, hey, they're 17.

My great grandfather, a miner, immigrated from Croatia and Butte was one of his stops. We went to a mining museum/archive place and looked for records. That was pretty cool. The person there gave us tons of history on the town.

Didn't expect much from Butte, but it was awesome.

[iceman]

Just off the top of my head: Sand Point ID, Eagle AK, Wisdom MT, Alpine WY, Markleeville CA, Arcata CA, Bisbee AZ, Lamoille NV, Brianhead UT, Florence OR, Ashland OR, Paonia CO, Methow Valley WA. Of course, now they're all ruined.

Well, yeah, now that they've been mentioned.

[4matic]

Ashland OR, .

I went to Southern Oregon. I love Ashland. Didn't mention it because the Shakespeare Festival makes it a destination city of sorts.

[hutash]

I wouldn't include Lincoln Nebraska in winter on that list

I actually enjoyed the few days I was there despite the weather. I went for a dawn run in 0 F temps, which was different since I live in southern California.

All towns have some redeeming feature if one gets out and looks for it.

[Soups]

Pismo Beach, CA
Munising, MI
Lander, WY

[Jumper Bones]

All towns have some redeeming feature if one gets out and looks for it.

Altus Oklahoma? I think not sir! There is no saving that town.

I had a surprisingly good time during a 2-week trip to Yuma AZ. Most people think it's a hole, for some reason that trip was really fun - might have been the working conditions and what we were doing (easy life during the day and partying at night).

I managed to have a lot of fun in Wichita KS too.

[Meadow Skipper]

Well, yeah, now that they've been mentioned.

Yeah, that's what I meant.

And Jumper B, Yuma, really? I only ever wanted to GTFO of that place. I'm impressed.

[frorider]

Aspen, CO.