Is Colorado Number 1 for the Outdoors?

Outdoor activity and Colorado go together like peanut butter and jelly: you can have one without the other, but it's not as fulfilling. There's entirely too much beautiful scenery out here for us NOT to spend as much time as we can outdoors.

With such a close relationship between our state and being outside, you'd correctly assume that we're one of the top states in the nation for outdoor activity. But we all know the question that really matters in this scenario: are we number 1?

Close, but no Cigar!

According to InMyArea.com, Colorado sits at number 5 in the overall ranking of outdoor-friendly states. While that may be a little disappointing, we are actually part of what the site describes as "domination" of the list by Western states!

Oregon ends up taking the top spot, followed by Montana, Wyoming, Washington and Colorado for the rest of the top five. Rounding out the top ten are Utah, California, Idaho, Alaska and Nevada, respectively. As you can see from that list, West is the best!

Texas, not so much...

All that being said, it turns out some of our most immediate neighbors have the exact opposite view of the outdoors as we do. Turns out, Texas holds the distinction of being the LEAST friendly to outdoor activity in the entire country! Which is weird...because horses and cowboys, right?

Also, shockingly in the bottom ten, lies one of our next-door neighbors: Kansas! The Sunflower State lands at number 41 on the list, which is only about five spots lower than our other neighbor on that side of the street, Nebraska, which sits at 36.

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OH-no! Say it ain't so!

What I find personally disappointing, however, is that my birth state of Ohio is the third worst state for outdoor activities! I lived there for the majority of my formative years. I distinctly remember people being outside, many of whom were running or riding bikes!

Basically, I don't understand how my Buckeyes have let themselves fall so low on this list. I know the winters are often gross (particularly in the northeast of the state, where I grew up), but the summers are just as great in Ohio as they are elsewhere, so they should be getting out more!

Unless, of course, it's raining. Nobody in Ohio does anything when it's raining.