Alaska! That place is in a class all it's own! More big game species than anywhere else I can think of in North America. Coyotes and WOLVES! Don't they have wolverine and lynx hunting there, as well? Bears, bears, and more bears. And plenty of upland game and waterfowl. Mostly common sense when it comes to gun laws or more correctly, the lack thereof. The cost of living and bugs are a bit of a downside, but in light of the huge upside, I could learn to live with those. Now, if I could only convince my wife of that. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif
Outside of AK, I think my home state of Utah has, or better yet had, the potential to be a great outdoor state. Lots of different hunting opportunities. As an bird hunter, I can tell you we have a bigger variety of upland game birds than most other states. Pheasant, two species of quail, sage grouse, ruffed grouse, blue grouse, sharptail grouse, mourning dove, blue pigeon, huns, chukars, ptarmagin, sandhill crane, and two species of turkey. Several big game species, rockchucks, prairie dogs, jack rabbits, fox, coon, and coyotes. A huge variety and opportunity for waterfowling for everything from Tundra Swans on down to cinnamon teal. Lots of public land (somewhere in the neighborhood of 70%, I beleive) and fairly easy access to different hunting situations and and a wide variety of different habitats. You could conceivably be in a salt marsh hunting ducks, high altitude alpine meadows chasing elk, farmland gunning for pheasants, rocky arid desert slopes hunting chukar, and sage covered, high desert prairies calling coyotes, all in the same day. However, current DWR manangement practices leave somewhat to be desired for many game species. But that's nothing in the way of a problem compared to roughly 1 million + people that live in the Salt Lake metro area, a relatively small, narrow stretch of land roughly 90 miles long, from Weber County in the North to Utah County in the South, and maybe an average of 15 miles wide, through most of that area. Our license fees seem to do nothing but increase. Taxes and administrative "fees," such as vehicle registration fees, are nearing proportions like those in socialist enclaves like California and New Jersey. For an allegedly "Conservative Republican" state, we're nickeled and dimed on just about everything when it comes to taxes. Government "programs" and services for the "less fortunate," which is increasingly a widely defined group, funded at tax payer expense are popping up exponentially. the one bright spot is our gun laws, which are fairly friendly to gun owners and supporters of the 2nd Amendment. Along with that, our laws concerning using a firearm for self defense are fairly liberal (in the classic sense, not meaning left wing) and favor the law abiding citizen, not the "poor, disadvantaged criminal" as they do in other states. However, the left wing is growing and isvery vocal already. There is a growing elite, upper class (often the same of the aforementioned group) that includes land grabbing celebs like Robert Redford. Crime is rising and once good, decent areas to live at cess pools. Anyway, I think Utah would have been in the running at one time, for best outdoor state, but not anymore.
WY, ID, MT, and NV all seem to be a lot like UT used to be. I've been mulling around the idea of moving to one of these states. I've even floated around a few resumes and job apps. I had been contacted recently for an interview in St. Anthony, ID recently, but the interview date conflicted with other obligations. I hope I get a call on the next time around. The wages, in comparison to what I make in in UT leave a bit to be desired, but I know the cost of living is a little lower too. Anyway, I'm at least keeping my ear to the ground.
