What's the "best" place you've ever been?

[big_slacker]

It's great to hear some people mentioning places I also think are great!

Zion-I lived in vegas and took my wife on our first camping/hiking trip here. Awesome scenery and really easy access to hikes.
Red Rock Canyon-Weekdays in spring or fall are the best, way less tourists. Really good climbing in the Calico basin, really good mountain biking on the other side outside Blue Diamond. Also, the 12+ mile scenic loop that is bumper to bumper on weekends is basically a sportbike track on weekdays. There are only a couple of spots where rangers park, if you're not being too outrageous you're free to rip it. So many low speed corners you never get fast enough to do much real damage.
Alaska-I've worked up there quite a bit and have some great memories. Hiking/climbing flatop mt outside anchorage, bombing around a co-worker's dirt road neighborhood in quads, seeing moose in town, hammered in downtown anchorage in the middle of winter and giving the corporate logo coat I just got to a homeless dude, haha! Denali is awesome and vast. My favorite place is Juneau. I did an 8 mile trail run that was pretty magical (Perseverance trail if you're ever there), fresh crab down at the docks, short drive to the mendenhall glacier. The misty hills right next to town are amazing.
Western Cascades, WA-I live here currently and bitch all winter. But these mountains are amazing as well, especially in the summer. Everything is so green, and there are so MANY trails, campsites, little known lakes it's easy to get away from people even really close to Seattle. The mountain biking especially is incredible here.

[Parizade]

Love this, Parizade.   I grew up there, and it is still Home more than anywhere else for me.  One of the things I miss most is the sky.  I did not fully appreciate its breadth and beauty until I moved away.  There is something very special about the contrast between it and the green rolling hills.

I've often wondered what makes the sky so amazing here, I've had guests ask too. It's some combination of geology and moisture I'm sure but it always looks like a work of art. I'm far enough away from the big city lights to have an amazing night sky too. Summer nights are magical, with twinkling stars above mirrored by a shimmering blanket of fireflies below.

[YttriumNitrate]

For nature, I would say the Antarctic peninsula. While it has some similarities to Alaska, the wildlife is far more accessible due a lack of land predation, the difficulty in getting there keeps the number of tourists in check, and the amount of ice and snow is at a whole other level.

[IndyPendent]

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[Jenny Wren]

The Hoh rainforest in Olympic Nat'l Park.

If I were the religious sort, then the Hoh rainforest would be my church.

[Tabaxus]

Honestly, I've got to say, of all the places I've been, Bend, Oregon, was probably the best.  It's surrounded by absolutely breathtaking nature a ridiculously short way away.  I could spend the rest of my life there.  Unfortunately, it's no hidden gem, so I'll never be able to afford to retire there because property values have skyrocketed, but my goodness. 

Iceland is remarkable too, but good lord does it get cold.

(I definitely trend toward nature as opposed to the big cosmopolitan cities.  Unfortunate given my job choice, but alas...)

[dougules]

The Hoh rainforest in Olympic Nat'l Park.

If I were the religious sort, then the Hoh rainforest would be my church.

Honestly, I've got to say, of all the places I've been, Bend, Oregon, was probably the best.  It's surrounded by absolutely breathtaking nature a ridiculously short way away.  I could spend the rest of my life there.  Unfortunately, it's no hidden gem, so I'll never be able to afford to retire there because property values have skyrocketed, but my goodness. 

Iceland is remarkable too, but good lord does it get cold.

(I definitely trend toward nature as opposed to the big cosmopolitan cities.  Unfortunate given my job choice, but alas...)

Honestly I could just start naming amazing places in the PNW and it would be a while before I'd really have to stop and think. 

[dougules]

I actually tried brainstorming all the amazing places in OR and WA, and without much trouble I got out in no particular order

I've been to:
Mt. St. Helens
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Columbia Gorge
  [redacted]
  Vista House
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Olympic Mountains
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Seattle
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[redacted] and [redacted]
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I really want to see:
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[redacted] Lake and Mountains
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Crater Lake
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[redacted] R.I.P.
Orchards in the [redacted]
[redacted] Springs

I could probably go on if I actually thought about it more.

[sol]

I actually tried brainstorming all the amazing places in OR and WA, and without much trouble I got out in no particular order

I consider the redacted portion of this post to be a violation of your PNW resident's agreement.  The first rule of fight club is...

Keep it up and you're going to find a gift shop that sells cheesy snow globes and $6 lattes at every one of those spots.  Hush!

[Lanthiriel]

Alaska. As a whole, but if I had to pick one place, I'd say Seward/Resurrection Bay. When I used to live in Anchorage, I would take day trips out there by myself and literally sit on the beach and watch the otters and cry because everything was so beautiful and I was so happy. I love Alaska because it's both peaceful and terribly wild at the same time. Since I moved back to the Lower 48 (jobs), I find my life is just so boring. I'm not keeping an eye out for moose or bears, watching the termination dust come down the mountains, or stopping at the banks of the Kenai to watch the salmon runs. Everything here is just so muted.

The husband and I are planning a trip to Costa Rica, though, so I'm excited that's popped up so many times!

[Tabaxus]

I actually tried brainstorming all the amazing places in OR and WA, and without much trouble I got out in no particular order

I consider the redacted portion of this post to be a violation of your PNW resident's agreement.  The first rule of fight club is...

Keep it up and you're going to find a gift shop that sells cheesy snow globes and $6 lattes at every one of those spots.  Hush!

Oh, we all know.  And the solar eclipse blew off any remaining secrecy there may have been about the paradise racket you all have set up out there.

Beware.  The Midwesterners are coming.  The Midwesterners are coming.

[dougules]

I actually tried brainstorming all the amazing places in OR and WA, and without much trouble I got out in no particular order

I consider the redacted portion of this post to be a violation of your PNW resident's agreement.  The first rule of fight club is...

Keep it up and you're going to find a gift shop that sells cheesy snow globes and $6 lattes at every one of those spots.  Hush!

Yes, I almost didn't post it for that very reason.  I'm on the opposite end of the country now, though, well out of reach of the Oregon Secret Police. 

[dougules]

Better?

[big_slacker]

PacNW is horrible, nothing but rain, gloom and people with badly faded dyed hair.

This spot is definitely in Cali. Also, big stupid SUVs suck. :D