Desolate Places Near Metropolitan Areas

[kphoger]

Polk County is like that.  One second nothing the next second viola.

Actually, Lake Viola isn't in Polk County.  It's about two miles south of the county line.

[Bruce]

The core metropolitan counties of the Puget Sound region stretch deep into the Cascades, which means a lot of uninhabited wilderness is technically in the Seattle MSA.

[JayhawkCO]

The core metropolitan counties of the Puget Sound region stretch deep into the Cascades, which means a lot of uninhabited wilderness is technically in the Seattle MSA.

This is in Aurora, CO (370k people) where I live.

This is in Denver city limits.

Chris

[US 89]

The core metropolitan counties of the Puget Sound region stretch deep into the Cascades, which means a lot of uninhabited wilderness is technically in the Seattle MSA.

Isn't this true of just about every western metropolitan area?

[KCRoadFan]

This picture of I-270 in Maryland speaks for itself. (Distance sign and everything!)

https://www.google.com/maps/@39.3107997,-77.3493924,3a,75y,131.57h,82.79t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sUuZhCQLbCIzlp_U0X4nfuA!2e0!7i13312!8i6656

[Ketchup99]

I don't know if it's been mentioned, but the Meadowlands in New Jersey should come close.

[Sctvhound]

The Francis Marion National Forest for Charleston. You only have to go 6-8 miles off US 17 to SC 41 to see roads with a few hundred cars a day.

[webny99]

This picture of I-270 in Maryland speaks for itself. (Distance sign and everything!)

This is just my opinion, but 36 miles seems a bit far to truly be considered "near" the metropolitan area. Even if there's suburbs nearby, well, that's exactly what you'd expect at that distance from a large city. I took it that what is being looked for are places that are at most 10-15 miles from the urban core.

To cite my own area as an example, here's 15 miles and 12 miles to Rochester on I-490, and those are far from the best examples I can find: Kings Hwy is a mere 5 miles from Downtown Rochester, and Paul Road south of the airport is only slightly further.

[tradephoric]

I remember seeing a movie where they are disposing of a body in a really desolate marshy area, but in the background is the view of NYC.  Unfortunately I don't remember the movie and i don't know where the shot was taken.  But it was cool view.

[tradephoric]

^It might have been shot at Marine Park and they used a really narrow field of view to get the city skyline in the background.  I'd love to know what movie I'm thinking of.

[MikeG]

NV-375, the Extra Terrestral Highway about 90 minutes out of Las Vegas now has gasoline and a store in Rachel, NV since July 2020. This is the closest town to Area 51, and lots to see and experience.

Assuming you're counting land only (the oceans obviously don't have humans living there), the Everglades and the Miami metro area are going to be the best example in the United States. There was a similar thread about this; it was slightly different, as the other thread was about places that feel desolate, while this one is about places that are desolate.

[achilles765]

.

2) New Orleans, Louisiana is probably in a similar boat as Miami. I've never been there (though I have seen road videos, pictures, street-view, and more from the area), but I am guessing that since the New Orleans Metro Area is below sea level, close to the coast, and IIRC, surrounded by marshlands, there is probably a pretty abrupt change of scenery when exiting the Metro Area in any direction.

If you're heading west on IH 10 toward Baton Rouge, it's heavily urban from about a mile or so east of the French quarter until Loyola drive. After Loyola drive, dry land ends and you're on a 12 mile bridge over the water. When heading east, the major development stops just past Ih 510 and then begins to look very rural, though the mile or two before 510 isn't exactly very developed.
When heading north, there's the causeway which goes from highly urbanized Metairie to immediately in the middle of the lake.
So yeah you are imagine it pretty accurately. 

[MinecraftNinja]

Directly east of Baltimore across Chesapeake Bay is pretty rural.

[zachary_amaryllis]

The core metropolitan counties of the Puget Sound region stretch deep into the Cascades, which means a lot of uninhabited wilderness is technically in the Seattle MSA.

This is in Aurora, CO (370k people) where I live.

This is in Denver city limits.

Chris

if you hadn't mentioned it, i would have. head east on i-70 not terribly far, and you're in the boonies for sure. it wasn't that long ago that people thought dia was in the boonies. my father used to say it was in westen kansas as a joke.

[KCRoadFan]

The core metropolitan counties of the Puget Sound region stretch deep into the Cascades, which means a lot of uninhabited wilderness is technically in the Seattle MSA.

This is in Aurora, CO (370k people) where I live.

This is in Denver city limits.

Chris

if you hadn't mentioned it, i would have. head east on i-70 not terribly far, and you're in the boonies for sure. it wasn't that long ago that people thought dia was in the boonies. my father used to say it was in westen kansas as a joke.

I've sometimes thought of eastern Colorado as basically being a western extension of Kansas.

What's more, before it became a state, Colorado actually was a part of the Kansas Territory - in fact, Denver was named for the territorial governor at the time it was founded.

More info: https://www.kshs.org/kansapedia/james-w-denver/15510

[KCRoadFan]

This Street View picture is within Chicago city limits.

https://www.google.com/maps/@41.9527052,-87.8481079,3a,75y,309.4h,82.6t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1socC_WAFhubyFYun4hZXHMA!2e0!6s%2F%2Fgeo3.ggpht.com%2Fcbk%3Fpanoid%3DocC_WAFhubyFYun4hZXHMA%26output%3Dthumbnail%26cb_client%3Dsearch.revgeo_and_fetch.gps%26thumb%3D2%26w%3D96%26h%3D64%26yaw%3D351.59558%26pitch%3D0%26thumbfov%3D100!7i16384!8i8192

[WillWeaverRVA]

Development is quickly changing this as it expands along US 60 and US 360, but much of western and southwestern Chesterfield County, VA (considered part of the Richmond/Tri-Cities metro area) is very empty. Same deal with Hanover County except along US 1 and US 301.

[Avalanchez71]

Here is Bell's Bend in Nashville.
https://www.google.com/maps/@36.1496945,-86.9011993,3a,75y,204.28h,75.01t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1s5eAUHY9iYiYjaGFHFkmpow!2e0!6s%2F%2Fgeo0.ggpht.com%2Fcbk%3Fpanoid%3D5eAUHY9iYiYjaGFHFkmpow%26output%3Dthumbnail%26cb_client%3Dmaps_sv.tactile.gps%26thumb%3D2%26w%3D203%26h%3D100%26yaw%3D78.313705%26pitch%3D0%26thumbfov%3D100!7i16384!8i8192

[thenetwork]

The core metropolitan counties of the Puget Sound region stretch deep into the Cascades, which means a lot of uninhabited wilderness is technically in the Seattle MSA.

This is in Aurora, CO (370k people) where I live.

This is in Denver city limits.

Chris

if you hadn't mentioned it, i would have. head east on i-70 not terribly far, and you're in the boonies for sure. it wasn't that long ago that people thought dia was in the boonies. my father used to say it was in westen kansas as a joke.

I've sometimes thought of eastern Colorado as basically being a western extension of Kansas.

What's more, before it became a state, Colorado actually was a part of the Kansas Territory - in fact, Denver was named for the territorial governor at the time it was founded.

More info: https://www.kshs.org/kansapedia/james-w-denver/15510

Another interesting factoid:  James W. Denver's Great-Great-Grandson was Bob Denver, of Dobie Gillis & Gilligans Island fame.

[Takumi]

Development is quickly changing this as it expands along US 60 and US 360, but much of western and southwestern Chesterfield County, VA (considered part of the Richmond/Tri-Cities metro area) is very empty. Same deal with Hanover County except along US 1 and US 301.

And US 360. Mechanicsville is pretty built out now. Also, eastern Henrico has some very undeveloped areas.

[sparker]

I yapped a bit about the wilderness area north of Santa Barbara a couple of years ago in the earlier phase of this thread; but there's an example immediately east of my San Jose home -- a functional wilderness southeast of Mount Hamilton, itself only a dozen crow-fly miles east of the populated SJ flatlands.  Part of it is contained in the Henry Coe State Park, but most of it is roadless, save for the county signed extension of CA 130 that heads over the ridgeline and then east to Patterson in the San Joaquin Valley (and one of Max R's fave drives).  If one takes 130 and its extension as the northern edge of this zone, it would be bordered by that road, I-5 and CA 33 on the east, CA 152 on the south, and the range east of the San Martin Valley (Gilroy to Morgan Hill) and the Coyote Creek drainage to the north of that (Morgan Hill to San Jose).  About the only accessible (from Morgan Hill) section is the aforementioned Coe State Park, the remainder is relatively untouched territory characterized by oak trees and scrub brush growth (and definitely fire-ready!).  Fortunately, most of the area isn't topographically amenable to efficient housing development, so that hasn't been an issue; the remoteness of the portions not contained in the state park are a further hindrance to such activity.  Thus the odds of it being developed for housing -- or even recreation beyond the park, which functions as a nature preserve, are quite slim; it'll stay desolate for the foreseeable future.   

[zachary_amaryllis]

The core metropolitan counties of the Puget Sound region stretch deep into the Cascades, which means a lot of uninhabited wilderness is technically in the Seattle MSA.

This is in Aurora, CO (370k people) where I live.

This is in Denver city limits.

Chris

if you hadn't mentioned it, i would have. head east on i-70 not terribly far, and you're in the boonies for sure. it wasn't that long ago that people thought dia was in the boonies. my father used to say it was in westen kansas as a joke.

I've sometimes thought of eastern Colorado as basically being a western extension of Kansas.

What's more, before it became a state, Colorado actually was a part of the Kansas Territory - in fact, Denver was named for the territorial governor at the time it was founded.

More info: https://www.kshs.org/kansapedia/james-w-denver/15510

and like that, i learned something new today. always a great day when that happens.

[cpzilliacus]

This Street View picture is within Chicago city limits.

https://www.google.com/maps/@41.9527052,-87.8481079,3a,75y,309.4h,82.6t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1socC_WAFhubyFYun4hZXHMA!2e0!6s%2F%2Fgeo3.ggpht.com%2Fcbk%3Fpanoid%3DocC_WAFhubyFYun4hZXHMA%26output%3Dthumbnail%26cb_client%3Dsearch.revgeo_and_fetch.gps%26thumb%3D2%26w%3D96%26h%3D64%26yaw%3D351.59558%26pitch%3D0%26thumbfov%3D100!7i16384!8i8192

Beach Drive, N.W. in Washington, D.C.

Beach Drive in Montgomery County, Maryland.

Beach Drive  in D.C. is owned and maintained by the National Park Service and serves Rock Creek Park (in D.C. all of it is owned by the NPS).

Beach Drive in Maryland is owned and maintained by the Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission.

[debragga]

This is in Dallas city limits, only a few miles from downtown:
https://www.google.com/maps/@32.7521773,-96.7340433,3a,75y,64.34h,90t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1svHN9gP_bsme-uEh1ROq3pQ!2e0!6shttps:%2F%2Fstreetviewpixels-pa.googleapis.com%2Fv1%2Fthumbnail%3Fpanoid%3DvHN9gP_bsme-uEh1ROq3pQ%26cb_client%3Dmaps_sv.tactile.gps%26w%3D203%26h%3D100%26yaw%3D60.26798%26pitch%3D0%26thumbfov%3D100!7i16384!8i8192

14 miles southeast of Dallas, barely outside of city limits, is the small community of Sand Branch, which doesn't even have running water: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/nov/23/texas-town-without-running-water-sandbranch

Street view from nearby Belt Line Rd: https://www.google.com/maps/@32.6419089,-96.6182511,3a,75y,169.74h,90.6t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1sCrf8qpygS7gi4r03k_a8Ig!2e0!6shttps:%2F%2Fstreetviewpixels-pa.googleapis.com%2Fv1%2Fthumbnail%3Fpanoid%3DCrf8qpygS7gi4r03k_a8Ig%26cb_client%3Dmaps_sv.tactile.gps%26w%3D203%26h%3D100%26yaw%3D284.6106%26pitch%3D0%26thumbfov%3D100!7i16384!8i8192