America's Least Outdoorsy State Is A Surprising Appalachian Destination

If you love the great outdoors, you'll love exploring the U.S. A quick roll call: Three mighty oceans, the Pacific, the Atlantic, the Arctic; three soaring major mountain ranges, from the sequoia-speckled lands of the Sierra Nevada in the west all the way to the mist-cloaked valleys of Appalachia in the east; Four deserts; over 100,000 lakes; and stacks of stunning and storied road trips. There's some serious majesty in the stars and stripes. So, it should only stand to reason that the American people are just about as outdoorsy as they come, right? Not so fast.

Recent research undertaken by the independent outdoors gear outfitter KÜHL reveals that there are indeed some states where the spirit of adventure is very much alive and kicking. But there are also states where it's not so fervent. The folk at KÜHL analyzed Google search data to see how many people per 100,000 were searching for outdoor-related terms in each territory. The most outdoorsy of all? That honor went to the Green Mountain State of Vermont. The least? Pennsylvania — you city slickers, you!

In fact, the data showed that there were a mere 1,774 searches for various outdoor-related terms in the Keystone State over the course of a whole year. That equates to just one person in 56. This may come as a surprise because Pennsylvania certainly isn't short on tempting natural wonders, after all. It borders the beaches and waterside campgrounds of the Great Lakes on one side, and is also officially a part of Appalachia — that region with such totemic pursuits as the 2,190-mile Appalachian Trail and the wiggling Blue Ridge Parkway, "America's Favorite Drive."

KÜHL got their stats by collating the number of people in each state searching for terms relating to a range of outdoor activities. Granted, there are some categories in which old Keystone hardly stands a chance — surfing, for example (Pennsylvania's only access to the ocean is via the mouth of the Delaware River). But there are plenty of categories where you'd expect the state to perform better than some — KÜHL measured searches in biking, hiking, fishing, hunting, and camping, too.

All of those are certainly on the menu in this part of the northeast. A pretty hefty segment of the state now officially falls within the Northern Appalachia region, after all. And, while the urbanites of Pittsburgh might not feel totally Appalachian, they can still trade the city skyline for the old-growth white pine woods and rustic island campgrounds of the Allegheny National Forest, which is just under two hours away. That's a whole reserve of more than half a million acres that encompasses huge tracts of the Appalachian foothills.

And you don't even have to go that deep into Appalachia to get your taste of the wilderness in Pennsylvania. Out east — within easy day trip distance from New York City no less, the endless scenic trails of the mountainous Lehigh Valley await. Then there's the adventure mecca of the Pocono Mountains, where ziplines meet MTB routes alongside peaceful, rural villages like Gouldsboro.