{"id":1342,"date":"2022-04-08T19:54:05","date_gmt":"2022-04-08T19:54:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/paperslife.com\/english\/?p=1342"},"modified":"2022-04-08T19:54:07","modified_gmt":"2022-04-08T19:54:07","slug":"the-united-states-most-extreme-places","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/paperslife.com\/english\/the-united-states-most-extreme-places\/","title":{"rendered":"The United States’ Most Extreme Places"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

As American travel to other countries is still restricted, there’s no better moment to assess what America has to offer. Look no further than your own backyard to scale the highest peak, witness wild rainfall, roast in the scorching sun, or freeze in sub-zero temperatures instead of traveling to far-flung corners of the globe. We’ve compiled a list of all of America’s extremes, from highest to lowest, driest to wettest, so you won’t even need your passport.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Deepest Lake<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Crater Lake in Oregon is 1,943 feet deep, making it not only the deepest lake in the United States but also one of the deepest in the world. It’s also one of the cleanest and clearest large bodies of water in the world, measuring over five miles broad and more than six miles long with a surface area of 20.53 square miles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Quietest Place<\/strong>
The quietest area in the continental US can be found in Olympic National Park at Washington’s Hoh River Valley. With its fungus-covered logs and lichen-spotted trees, it’s also one of the world’s most complex forest systems. It’s also a temperate rainforest, one of the few in the United States. During daylight hours, there must be silence intervals of 15 minutes or more for the place to qualify as truly quiet, and it’s all documented by a man named Gordon Hempton.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Windiest<\/strong>
With average yearly winds of 12.3 mph, Boston, Massachusetts, can claim to be the windiest city in the United States, closely followed by Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, with 12.2 mph. Mount Washington in New Hampshire is the windiest site on the planet. Mount Washington, in fact, held the world record for the highest wind gust ever recorded on Earth for nearly 62 years: 231 mph on April 12, 1934.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Darkest<\/strong>
Because the nearest source of artificial light is more than 40 miles away, New Mexico’s Cosmic Campground in Gila National Forest is thought to be the darkest place in the United States. It’s ideal for a solitary stargazing experience.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Must Read: Radioactive beaches of Guarapari: a paradise with deadly sand<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Lowest<\/strong>
Death Valley has set yet another record. At -279 feet below sea level, Badwater Basin in Death Valley, California, is the continent’s lowest land point. The basin also has salt flats, which provide an eerie but photogenic experience. The lowest point is actually a few miles to the west of where the designated sign points and its position varies depending on rainfall. Until a spot in Argentina was discovered, the basin was considered to be the lowest point in the Western Hemisphere. Laguna del Carbon lies at =344 ft, and is also the site of dinosaur fossils.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"denali\"
mount denali<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Highest<\/strong>
With a height of 20,310 feet, Mount Denali formerly known as Mount McKinley\u00a0in Alaska is North America’s highest peak. , is the world’s third most isolated peak, after Mount Everest and Argentina’s Mount Aconcagua. The first documented attempt to climb it, which is located in Denali National Park, was attempted in 1903, but the climber was unsuccessful. In 1906, another effort was made, and the climber reached the summit; however, the ascent was unconfirmed, and its authenticity was doubted. A group of climbers officially registered the first summit on June 7, 1913.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Coldest<\/strong>
Fairbanks, Alaska, holds the title of the coldest city in the United States.\u00a0 Fairbanks’ average temperature in the coldest month is -16.9 degrees Fahrenheit, with a historic low of -66 degrees Fahrenheit, while Huron, South Dakota, can boast of being the coldest city in the United States. North Dakota’s Grand Forks is the coldest city in the lower 48 states. Prospect Creek Camp in Montana recorded -80\u00b0F in 1971, with Rogers Pass in Montana coming in second with -70\u00b0F in 1954.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Hottest<\/strong>
Another record exists in Death Valley, albeit it’s not one you’d want to experience. The thermometer at Greenland Ranch, which was subsequently properly called Furnace Creek, recorded 134 degrees Fahrenheit in 1913. The only other place in the United States that has ever come close is Lake Havasu City, Arizona, which touched 128 degrees Fahrenheit in 1994, followed by Gold Rock Ranch, California, at 129 degrees Fahrenheit in 1995.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Driest<\/strong>
Death Valley is widely recognized as North America’s driest place. Because of its inland location, the average rainfall is less than 2 inches. To continue on their journey, winter storms moving east from the Pacific Ocean must pass through mountain ranges. As the clouds ascend higher in the sky, the moisture condenses and falls on the western side of the ranges, leaving Death Valley on the east side dry. There was no rain between 1929 and 1953. Not at all.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Mount Waialeale known as the wettest spot on Earth, Kauai, Hawaii<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Wettest<\/strong>
Mount Waialeale on Kauai, Hawaii, is thought to be the wettest spot on the planet, receiving over 460 inches of rain every year. Contrary to popular belief, the wettest cities in the United States are Mobile, Alabama, which receives more than 62 inches of rain each year, and New Orleans, Louisiana, which receives pretty much the same amount of rain every year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As American travel to other countries is still restricted, there’s no better moment to assess what America has to offer. Look no further than your own backyard to scale the highest peak, witness wild rainfall, roast in the scorching sun, or freeze in sub-zero temperatures instead of traveling to far-flung corners of the globe. We’ve …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1354,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30,31],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1342","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-life-story","category-world-is-wide"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/paperslife.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1342","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/paperslife.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/paperslife.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paperslife.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paperslife.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1342"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/paperslife.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1342\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1355,"href":"https:\/\/paperslife.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1342\/revisions\/1355"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paperslife.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1354"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/paperslife.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1342"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paperslife.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1342"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paperslife.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1342"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}