10 Reasons Why Arizona Is The Most Underrated State In The US

We've had a hand in everything from the official sighting of Pluto to providing landing training grounds to Mars exploration.

Baseball fans! Like knowing that your team is all set at the start of another season? You can thank our warm and sunny spring training weather for that.

Enjoy eating a tasty salad mid-winter? The main ingredient, lettuce, is Arizona's largest crop and Yuma and the surrounding area produces about 90% of the leafy greens each winter for the country.

Sure, you'll still find a ridiculous number of chains strewn across cities and towns but there's still plenty of independently-owned restaurants and food trucks that will give you a mouth watering meal.

I don't drink but I rely on friends and family who do to let me know that Arizona breweries make some tasty drinks that will satisfy connoisseurs. Plus, a number of them, like Four Peaks Brewery, have won awards and other recognitions.

People are regularly surprised we have mountains, forests, wetlands, and—gasp—snow!

Arizona is beautiful. There's not much else to say there without trying to become the state's next bard.

Enjoy those ode-worthy landscapes? We have 22 national parks plus 30 state parks and so much open space. Hopefully it stays that way.

While the actual cost will vary depending on where in the state you live, in general, Arizonans enjoy a lower cost of living than plenty of other Americans.

Ugh, one of the complaints I often hear is that Arizona has no culture. We do! It's just different from whatever uppity place those people come from. Historically, the state's culture comes from its Indigenous residents plus the Mexicans and Americans who migrated here from other areas. Mix those traditionally Western cultures with food, arts, sports, and other more "modern" signs of American culture and you get Arizona.