Where would you rather live: in or near the mountains, the prairies, or cratons?

Mountains :)

Mountains, without a doubt… the crispness of the air, the beauty whether you are looking up or down, the impact on the horizon, the effect on the weather making every day different… just love them…

I live in the high foothills of the Sierra Nevada mountains and am a mountain person at heart.

I love the beauty, peace, wildlife, star gazing, and sense of security that living in a secluded place affords me.

I love that I do not have to lock my house, car and that I never worry about being a crime victim. Not that it couldn’t happen, but, it is much more unlikely.

Mountains all the way for this country mouse!

I love living near the ocean.

Given the choices I would go for the Cascades.

I don’t just want to live in a craton, it is my life’s goal to be a craton.

I am a rock, I am an i-i-island.

I live on a mountain now. I’d be really happy to get back to lake Huron or lake Michigan. Not one of your listed choices, I guess, unless you consider Michigan to be a prarie.

near the mountains. Preferably this one

My ideal place would be near a small town at near a larger city at the base of a mountain on the coast in a place that is not hot all of the time…
Anyone know where I can live? ;0)

None of the above. I would rather live in a city by the sea.

Thanks to all.

“Baby’s in the mountains. The air is cleaner there”

Peter Godwin – Baby’s in the mountains
3:55
Peter Godwin – Baby’s In The Mountains
6:52 (extended mix)

:-D

@Trillian,
I always thought of Michigan to be more craton than anything:
Category:Geology of Michigan

@uberbatman,
Lovely. For some resaon I thought Mount Fuji. :-D

@GracieT, How about Los Angeles? Don’t some of the hills cool things down (I’ve never beeen there).

@downtide,
Los Angeles? Tokyo? Honolulu? Hilo?

I suppose mountains are nice with their heights and climate variations, but while I have little fear of earthquakes, tsunamis, or volcanoes (perhaps foolishly); I like the sense of permanence, or greater permanence of cratons.

Btw, how are the biting flies in mountains?

@Civic_Cat Rather San Fransisco than LA. Honolulu – maybe but Hawaii seems a bit isolated to me. I don’t fancy Japan at all. Sydney would be fairly high on my list. Staying closer to home (Europe): Barcelona, Valencia, Naples, Marseille.

How hilly is Manchester? My city, Toronto, is pretty flat save perhaps for the ravines. 100–200 km north, where the Sheild begins-a craton, it gets a bit hillier.

Manchester itself is fairly flat but we have the Pennines just a 20 minute drive away to the east.

Oh, @Cruiser , save a tent site for me…I love the Cascades! Camped there many a time…

Very close to the Rockies , in a valley with wildflowers and deer all around. Oh; and a mile from walmart and sixty restaurants. LOL
Someplace cool where it never gets into the nineties or below forty.

Near the ocean.

Mountains :)

Well….it’s obvious we should all conspire to do some house swapping. lol

Waterfall? Ok Mountains.

I live fairly close to the Cascades, here in Seattle, and I cannot imagine not living near mountains and forests. I do think prairies are very beautiful, but there is something about the ruggedness of peaks and the life under the canopies of trees that are far more alluring to me.

Ditto@GracieT. Yes I know of a few wonderful small coastal towns in Northern California.

Near the mountains. I live on the flat prairies——it’s pretty boring.

But my first choice would be near the sea, near mountains. Seattle is a nice city, so is Vancouver, British Columbia.

@Civic_Cat Good question, although I would ideally need to reside within climate bands and vegetation zones (eastern U.S.), and then the asthetics of the general landscape come to hand. I’m also in preference of North America.
This is mind I’d love to live in the mountainous zone along the Coast Batholith/Range. The raw layout of this landscape usually mimics cratonic outcropping although on a grander scale, as its not eroded basement rock, but eroded plutonic intrusions of rock (granite, meta- basaltic) through oceanic sedimented limestone and shale. It Is also situated within a thin band of temperate rainforest as fronts condense and precipitate into some of the highest rainfall counts in the world. Beautiful douglas-fir and western red cedar thrive here. Sure its very cloudy, but I always saw that as a more intimate/mysterious atmosphere anyway.
I’m also very interested in the precambrian shield of Ontario and Quebec although winter would present a challenge. It is a massive and relatively unihabited zone of dense stands of somewhat stunted pines and firs within an intimate and grand display of one of the largest/oldest displays of rock on earth. Much of the outcropped mass of craton is multiple billions of years old. Just pages back in geologic time transitioning from the Appalachian Mountains north.

@toaster, Agreed.
I wonder if the Appalachian Mountains would be a decent comprimise?

@Civic Cat Ohh definitely! Asheville, North Carolina looks to be unbelievable.

I wold have to say the mountains. So beautiful with the fresh, clean, crisp air. :)

Actually, when my husband I went to Vancouver I said many times that I would love to live there!