Places where you leave a city/state/province/country to travel within it

August 24, 2016 7:25 PM

Geography-trivia-filter: Are there notable instances of where one must temporarily exit a territory to get to another destination within it? The most notable examples are Alaska (vs. the continental US) and other exclaves, but I'm also interested in instances where one basically cuts a corner of another territory just to get around within it.
posted by Seeking Direction to Grab Bag (44 answers total)

Response by poster: Also: things like Interstate 86's brief crossing from New York into Pennsylvania and back into New York.
posted by Seeking Direction at 7:28 PM on August 24, 2016

Highway 191 from Big Sky, Montana to West Yellowstone, Montana dips into Yellowstone Park (Wyoming). There's no other way around that by car. If you want to get from West Yellowstone to Gardiner, Montana, the shortest way is through Yellowstone (again, Wyoming), or you're doubling the length of the trip.

I think you're going to find other examples out west because the mountains prohibit a lot of east-west travel.
posted by AFABulous at 7:34 PM on August 24, 2016

Northwest Angle, Minnesota
posted by Maarika at 7:39 PM on August 24, 2016 [3 favorites]

The state of Michigan comes to mind.
posted by gideonfrog at 7:49 PM on August 24, 2016 [2 favorites]

To drive from Dubrovnik in Croatia to Split in Croatia you have to travel through Bosnia and Herzegovina. Or indeed to get from anywhere in the little bit of Croatia to the big bit, you need to leave it as the country is in two segments.
Worth looking at on a map.
Also a great deal of Palestine and Israel is split up in this way.
posted by stevedawg at 7:49 PM on August 24, 2016

Armenia is in two pieces, last time I looked. There are a couple of small European nations, inside of other nations. San Marino, is one. Point Roberts up under Vancouver BC is the very tip of a Canadian isthmus, but the last 1/2 mile or so is US territory.
posted by Oyéah at 7:51 PM on August 24, 2016

Point Roberts, Washington
posted by Redstart at 7:51 PM on August 24, 2016 [5 favorites]

Kaskaskia, Illinois is an exclave, lying west of the Mississippi River and reachable (by land) only by traveling through Missouri.

Though Missouri and Kentucky share a border, there are no road crossings over the Mississippi River between the two states. US 60 and 62, which connect the states both travel through Illinois at Cairo.

The Kentucky Bend is a part of Kentucky that lies on a peninsula formed by a bend in the Mississippi River. To the north, east and west, across the river, lies Missouri. To the south, by land, is Tennessee.
posted by brentajones at 7:53 PM on August 24, 2016 [3 favorites]

When driving from central Canada to the western Canada, I've known several people to suggest that the most direct route is to cross into Michigan, pass Lake Michigan on either the north or south side, and continue west to North Dakota before crossing back into Canada.

Another one that comes to mind is crossing through Maine when travelling from southern Quebec to New Brunswick.
posted by bkpiano at 7:55 PM on August 24, 2016 [2 favorites]

the fastest route from Toronto to New Brunswick (both in Canada) is through Vermont, New Hampshire & Maine (not in Canada) - mostly Maine, which sticks up awkwardly. We should just annex it.
posted by jb at 7:55 PM on August 24, 2016 [1 favorite]

Traveling from Tiverton or Little Compton in eastern Rhode Island to Providence, you have to enter Massachusetts before returning to Rhode Island on I-195. You could technically stay in Rhode Island if you really wanted to by going through Bristol, but it'd be way slower on all local roads.
posted by janerica at 8:14 PM on August 24, 2016 [1 favorite]

Carter Lake, IA
posted by wwartorff at 8:20 PM on August 24, 2016 [1 favorite]

West Germany used to be like that, because of West Berlin.
posted by lollusc at 8:22 PM on August 24, 2016

You don't have to go this route, but one very common way to get to Athens, OH (home of Ohio University) from anywhere north/east of it (like Cleveland, Akron, or Youngstown) includes traveling about 15 miles in West Virginia on I-77.

Cleveland OH is in Cuyahoga County. I-90 is a major east-west highway that passes right through downtown. I-271 is a north-south highway that hits the eastern Cuyahoga suburbs. The intersection of I-90 & I-271 is in Lake County. So thousands of people spend about 10 minutes a day in Lake County as part of their commute.

Cleveland was also inconsistent about annexing suburbs as it grew, so the small independent towns of Linndale & Brooklyn kind of stick up into Cleveland from the south. Again, major highways which are common routes from one part of Cleveland to another pass through these small bits of "not-Cleveland"; I-71 in Linndale & I-480 in Brooklyn.
posted by soundguy99 at 8:36 PM on August 24, 2016

Musandam in Oman is only accessible by driving through the UAE from Oman proper.

Other exclaves include Nakhchivan (Azerbaijan - although the Armenia/Azerbaijan border is closed, so YMMV), and Merida/Ceuta (Spain). Not sure if either of these last two are quite the same as what you seem to be looking for though.
posted by ryanbryan at 8:38 PM on August 24, 2016

I recently drove from Vegas to Wahweap via I-15. You cut from Arizona to Utah to Arizona to Utah to Arizona again, which incidentally is confusing as hell because Arizona and Utah are not in the same time zone. (They are both Mountain time, but Utah observes DST and Arizona does not).
posted by phoenixy at 8:54 PM on August 24, 2016

[wikipedia] The India–Bangladesh enclaves, also known as the chitmahals (Bengali: ছিটমহল chitmôhol) and sometimes called pasha enclaves, were the enclaves along the Bangladesh–India border, in Bangladesh and the Indian states of West Bengal, Tripura, Assam and Meghalaya. Within the main body of Bangladesh were 102 enclaves of Indian territory, which in turn contained 21 Bangladeshi counter-enclaves, one of which contained an Indian counter-counter-enclave – the world's only third-order enclave. Within the Indian mainland were 71 Bangladeshi enclaves, containing 3 Indian counter-enclaves.

That article links to a List of enclaves and exclaves.
posted by Multicellular Exothermic at 9:02 PM on August 24, 2016 [2 favorites]

the most direct route from linz to lofer is apparently right through that little itty bitty piece of germany that sticks out into northern austria. we stopped at a burger king to pee and get fries and when i got my change in deutschmarks instead of schillings i was like "excuse me hello what is happen" and everyone i was traveling with was all "oh btw this is germany, say hi to the germans"
posted by poffin boffin at 9:24 PM on August 24, 2016

The ~100,000-person city where I'm from swallowed but failed to digest a few villages as it grew outward over the last ~75 years. The villages kept their own police forces, so most people only come into grumbling contact with their continued sovereignty after being pulled over for going 33 in a 30 down a street that runs across town but happens to cut through the village.
posted by Polycarp at 9:30 PM on August 24, 2016

Baarle-Nassau

Baarle-Hertog
posted by humboldt32 at 9:41 PM on August 24, 2016 [1 favorite]

The Grand Targhee ski resort is in Wyoming, but you can't get there from Wyoming (unless you live in Alta, or have a helicopter)
posted by ctmf at 9:43 PM on August 24, 2016

To get to the danish island of Bornholm from Copenhagen we usually go via Ystad, in Sweden, to take a ferry boat to Bornholm.
posted by alchemist at 11:02 PM on August 24, 2016

Kaliningrad. A Russian province surrounded by Lithuania and Poland.
posted by Greener Backyards at 11:04 PM on August 24, 2016 [2 favorites]

To drive northwest from Chattanooga to Nashville via I-24, you have to dip south down into Georgia for a while.
posted by The Wrong Kind of Cheese at 11:34 PM on August 24, 2016

To drive from Rio Gallegos in Argentina to Ushuaia in Argentina you need to drive through Chile, including a ferry across the Magellan Strait.
posted by jontyjago at 12:08 AM on August 25, 2016

To travel from the North to the South of Senegal, you need to cut through Gambia.

Lesotho is en enclave surrounded by South Africa

And I once traveled to Baarle-Nassau which is a village both in Belgium and the Netherlands
posted by Kwadeng at 12:34 AM on August 25, 2016 [1 favorite]

Someone has already mentioned Berlin, but this may have been a particularly atmospheric example.
posted by tavegyl at 1:00 AM on August 25, 2016 [1 favorite]

Getting the train from Cardiff (in South Wales) to Harlech in (in North Wales) involves a change at Shrewsbury (in England).
posted by plep at 1:12 AM on August 25, 2016

'France: Metropolitan France is in Europe, while the five Overseas Departments and six Overseas Collectivities are in other continents. Guadeloupe, Martinique, Saint-Martin, Saint-Barthélemy, and Saint-Pierre and Miquelon are in North America, French Guiana is in South America, Mayotte and Réunion are in Africa, and New Caledonia, French Polynesia, and Wallis and Futuna are in Oceania. These Overseas Departments and Collectivities are integral parts of France, as are the uninhabited French Southern and Antarctic Lands and Clipperton Island.'

France is a transcontinental nation with parts of it in Europe, North America, South America, Oceania and Africa. Obviously travelling between these integral parts of France involves travel through other territories.
posted by plep at 1:54 AM on August 25, 2016

Some of the old English counties had exclaves, for various historical reasons. For example, at one time the town of Dudley was an exclave of Worcestershire, completely surrounded by Staffordshire, as mentioned in the last comment in this genealogy thread. Map.
posted by plep at 2:13 AM on August 25, 2016

'Jeddito lies within a 123 km2 (47 sq mi) exclave of the Navajo Nation. This exclave is surrounded by territory of the Hopi Indian Reservation, which is itself surrounded by the Navajo Nation. There was a population of 1,065 living on the exclave in the 2000 census.' Map of the Navajo Nation, showing exclaves.

5 European exclaves.

Germany surrounded by Switzerland.
posted by plep at 2:25 AM on August 25, 2016

Newmarket, Suffolk is technically not an exclave, since a narrow strip of land connects it to the rest of Suffolk, but the roads in and out pass through Cambridgeshire. Given it's importance in the horse world, I've wondered what political, ahem, horse trading went on to keep it out of Cambridgeshire.
posted by penguinicity at 3:27 AM on August 25, 2016 [1 favorite]

On a city level, happens so often in the Boston metro area as to be completely unremarkable... I commute from Somerville to Cambridge (adjacent cities) and I think all my normal routes have me cross into Cambridge and back into Somerville and back into Cambridge at least once. And the most sensible routes between many different Boston neighborhoods involve crossing into neighboring municipalities (e.g. Brighton to Jamaica Plain via the town of Brookline).
posted by mskyle at 4:56 AM on August 25, 2016 [1 favorite]

Practically speaking, the fastest routes from New York City to, say, Syracuse pass through New Jersey and Pennsylvania.
posted by madcaptenor at 5:34 AM on August 25, 2016 [1 favorite]

As mentioned above, The Arizona Strip isn't really accessible from the rest of Arizona, but, has some really cool places.
posted by trbrts at 6:11 AM on August 25, 2016

Many travelers between Michigan and the east coast US choose to drive not through Ohio (and US) but to do a border crossing into Canada, drive through Ontario, and re-enter the US; so border crossings at Niagara Falls and Sarnia or Windsor.
posted by aimedwander at 7:33 AM on August 25, 2016 [1 favorite]

I found Cincinnati, OH to be this way when I lived there. You would be in Cincy, drive through a suburb, and end up back in Cincy, while traveling in one direction. You can actually see it visually on Google maps with the city outline.
posted by TinWhistle at 7:43 AM on August 25, 2016

Arlington, Texas completely surrounds two smaller municipalities (Pantego and Dalworthington Gardens). Several major streets leave Arlington and pass through one or both then reenter Arlington.
posted by ElDiabloConQueso at 8:43 AM on August 25, 2016

So trivial, but the most direct route from points in Westchester Cty, NY passes through Greenwich, CT.
posted by JimN2TAW at 9:10 AM on August 25, 2016

Punta Arenas in Chile isn't easily accessible by land on the Chilean side; most people drive through Argentina to reach it.
posted by Aleyn at 10:18 AM on August 25, 2016

When the Army made Bull Shoals Lake it isolated about a dozen Arkansas ridges from the rest of the state and each other, plus two more bends in the lake separated pieces of Missouri from the rest of the state. There's some kind of reciprocity between Mo. and Ar. to police those areas.
posted by ridgerunner at 10:52 AM on August 25, 2016

It's a common situation for a national park (or for a national forest or state park etc.). Take Olympic National Park as an example. If you are visiting the Queets River, you have to leave the park in order to get to Hoh River or Quinault River, even though they are within a contiguous area. Furthermore, the beach areas of the park are discontinuous with the main body of the park.
posted by polecat at 1:03 PM on August 25, 2016

Pakistan used to be two widely separate areas with most of the width of India inbetween, but then the Eastern bit became Bangladesh. But for a while, travelling from West Pakistan to East Pakistan involved driving for thousands of miles across India.

There is a department of France that is actually in South America, French Guiana. It's currency is the Euro and it is part of the EU, but it's in South America next to Brazil and Suriname. Cutting across that on a road trip would be weird.
posted by w0mbat at 2:05 PM on August 25, 2016 [1 favorite]

Tom Scott drives through Russia without a visa through the Saatse Boot
posted by jontyjago at 2:24 AM on September 4, 2016