Fast internet and beautiful forests/mountains in the American west?

June 27, 2019 3:13 PM

Thinking about moving and am looking for possible places to move in the American west - I'm trying to find a place in the middle of the forest/mountains (ideally very close to a National Forest or Park) with fast internet (minimum 300mbit symmetrical connection). I have a virtual job which relies on fast internet access so the faster the better!
posted by arnicae to Travel & Transportation (6 answers total)

This actually shouldn't be too hard to find these days. Somewhere in the Pacific Northwest, perhaps? Like Eatonville, WA, which is close to Mount Rainier National Park. Comcast claims they offer up to 1 Gbps there, though I'd check to be sure.
posted by kindall at 3:38 PM on June 27, 2019

Nine Mile Falls, Washington apparently has the fastest internet in the country and is on a beautiful river and basically in a state park.
posted by pinochiette at 3:39 PM on June 27, 2019

You want to check out Sandy, OR, very close to Mt Hood National Forest, also 30 minutes away from Portland. It has cheap municipal fiber internet
posted by Pantalaimon at 3:43 PM on June 27, 2019 [1 favorite]

The City of Fort Collins, Colorado is working on a plan to make high speed fiber internet available to all residents by 2021. We're about 45 minutes from Rocky Mountain National Park and a half hour or so from the Arapaho & Roosevelt National Forests.
posted by holmesian at 4:54 PM on June 27, 2019 [1 favorite]

Longmont, CO has municipal symmetric gigabit fiber. It was a pretty big factor in us choosing to live there and it’s pretty amazing in that I no longer have to think about my internet service – it just works. Longmont is similarly close to the areas described by holmesian above.
posted by zsazsa at 6:17 PM on June 27, 2019

You might want to consider SE Arizona. Not as hot as Phoenix or Tucson, and not as heavily populated. I like it here, and Mexico is just five miles away. My wi-fi service comes to me in a straight vector from a tower on a mountain north of Bisbee. I can see the tower from from my place, and I experience few outages.
posted by Agave at 10:34 PM on June 27, 2019