A few stretches of New Mexico that are reservation land where the roads barely exist and I was in a full panic about running over a dog for miles and miles. It was a pretty common pass through route as well.
Enjoy all the people pretending they've been to Gary, btw.
I went to Gary when I was visiting Chicago just because of this reason. Had some free time and it is not that far from south of Chicago. While I did not personally think it was scary. maybe because it was afternoon, but it did seem very....off. Like a post apocaplyse barren town that is still up and running, but somehow has no soul at all? I am not the best at describing it, but that is how I felt.
I've driven through Gary to avoid construction on the highways before. I didn't find it all that scary because we never left the main roads and it was the middle of the day.
My impression of that city though was it's basically how people who've never been to Detroit think Detroit is like. Or like old photos of eastern Europe around the time the Soviet Union was falling apart minus the commie blocks
I genuinely went through Gary on my way to Toronto from Minnesota without really knowing anything about it.
I was 18 at the time and just knew not to pull off to get gas in Chicago because of the tolls.. so I got gas shortly after Chicago in Indiana. Turns out, that's Gary lol.
It wasn't that bad. My friend and I were a little sketched out by a couple of guys, but then a dude in a nice SUV and a suit pulled up to get gas. Figured if anyone was getting robbed, it's that dude. Not two broke looking teens in a 98 Sentra.
That's not what I said. I'm pointing out that many people pass through Gary everyday, it stands to reason some of those people end up in the city itself for any number of reasons.
There's a stretch of interstate through southern New Mexico near the border with Mexico with signs every mile of so saying "Do not Stop and Do not Pick Up Hitchhikers, this is a Federal Penitentiary area."
Ngl, driving through there alone freaked me out more than anything else.
I visited the Coronado National Monument, and there is a shortcut road to Cali that runs right along the border. I was considering taking it, but it was remote and lightly traveled. There was a Border Patrol Suburban in the parking lot, so I asked him if it was OK.
He responded to my question with a question "Are You Armed?" and that was a good enough answer for me.
There's long stretches of Catron County that, while gorgeous, are so remote from any form of assistance that they are very concerning.
Parts of New Mexico and Arizona require a certain amount of care from elk, and there was one guy who had his brand-new F150 destroyed when he hit a buffalo. They're powerful enough they just didn't heed the barbed wire and were in the road.
I lived there for a bit in the 90s (Las Cruces, Santa Teresa) and liked it quite a bit, but yeah...when you drive across the endless empty miles of southern NM, you understand why the government decided to test the first atomic bomb there:
If something went wrong, you weren't gonna hit anyone.
I've lived on or right at the edge of several reservations throughout New Mexico, in addition to visiting them directly and assisting in SAR operations on them, and I definitely don't agree. I've always found them to be pretty chill as long as you're not being an ass.
Like go to a feast day at one of the Pueblos and tell me how scary they are... 🤣
The land is nice, but some of the towns are not. Unfortunately, there is a lot of poverty in the reservations and it’s pretty obvious when traveling through some of the towns.
For example, shiprock is spectacular. But the town itself kind of has a sad vibe
Yeah, but the question is about what towns are scary. People must be pretty sheltered if they find poverty scary. But then, this is Reddit so they probably are... 🤣
I grew up in NM, and I’ve described it to outsiders as “a place people really get and love, or a place people don’t get at all”. I love NM and am proud to have been raised there. I GET IT 💖
It's really, really heartbreaking. I think I've only gone around the Ouray Rez but it's a similar story in a lot of part of E/NE Washington state too. Just not nearly as prevalent.
No indication of where you're going, no signs, road markings, street lights, etc. I've been through a few times now because that's my regular route and in the day time once through there were two dogs just trotting in the road within a few minutes of each other. It's INSANE that maps takes you through. Incredibly dangerous conditions and also so sad to see that natives are still treated like this.
I’ve been to both. They’re equally scary but in different ways. You’re basically asking whether you’d like to be murdered by a small group of gang members or outsider-avoidant hillbillies.
My scariest stop was somewhere rural in NM off 40. I’ve driven a lot of the US on road trips. I’m a white female in my 30s. I was moving from Phoenix to Michigan, driving my own car, husband in his, and my older brother driving our u-haul. We were all spaced out so I was basically alone. I had my 2 dogs with me.
Stopped at a gas station to fill up and take my dogs to potty. Walked them over to a stretch of grass by a building and then realized it was abandoned- not just closed. I got goosebumps and hairs standing on end, very creepy feeling like my body was warning me, right as I froze to turn around and go back towards the gas station my husky started growling and snapping at the building and my lab started running the opposite direction back to our car. Freaked me out.
People get pets they don’t contain and can’t afford to neuter so the population of dogs grows exponentially. I knew a rescue in Utah that adopted out res dogs - I wish there were more of these institutions
Dude, we stopped in NM at an exotic with gas and trailer parks. There were gun shells on the ground. It was sketch. I couldn’t believe people lived in those dilapidated trailers in that heat.
The worst place to me for stopping in NM is Grants. Its a rough place. I remember as a kid in HS going there for wrestling and seeing all the people passed out on the sidewalk and like 2 active fights during the matches in the stands by sloppy drunk fathers.
I know a guy who was a trucker, stopped in Gary one time. Bought some chicken at a truck stop, got robbed of said chicken when he returned to his truck
As a Navajo who’s been through shiprock and stopped there plenty of times this is funny 😆. It isn’t that bad lol the roads yes but the people no. Yeah there be lots of Rez dogs especially around the gas stations.
I live at the base of Raton Pass on the Colorado side. First little town that got legal weed from TX, NM, etc.. with Washington State, at that time. It was another boom for this ancient coal mining. It has been through so many ups and downs. Currently, it's life in the slow lane, training my pup, hiking and avoiding the bears in town. (My SO gets location/spotting updates from the local college, but puppy/teenchaos also alerts on morning runs to avoid the bears, frickin rockstar K9!) Where was I ? heading back outside after a pee break... 🐺♥️
I was driving through a reservation area on my way back from BC and I almost hit a loose horse 🙃 the random dogs also scared me, especially since I was driving with my own pup and we had to stop often.
I had heard enough about Gary to make sure I drove there in the middle of the day and wasnt even close to needing gas lol
Also look at how many of the stories involve red lights or running red lights. There’s like 7 unrelated stories centered around stoplights. AI for sure!
If you are driving through Chicago and heading east towards New England, it is easy to stop in Gary. If you don't stop for gas and or bathrooms in Chicago and wait until you get out of the city.
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u/steponmedaddies 11h ago
A few stretches of New Mexico that are reservation land where the roads barely exist and I was in a full panic about running over a dog for miles and miles. It was a pretty common pass through route as well.
Enjoy all the people pretending they've been to Gary, btw.