Posts Tagged With: adventure

In a previous post, I compiled a list of “Grand Canyons” around the country and world. Most of these were canyons with other official names but nicknamed the “Grand Canyon of ……” or the “Little Grand Canyon of …” That got me thinking, what about the Alps? This time of year, at least for me here in the winter of the Northern Hemisphere, I love thinking about snowy mountains and cozy alpine lodges and towns. So I set about to discover all the “Alps” I could find.

Of course, the Alps in Europe are, well, The Alps. You know, the big mountain range that spans several countries in continental Europe and has the iconic Matterhorn in it. (The real one in Switzerland, not the Disneyland ride.) I started writing this in the early winter, but now the winter Olympics just took place in the Alps! There are several subdivisions of that parent range, like the Bavarian Alps, and even sub-ranges of the sub-ranges, like the Dolomites in Italy. But there are some other mountain ranges in the world with the word “Alps” in their official names, and of course others that are nicknamed “The Alps of _______” (fill in country, region, province, state, etc.) Are they true Alps? What makes a mountain range or alpine town have Alps-like-qualities? Similarly, some towns or regions have “Switzerland” in their nickname, such as “Little Switzerland,” implying an alps-like feeling to the place.

Let’s see if we can figure out what makes a place seem like the Alps (or Switzerland). Here’s a rundown on Alps that I found online, and I’ll include photos of any that I’ve taken if I can find them in my old files. Also, keep an eye out below for information about a really cool woman writer/traveler that I met recently!

Mountain Ranges and Regions with Alps in the Name: (all but the last entry were found in a Wikipedia disambiguation page or elsewhere in Wikipedia)

• The Alps proper (with subdivisions/sub-ranges being the Bavarian Alps, Eastern Alps, Julian Alps, Northern Limestone Alps, Southern Limestone Alps, Southern Alps, and Western Alps) – Monaco, France, Switzerland, Germany, Austria, Italy, Slovenia, Lichtenstein – I’ve only seen the northern edge of the Bavarian Alps, when I went to Neuschwanstein Castle in Germany.
• Transylvanian Alps (Southern Carpathians)- mostly Romania
• Arrocher Alps – Scotland (part of the Grampian Mountains range)
• Dinaric Alps – Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Serbia, Montenegro, and Albania
• Lyngen Alps – mostly Norway
• Apuan Alps – Italy
• Sunnmore Alps – Norway
• Norlund Alps, Princess Caroline-Mathilde Alps, Princess Elizabeth Alps, Schweizerland Alps, and Slauning Alps – Greenland (All right Greenland, we get it, you’ve got lots of awesome mountains!)
• Southern Alps – New Zealand
• Australian Alps – you guessed it – Australia! They’re part of the Great Dividing Range.
• Japanese Alps – several mountain ranges in Japan
• Pontic Alps – Turkiye (called the Parhar Mountains in the local languages)
• Yeongnam Alps – Korea
• Danakil Alps – Ethiopia and Eritrea – a highland region along the southern Red Sea – this one didn’t show up on the Alps disambiguation page, but it does have its own page in Wikipedia
• Bohemian Alps – Nebraska, USA – evidently this is a region of gentle hills settled by Czech immigrants, and it reminded them of their homeland
• Trinity Alps – California, USA – a sub-range of the Klamath Mountains in Northern CA and Southern Oregon
• Mexican Alps – Puebla, México – I only found one reference to this supposed mountain range, and it looks like a university research paper. The mountain it mentions, however, is verified on Wikipedia as the 3rd highest peak in North America as well as the tallest volcano. Awesome!

Mountains, Ranges, and Hills Nicknamed Alps of Their Area:

• North Cascades National Park, Washington, USA – “The American Alps” – I only found out about this park several years ago, after visiting other parks that I thought would get that title, like Glacier NP in Montana and Rocky Mountain NP in Colorado. Now I’ve got to go!
• Glacier National Park, Montana, USA – “The Alps of America” – my search for “alps of america” gave me website after website for North Cascades NP. However, I’ve been to Glacier, and thought there’s no way that someone hasn’t claimed the title for it. So I specifically googled Glacier NP and Alps, and sure enough, someone (understandably) says Glacier is as beautiful as the Alps! I’m happy for these two parks to vie for the title. Photo below.
• Sawtooth Mountains, Idaho, USA – the “Alps of America” – Another website I found considers the Sawtooth Mountains of Idaho to claim this title for the country. Sure, why not? I haven’t seen them, and they do look beautiful in the photos.
• Wallowa Mountains, Oregon, USA – “The Alps of Oregon” – Unlike the Cascade Mountains that I’m used to over here in Western Oregon, the Wallowas aren’t volcanoes. They have a mountain named Matterhorn and several glacial valleys. I’ve only seen the northern edge of them while on a road trip, but they are beautiful! Photo below. Also below in the references is a link to the Wallowas page of the website of an Oregon author/hiker extraordinaire that I discovered recently. I’d been following the Facebook profile “Hike Oregon” for a good while when I realized that it’s a person, not an organization like “Travel Oregon”. She held a booksigning event in Eugene recently, so I went to meet her. Franziska came from Germany, lives in Oregon, and writes hiking books with directions, descriptions, great photos, and helpful info. She also has videos on YouTube. And of course I bought one of her books!
• Ruby Mountains, Nevada, USA – “the Swiss Alps of Nevada” – I’ve been to the Lamoille Canyon portion of them, which I’ve heard called the “Yosemite of Nevada.” It is spectacular! I went in winter so we couldn’t hike much, but just walking up the snow-covered road held vista after vista. Photo below.
• “Issaquah Alps” – Washington, USA – the unofficial name of some highlands near Seattle
• Davis Mountains – “The Alps of Texas” – a mountain range in West Texas
• Hill Country Drive – “The Swiss Alps of Texas” – 2400 foot peaks on this scenic road trip
• Borscht Belt, New York, USA – aka “Yiddish Alps” – An area of the Catskill Mountains that used to be an area where a lot of Jewish Americans would vacation; the Yiddish Alps name was given by Larry King.
• East Durham area, New York, USA – aka “Irish Alps of New York” – Also in the Catskills, a region settled by people from Ireland in the early 1900s.
• Canadian Rocky Mountains, British Columbia & Alberta, Canada – “Canadian Alps” – I only found one reference to Alps in Canada, and of course it’s the Rockies. With epic national parks like Banff, Jasper, and several others, the Rockies are the strongest contender for the title. I was surprised not to find any other websites referring to them as Alps. But maybe Canada tries to differentiate their mountains from the European ones.
• Lake District, Chile – “Chile’s Alps” – offers a “milder Andes Mountain experience than Patagonia” and the town inside the Vicente Pérez Rosales National Park “has a Swiss Alps feel to it” according to the article below. From what I’ve seen in photos, the Patagonia region of Chile and Argentina resembles the Dolomites in Italy’s Alps, so I say both regions qualify for an Alps designation.
• Cordillera Central, Dominican Republic – “Dominican Alps” – This tropical playground has the Caribbean’s highest mountain, Pico Duarte, at over 10,000 feet.
• Rwenzori Mountains, border of Uganda & the DRC – “Africa’s Own Alps” as well as “Mountains of the Moon” – these mountains look amazing on the websites and Wikipedia page. I did see small mountains in the DRC as I looked across Lake Abert from the Uganda side, but was not far south enough to see these beauties.
• Gamburtsev subglacial mountains, Antarctica – “Antarctica’s Hidden Alps” – the NBC article below has some great graphics to show the Alps-sized/shaped mountain range sitting below a giant ice sheet.
• Saxon-Bohemian Switzerland, Germany and Czech Republic – this region straddles the border of Southeast Germany and Northwest Czech Republic and was so named by artists Adrian Zingg and Anton Graff, because it reminded them of their homeland, the Swiss Jura. I’ve been to the Saxon Switzerland National Park and hiked (in the snow) to the Bastei Bridge. Seems funny to me to have a place so close to Switzerland be nicknamed that, but it’s beautiful no matter what!
• The Himalayas: Just kidding! They’re the highest mountains in the world, and don’t need to be the Alps of anything. They are the epic Himalayas with their own personality. We should have “Little Himalayas” around the world!

Cities, Towns, and Resort Villages With “Alps” (or “Switzerland”) in the Name or Nickname:

• Alps, Georgia, USA – An unincorporated community in the U.S. state of Georgia, elevation 850 feet. Not sure why this tiny town was named Alps. See the town of Helen for a more alpine-sounding destination.
• Swiss Alp, Texas, USA – Another unincorporated community, but this one was settled by German Lutherans around 1865.
• Alpine, Wyoming, USA – The town of Alpine, aka Alpine Junction, sits at elevation 5,663 feet and at the junction of rivers, mountain ranges, and U.S. routes 26 and 89.
• Alpine, Arizona, USA – A much smaller Alpine “census-designated place” with a population 145. Not sure how it got its name.
• Alpine, Texas, USA – A high desert city at over 4,000 feet elevation and surrounded by mile-high mountain peaks
• Helen, Georgia, USA – aka “Georgia’s Alpine Village” – The town of Helen seems to have a similar history as Leavenworth, Washington – a dying lumber town reborn as a German-style tourist destination near the mountains, this time the Blue Ridge Mountains of the Appalachians.
• Leavenworth, Washington, USA – “An Alpine Village in Washington State” – Same story as above, but this one on the rain shadow side of the Cascade Mountains. I went there with a friend several years ago so I’ll have a photo below, and yes, it’s feels a lot like Germany! Plus, they now have an alpine coaster on the side of a hill that I want to take my family on if we ever make it up there.
• Helvetia, West Virginia, USA – A “Little Switzerland” – this town in the highlands of West Virginia was settled by Swiss immigrants and kept its culture in many ways
• Heber Valley and town of Midway, Utah, USA – “Utah’s Little Switzerland” – named for its mountain location in the Wasatch Back range and Germanic heritage
• Jim Thorpe, Pennsylvania, USA – “America’s Little Switzerland” – This mountain town was named for a Native American Olympic gold medalist and boasts scenic railroads and hiking trails.
• Afton Alps Resort, Minnesota, USA – A ski resort surrounded by Afton State Park
• Mazamitla, Jalisco, México – the “Mexican Alps” or “Little Switzerland of México” – I found multiple articles about this quaint resort town sitting at an elevation of 2200 meters in the mountainous southwest of the country, where residents of Guadalajara go to get away from the heat. It is considered a “Pueblo Mágico,” which according to Wikipedia is a town designated by the Secretariat of Tourism that offers visitors “cultural richness, historical relevance, cuisin, art, crafts, and great hospitality.”
• Arteaga, Coahuila, México – the “Switzerland of México” or “the Mexican Switzerland” – Another of México’s official “Pueblo Mágico” towns, this one is in the northeast corner of the country, next to the Sierra Madre Oriental range, and has wooden cottages and skiing. Not sure which town is more alps-like, but Mazamitla and Arteaga both sound beautiful!
• Ouray, Colorado, USA – the “Switzerland of America” town in the San Juan Mountains of the Rocky Mountain range.
• Jackson, Wyoming, USA – this town “reflects the Swiss Alps” according to The Travel magazine; and with nearby ski resort villages and Grand Teton National Park, I’m inclined to agree. I think my friend and I drove through it on our way back to her house in Montana after visiting Yellowstone and Grand Teton parks, but I don’t think I got any photos of it. So I’ll include one of my favorite pics of the Tetons.
• Stowe, Vermont, USA – the “Ski Capital of the East” at the bottom of the highest mountain in Vermont
• Telluride, Colorado, USA – another San Juan Mountains town, in a box canyon with a 365-foot waterfall overlooking the town
• Winthrop, Washington, USA – the “Swiss Alps of Washington” (thus rivaling Leavenworth), with North Cascades National Park as a backdrop
• Lake Placid, New York, USA – Olympians used to ski in this town in the Adirondacks
• Mt. Angel, Oregon, USA: This little town has an interesting immigrant history, with Swiss monks building a monastery in the late 1800s and Bavarian settlers following. The downtown is decked out German-style, and they host the state’s largest Oktoberfest in fall. It’s in a mostly flat part of the Willamette Valley, so not exactly alpine, but the monastery is built on a small hill that has great views of the Cascade Range.

So, what do you think? What makes a place “Alps-like” or like a “little Switzerland”? I think it’s anywhere with beautiful mountains and/or cozy villages. What is the nearest “Alps” to you? Or other places that I missed? I did read a fun article recently about Scandinavian towns here in the USA, but that leads to a whole new list.

References: (aside from Wikipedia, and in no particular order; some are official travel sites for an area or magazines, and others are blogs by fun travel writers)

• https://www.hikeoregon.net/eagle-cap-summit.html (Hike Oregon’s Wallowas hike)
• https://serc.carleton.edu/vignettes/collection/43484.html (college paper on the Mexican Alps)
• https://www.thetravel.com/sawtooth-mountains-alps-of-america-most-underrated-hiking-destination-in-us/
• https://travelnevada.com/outdoor-recreation/lamoille-canyon-ruby-mountains/
• https://powderguide.com/en/magazine/abenteuer-reisen/rocky-mountains-canadian-alps-north-america-trip-part-ii
• https://www.islands.com/1976785/cordillera-central-dominican-alps-caribbean-secret-natural-wonderland-adventure/
• https://www.goworldtravel.com/travel-chile-alps-land-of-lakes-and-volcanoes/
• https://helenga.org/ (Helen, Georgia, USA)
• https://www.livedreamdiscover.com/the-magic-town-of-mazamitla-aka-the-mexican-alps/
• https://whereverlifetakesus.travellerspoint.com/137/ (another blog about Mazamitla)
• https://www.traveleidoscope.com/single-post/road-trip-leavenworth-an-alpine-village-in-washington-state
• https://followalice.com/knowledge/mountains-in-africa-a-trekkers-guide
• https://www.whiskeytangoglobetrot.com/blog/glacier-national-park-alps-america
• https://www.heraldextra.com/lifestyles/recreation/2025/sep/06/get-out-there-see-european-like-alps-patagonia-like-views-at-glacier-national-park/
• https://www.nbcnews.com/id/wbna45328799 (Gamburtsev)
• https://swissimpactusa.com/helvetia-a-little-switzerland-in-west-virginia/
• https://www.gohebervalley.com/blog-little-switzerland-midway-utah/
• https://daytrippintexas.com/west-texas/davis-mountains-west-texas/
• https://www.explore.com/1667820/unbelievably-scenic-road-trip-route-nickname-called-swiss-alps-texas-hill-country-reason/
• https://texashillcountry.com/deep-alps-texas-alpine/
• https://www.onlyinyourstate.com/trip-ideas/pennsylvania/skip-europe-try-this-attraction-instead-pa (Jim Thorpe)
• https://www.thetravel.com/mountain-towns-look-like-swiss-alps/

All photos were taken by me (unless my friend Jas took the selfie of us in Leavenworth).