Not everyone lives near Washington or Utah or Colorado, but everyone lives in a state with nice hikes, so this article is still useful. And even though I do live in Washington, I'd never been to (or even heard of) the "Yellow Aster Butte" hike -- the wealth of nice hikes nearby has kept me from branching out to hikes in other parts of the state.

State may not be the perfect way to break things up (I can easily drive across connecticut in a couple hours, not so much in Texas or California), but there's no other commonly used grid system to break up the country.