Boise: Best City For An Active Lifestyle?

Hiking, swimming, rock climbing, running, biking, skiing, snowboarding--Boise is more than conducive to these activities. If you're looking for something to do that'll get your heart rate up and going, there are myriad of ways to do that here. Just yards from my workplace I can hit the Greenbelt for a nice run. Table Rock is easily accessible for a hike or mountain biking. Commons Climbing Gym has an indoor climbing experience if that's your preference. There's no better town than Boise to get your heart pumping. Or so I assumed.

Apparently Boise doesn't even land in the top 10 best cities for people who like to be active. A new survey (WalletHub) ranked the 100 largest cities, with these landing in the top 5:
Honolulu, Hawaii
Portland, Oregon
San Diego, California
San Francisco, California
Chicago, Illinois

The rankings are based on factors like gym costs, sporting goods stores per capita, how many people bike to work, baseball fields, swimming pools, tennis courts, and golf courses per capita, weather, and hiking and running trails. Surely Boise is better than Chicago based on weather alone. Those winters are significantly more brutal than ours. I'd be more inclined to sit by the fire for hours than be active in any sense.

However Boise is far from the worst on the list. These cities take that dishonor:
North Las Vegas, Nevada
Hialeah, Florida
Newark, New Jersey
Jersey City, New Jersey
Laredo, Texas

Having lived in Las Vegas, I must admit that neighboring North Las Vegas is a dismal city with very little to offer in any capacity, truly. Not at all surprising to see it gracing the bottom of the list. Even driving through North Las Vegas is depressing. Doesn't inspire anything but sedentary sadness.

So where does Boise land on this list? It cracked the top 20, taking the 18th spot. Click here for a full breakdown on how the determination was made. I'm obviously biased, but I still maintain it should be at least top 5.