Illinois Having the 2nd Most Picturesque Lake is Questionable

I don't like stating obvious things because, well, they're obvious. This is nearly one of those things. Illinois has just been named the place with the 2nd most picturesque lake in North America because, duh, of course it is. However, there is an argument to be made that Illinois shouldn't be allowed to claim it.

Please forgive my snark, but the website Lake has just ranked the most picturesque lakes in North America and they've used a clever way to determine which water places get that honor. They've counted the number of times each lake has been used as a hashtag on Instagram which makes a lot of sense. You'd think that the more "picturesque" lakes would be the places people take pictures of. Again, duh.

The Illinois lake which came in at #2 with 2,831,512 Instagram hashtags is Lake Michigan.

I could be a cynic and say that a state really shouldn't be allowed to claim a lake as its own if other states also border it and can claim it's theirs. The truth of the matter is Michigan, Wisconsin, Illinois, and Indiana all border Lake Michigan and the state of Michigan has the most shoreline. Perhaps I'm just being petty, but it seems that Illinois may be getting a nod for their picturesque lake when it's really a shared place.

I digress from my Lake Michigan ownership rant. Let's just accept it for what it is. A somewhat obvious choice for people taking pictures of themselves next to a lake is Lake Michigan. Yay.