Yes, terrain can cause a number of steep approaches. While you'll more often find them in the west like you did, they even exist in the "baby" mountains in the east. When I was doing my instrument training in Pennsylvania, the VOR approach at Selinsgrove (next airport over) was a good practice because it had a very steep segment. It taught you to look at how many miles you had between each segment as well as the altitude change, so that you could plan your descent.
In PA we had a lot of airports in valleys or otherwise surrounded by mountains where "brick approaches" were beneficial. I've often theorized that because Piper was originally based in Pennsylvania, they built their aircraft to meet the needs of pilots in the area - which included being able to do steep glide paths. Once they moved to Florida, not so much.
The important thing is knowing the capabilities of your aircraft as well as what you're comfortable with so you can plan how you want to do the final segment of your approach (straight in, circling, etc.) and then be prepared to go around.