States Visited Map & Counter

Coast and Sierra

California

Yosemite’s granite walls, the redwoods and the cliffs of Big Sur, with San Francisco and Los Angeles at either end. Nine national parks, more than any other state.

The Mighty Five

Utah

Five national parks of red rock, Zion, Bryce Canyon, Capitol Reef, Arches and Canyonlands, strung along a single road trip. Arches alone holds more than two thousand natural stone arches.

City and wilderness

New York

Manhattan’s skyline and Central Park, then upstate the Adirondacks, the Finger Lakes and Niagara Falls. The Adirondack Park alone is bigger than Yellowstone, Yosemite and the Grand Canyon combined.

Green Mountains

Vermont

Covered bridges, white-steepled villages and maple farms in the hills, at their best when the leaves turn in early October. About a hundred covered bridges are still standing.

The last frontier

Alaska

Glaciers calving into the sea, grizzlies at the salmon runs and Denali, the highest peak in North America. It is more than twice the size of Texas.

Islands of fire

Hawaii

Volcanoes still building new land on the Big Island, the sea cliffs of Kauai’s Na Pali coast and the surf of Oahu’s North Shore. The only state made up entirely of islands.

Bourbon and bluegrass

Kentucky

Horse farms behind white fences around Lexington, distilleries along the Bourbon Trail and the Kentucky Derby in May. Mammoth Cave is the longest known cave system in the world.

Canyon country

Arizona

The Grand Canyon, a mile deep, plus the red buttes of Monument Valley and the saguaro deserts around Tucson. Most of the state never changes its clocks for daylight saving time.

Geysers and Tetons

Wyoming

Yellowstone, the world’s first national park, with Old Faithful and its herds of bison, and the Tetons rising straight out of the valley to the south. The least populous of all fifty states.

The Ocean State

Rhode Island

Gilded Age mansions along Newport’s Cliff Walk, sailing harbors and some four hundred miles of shoreline in the smallest state. On summer nights Providence lights bonfires on its rivers.

Sun and Everglades

Florida

Beaches on two coasts, the Keys strung along the Overseas Highway and Orlando’s theme parks. The Everglades are the only place on earth where alligators and crocodiles live side by side.

Big Sky Country

Montana

Glacier National Park’s Going-to-the-Sun Road, trout rivers and cattle ranches under an enormous sky. The park’s glaciers are shrinking fast, so go while they are still there.

Neon and desert

Nevada

The Las Vegas Strip, then the red sandstone of Valley of Fire and the ancient bristlecone pines of Great Basin a few hours away. It has more mountain ranges than any other state in the lower 48.

Chesapeake Bay

Maryland

Blue crabs on the waterfront in Annapolis and Baltimore, and wild horses on the beaches of Assateague Island. The Chesapeake is the largest estuary in the United States.

Coast and volcanoes

Oregon

Crater Lake, the deepest lake in the country, a wild coast of sea stacks and the waterfalls of the Columbia River Gorge. Every beach on its coast is public by law.

Hill Country to Big Bend

Texas

Barbecue in the Hill Country, live music in Austin, the Alamo in San Antonio and the desert canyons of Big Bend on the Rio Grande. Only Alaska is bigger.

Gateway to the West

Missouri

The Gateway Arch over the Mississippi in St. Louis, barbecue in Kansas City and the clear spring-fed rivers of the Ozarks. At 630 feet, the arch is the tallest monument in the country.

Chicago and the prairie

Illinois

Chicago’s skyline on Lake Michigan, architecture cruises on the river and deep-dish pizza, then Route 66 setting off across the prairie. The skyscraper was invented here.

Lighthouses and lobster

Maine

A rocky coast of lighthouses and lobster shacks, with Acadia National Park’s Cadillac Mountain above it all. For half the year it is the first place in the country to see the sunrise.

Rock and roll

Ohio

The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, the waterfalls of Cuyahoga Valley National Park and the sandstone gorges of the Hocking Hills. Seven presidents were born here.

Jazz and bayous

Louisiana

Jazz in the French Quarter of New Orleans, Cajun cooking and swamp tours through the bayous of Acadiana. Mardi Gras takes over the city every February or March.

Land of Enchantment

New Mexico

The white gypsum dunes of White Sands, adobe pueblos lived in for a thousand years and the galleries of Santa Fe. Founded in 1610, Santa Fe is the oldest state capital in the country.

Rocky Mountains

Colorado

Peaks over fourteen thousand feet, ski towns like Aspen and Telluride, and the cliff dwellings of Mesa Verde. No other state has as many summits that high.

Oregon Trail

Nebraska

Chimney Rock and Scotts Bluff, landmarks on the Oregon Trail, and the grassy dunes of the Sandhills. Each spring over half a million sandhill cranes stop on the Platte River.

Badlands and Black Hills

South Dakota

Mount Rushmore and the granite spires of the Black Hills, and the striped buttes of the Badlands, where bison still roam. The Crazy Horse Memorial nearby has been under construction since 1948.

Rainforest and volcanoes

Washington

Seattle on Puget Sound, the glaciers of Mount Rainier and the moss-hung Hoh Rainforest on the Olympic Peninsula. Rainier carries more glacier ice than any other peak in the lower 48.

Old New England

Connecticut

Tall ships at Mystic Seaport, shoreline villages along Long Island Sound and Yale’s campus in New Haven. Inland, the Litchfield Hills turn red and gold every October.

Music and mountains

Tennessee

Country music in Nashville, the blues and Graceland in Memphis, and the Great Smoky Mountains in the east. The Smokies are the most visited national park in the country.

Rivers and peaks

Idaho

The jagged Sawtooth Range, whitewater on the Salmon River and hot springs deep in the backcountry. Shoshone Falls on the Snake River is taller than Niagara.

Tallgrass prairie

Kansas

The rolling Flint Hills, the chalk spires of Monument Rocks and Wild West history in Dodge City. Less than four percent of the continent’s tallgrass prairie survives, and most of it is here.

History and Cape Cod

Massachusetts

The Freedom Trail through revolutionary Boston, whale watching off Cape Cod and the islands of Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket. The Pilgrims came ashore at Plymouth in 1620.

Almost heaven

West Virginia

Whitewater on the New River, climbing on the sandstone walls of its gorge and forested ridges in every direction. New River Gorge became one of the country’s newest national parks in 2020.

Lowcountry charm

South Carolina

Charleston’s pastel Rainbow Row and cobbled lanes, live oaks hung with Spanish moss and the beaches of Hilton Head. The Lowcountry is home to the Gullah culture of the Sea Islands.

Dunes and racing

Indiana

The Indianapolis 500, the largest single-day sporting event in the world, and fifteen miles of dunes on Lake Michigan. Indiana Dunes became a national park in 2019.

Land of lakes

Minnesota

Canoe routes through the Boundary Waters, the North Shore of Lake Superior and the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul. The Mississippi begins here as a stream you can wade across.

Southern charm

Georgia

Savannah’s squares shaded by live oaks, Atlanta’s civil rights history and the barrier islands along the coast. The Appalachian Trail starts here, on Springer Mountain.

Home of the blues

Mississippi

The Delta, where the blues began, the antebellum houses of Natchez and the Natchez Trace, an ancient trail turned 444-mile parkway. Elvis Presley was born in Tupelo.

Mountains to sea

North Carolina

The Blue Ridge Parkway through the mountains, the barrier islands of the Outer Banks and the breweries of Asheville. The Wright brothers made the first powered flight here in 1903.

The Natural State

Arkansas

Bluffs along the Buffalo, the first national river in the country, and the bathhouses of Hot Springs. At Crater of Diamonds, any diamond you find is yours to keep.

Bridges and cornfields

Iowa

The covered bridges of Madison County, the Field of Dreams in Dyersville and the burial mounds on the bluffs of the Mississippi. Every August the Iowa State Fair draws more than a million people.

Liberty and Amish country

Pennsylvania

Independence Hall and the Liberty Bell in Philadelphia, the battlefield at Gettysburg and Amish farmland around Lancaster. Frank Lloyd Wright’s Fallingwater hangs over a waterfall in the woods.

White Mountains

New Hampshire

Autumn leaves on the Kancamagus Highway, hiking in the White Mountains and lakes like Winnipesaukee. In 1934 Mount Washington recorded a 231 mph gust, for decades the fastest on earth.

Ridges and history

Virginia

Skyline Drive along the Blue Ridge in Shenandoah, colonial Williamsburg and Jamestown, and Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello. Eight presidents were born here, more than in any other state.

Route 66 heartland

Oklahoma

More miles of the original Route 66 than any other state, bison in the Wichita Mountains and cowboy heritage in Oklahoma City. Thirty-nine tribal nations have their headquarters here.

Badlands and prairie

North Dakota

The painted badlands of Theodore Roosevelt National Park, where bison and wild horses roam, and endless prairie. Roosevelt said he would never have been president without his years here.

Shore and boardwalks

New Jersey

Jersey Shore boardwalks, Victorian Cape May and the Pine Barrens, a million acres of forest in the most densely populated state. Atlantic City built the country’s first boardwalk in 1870.

Civil rights trail

Alabama

Civil rights landmarks in Montgomery, Selma and Birmingham, the white sand of Gulf Shores and Little River Canyon. The rockets that took astronauts to the moon were designed in Huntsville.

Great Lakes

Michigan

The sandstone cliffs of Pictured Rocks, streaked in every shade of copper and green, the dunes of Sleeping Bear and car-free Mackinac Island. It touches four of the five Great Lakes.

Lakes and sea caves

Wisconsin

The sea caves of the Apostle Islands on Lake Superior, Door County’s orchards and lighthouses, and a supper club in every small town. In a cold winter you can walk to the caves on the ice.

The First State

Delaware

Quiet beaches and boardwalks at Rehoboth and Lewes, du Pont mansions and gardens in the Brandywine Valley, and no sales tax. It was the first state to ratify the Constitution.