There are ambitions that make perfect sense — learning to bake sourdough, reading more books, finally sorting out that pension. And then there is the peculiar, magnificent obsession of visiting all 50 US states, a goal that sits somewhere between heroic endurance sport and a cry for help. Thousands of Americans — and frankly a suspicious number of non-Americans — have dedicated years, savings, and apparently all their annual leave to this quest. We salute them. We also worry about them.
Why Would Anyone Want to Visit All 50 US States?
The United States of America is, to put it diplomatically, very large. It covers 3.8 million square miles, contains 50 wildly different states, and includes Alaska — which requires either a very long drive through Canada or an actual aeroplane, meaning you cannot simply “pop by” on the way to somewhere else. Furthermore, it also includes Hawaii, which is in the middle of the Pacific Ocean and is gorgeous, but is doing absolutely nothing to make this challenge convenient.
The appeal, however, is obvious. America is extraordinarily varied. You can stand in the steaming, alligator-patrolled swamps of Florida on a Monday, and by Friday be staring into the genuinely terrifying void of the Grand Canyon while a condor judges you from a nearby rock. That is, objectively, brilliant. No wonder people get hooked.
The States Nobody Warns You About
Here is the thing that the bucket list crowd tends to gloss over: not all 50 states were created equal in terms of tourist spectacle. North Dakota, bless its flat and windswept heart, is not Hawaii. It is enormous, largely agricultural, and in winter resembles what would happen if someone left Siberia out in the rain. Consequently, it is consistently one of the least-visited states in the union, which tells you something.
Meanwhile, states like Delaware — the first state to ratify the Constitution and very proud of it — offer the visitor a pleasant enough experience, but are not exactly making rival travel destinations sweat. Delaware is approximately the size of a large British county, and you can plausibly drive through it while listening to one podcast episode. However, it counts. A tick is a tick. The completionist brain demands satisfaction.
The Logistics Are Absolutely Unhinged
Planning a trip to visit all 50 US states is, according to those who have attempted it, the logistical equivalent of planning a small military campaign. The Roadtrippers community is full of veterans sharing route optimisation strategies with the intensity of chess grandmasters. Arguments break out over the most efficient ordering of states. Do you do the contiguous 48 first and save Alaska and Hawaii as a grand finale? Or front-load the difficult ones before your knees give out?
Furthermore, the question of what counts as “visiting” a state is surprisingly contentious. Does a layover at Denver airport count as Colorado? (No. Obviously no. Stop it.) Does driving through a corner of Kansas on the way to Missouri count? (Also no, but people have tried to claim it.) The unofficial rules, hotly debated in forums and Facebook groups dedicated to this pursuit, generally require that you actually stop and do something in the state. Getting out of the car to photograph a welcome sign is, apparently, the bare minimum acceptable standard.
Visiting All 50 US States: Worth the Madness?
Ask anyone who has actually completed the challenge, and they will tell you — without exception, with slightly manic eyes — that it was absolutely worth it. The Atlas Obscura community has long celebrated the weird, wonderful, and overlooked corners of the world, and America’s lesser-sung states deliver handsomely on that front. There are roadside attractions of breathtaking absurdity, landscapes of genuine soul-altering beauty, and people of extraordinary kindness in places you would never otherwise think to visit.
Visiting all 50 US states is, in the end, less about the destination and more about the deranged commitment. It is proof that humans, given a sufficiently large map and enough snacks, will attempt almost anything. And for that, we raise a gas station coffee in their honour.
Read the original story at Atlas Obscura.
🛒 Related Finds on Amazon
As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.
