Cross the United States one state line at a time
The USA route works like the world route, but on the map of the 48 contiguous states plus Washington, D.C. You get a start state and a destination state. Name the states you'd drive through on the shortest path, counting states, not miles.
Oregon to Texas, for example, takes three states: California, Arizona and New Mexico. A route through Nevada and Utah works too, but it needs one more state.
Rules for state lines
- Corners don't count. At Four Corners, Arizona and Colorado touch only at a single point, as do Utah and New Mexico. You can't hop diagonally across it.
- Michigan has two halves. The Upper Peninsula borders Wisconsin, so Michigan connects to Wisconsin, Indiana and Ohio.
- Alaska and Hawaii have no land route to the other states, so they never sit on a route.
- Washington, D.C. counts as a stop. It borders Maryland and Virginia.
Tips
- Missouri and Tennessee each border eight states, more than any other. Routes across the middle of the country often pass through one of them.
- Maine has one neighbour. It borders only New Hampshire, so every route to or from Maine passes through it.
- Work from both ends. List the neighbours of the start and of the destination, then find the state that joins them.
Want a harder challenge? Play today's world route.