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69 free US Geography trivia questions with answers — geography quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
66 free US geography trivia questions with answers, easy to hard. They run from the ones every American should get (the largest state, the Windy City, the Grand Canyon's state) to the ones that separate map nerds from the rest: the oldest state capital, the driest state, which state's subdivisions are parishes, and where the geographic centre of the lower 48 actually sits. The hard US geography trivia at the end is meant to be genuinely difficult: the exclave that is the only part of the lower 48 north of the 49th parallel, the southernmost speck of the contiguous US, the state capital with no road out, the four capitals with no interstate, the two states that each touch eight neighbours, and the region the ice sheets missed. Expect rivers, lakes, mountains, deserts, national parks, capitals and borders, plus a little history where it explains the map. It suits classrooms, road trips and quiz nights. Every answer is checked against an encyclopaedic or official source and the sentence that establishes it is shown under each question.
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Q 01What is the largest state in the United States by area?
Alaska
It has more total area than Texas, California and Montana combined, and also contains the four largest US cities by area, including its capital Juneau.
Q 02How many Great Lakes are there?
5
Superior, Michigan, Huron, Erie and Ontario are counted separately, though Michigan and Huron are hydrologically a single body of water joined at the Straits of Mackinac.
Q 03Which state is nicknamed the Buckeye State, after a native tree?
Ohio
The Ohio buckeye's shiny brown nut is said to resemble a deer's eye, and it is also the mascot of the state's flagship university.
Q 04The Grand Canyon is located in which US state?
Arizona
The Grand Canyon is located in northwestern Arizona. Carved by the Colorado River, it is about 277 miles long and up to 18 miles wide.
Q 05What is the capital of California?
Sacramento
Sacramento became California's permanent capital in 1854 after the city offered its county courthouse to house the legislature; earlier sessions had met in San Jose, Vallejo and Benicia.
Q 06Which river is the longest in the United States?
Missouri
The Missouri rises in the Rockies of southwestern Montana and runs 2,341 miles before joining the Mississippi north of St. Louis, edging out the Mississippi's 2,340 miles.
Q 07Mount Rushmore is located in which US state?
South Dakota
Mount Rushmore is located near Keystone, South Dakota. The sculpture features the faces of George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt, and Abraham Lincoln.
Q 08Which state consists of two peninsulas separated by the Straits of Mackinac?
Michigan
Michigan: the heavily forested Upper Peninsula juts east from Wisconsin, while the more populous Lower Peninsula stretches north from Ohio and Indiana; the five-mile Mackinac Bridge has linked them since 1957.
Q 09What is the smallest US state by area?
Rhode Island
Rhode Island is the smallest US state at just 1,545 square miles. Despite its small size, it has over 400 miles of coastline.
Q 10Yellowstone National Park is primarily located in which state?
Wyoming
Wyoming holds about 96% of Yellowstone, which occupies a roughly square parcel of volcanic complex jogging slightly past the state's northwestern corner into Montana and Idaho.
Q 11Which two US states do not share a border with any other state?
Alaska and Hawaii
Alaska and Hawaii are the only US states that do not share a land border with any other US state. Alaska borders Canada, and Hawaii is an island chain in the Pacific.
Q 12What is the highest point in the United States?
Denali
Denali in Alaska rises 20,310 feet, the highest point in the United States and North America; its summit was first reached in 1913 by Hudson Stuck's party, with Walter Harper the first to stand on top.
Q 13Which state is known as the Empire State?
New York
New York: the nickname, in use by the 1820s and often traced to George Washington, reflects the state's political and economic dominance, and it lent its name to Manhattan's Empire State Building, finished in 1931.
Q 21Which US state has the most national parks?
California
California has nine: Yosemite, Death Valley, Joshua Tree, Sequoia, Kings Canyon, Redwood, Lassen Volcanic, Channel Islands and Pinnacles; Alaska is second with eight and Utah third with five.
Q 22Which hot desert, the only place giant saguaro cactus grows wild, straddles the US–Mexico border?
Sonoran
The Sonoran Desert covers much of southern Arizona and the Mexican states of Sonora and Baja California, wrapping around the northern Gulf of California; the saguaro cactus grows wild nowhere else.
Q 23Which state has been nicknamed the Keystone State since 1802?
Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania, the geographic middle of the original thirteen colonies and the site of the founding documents signed in Philadelphia, was first toasted as the 'keystone in the federal union' in 1802.
Q 14The Mississippi River empties into which body of water?
Gulf of Mexico
It empties into the Gulf of Mexico about 100 miles downstream from New Orleans; the Mississippi basin drains about 40 percent of the contiguous United States.
Q 15Which is the second-most populous city in the United States?
Los Angeles
Los Angeles counted 3.9 million residents in the 2020 census, second only to New York City, and is the largest city in the Western United States.
Q 16Which US state contains the geographic center of the contiguous 48 states?
Kansas
The geographic center of the contiguous United States is located near Lebanon, Kansas. The geographic center of all 50 states (including Alaska and Hawaii) is near Belle Fourche, South Dakota.
Q 17What is the capital of Texas?
Austin
Austin has been the capital since 1839, when the Republic of Texas moved its government there; it is the second-most populous state capital after Phoenix and the southernmost in the lower 48.
Q 18Which Great Lake is the largest by surface area?
Superior
Lake Superior, at about 31,700 square miles, is roughly the size of South Carolina and is the largest freshwater lake in the world by surface area.
Q 19Until Congress renamed it in 1956, the ground the Statue of Liberty stands on went by what name?
Bedloe's Island
Bedloe's Island, named for early owner Isaac Bedloe, became Liberty Island by act of Congress in 1956; Bartholdi chose it because every ship entering New York Harbor had to pass it, and it had been federal land since 1800.
Q 20Which US territory is located in the Caribbean Sea?
US Virgin Islands
The US Virgin Islands (St. Thomas, St. John, and St. Croix) are located in the Caribbean Sea. The other territories listed are all in the Pacific Ocean.
Q 24The Appalachian Mountains reach their southern end in which state?
Alabama
Alabama: the Appalachians run roughly 1,500 miles from Newfoundland to the Talladega Mountains of central Alabama, where Cheaha Mountain, the state's highest point at 2,407 feet, stands near the system's southern end.
Q 25Which US state was the last to join the union?
Hawaii
Hawaii became the 50th state on August 21, 1959; Alaska, the 49th, had been admitted in January of that same year.
Q 26What is the deepest body of fresh water in the United States?
Crater Lake
Crater Lake in Oregon is the deepest lake in the US at 1,943 feet deep. It was formed about 7,700 years ago when the volcano Mount Mazama collapsed after an eruption.
Q 27Which four states meet at a single point called the Four Corners?
Utah, Colorado, Arizona, New Mexico
The Four Corners is the only point in the United States where four states meet: Utah, Colorado, Arizona, and New Mexico. It is marked by a monument managed by the Navajo Nation.
Q 28What is the capital of Florida?
Tallahassee
Tallahassee became the territorial capital in 1824, roughly midway between the older capitals of St. Augustine and Pensacola, and was the only Confederate state capital east of the Mississippi never captured during the Civil War.
Q 29Badwater Basin in Death Valley, the lowest point in North America, sits how many feet below sea level?
282
Badwater Basin lies 282 feet (86 m) below sea level; its salt flats sometimes flood into a shallow temporary lake after heavy rain, and Mount Whitney, the highest point in the lower 48, is only about 85 miles away.
Q 30Which US state borders just one other state?
Maine
Maine's only land neighbour is New Hampshire; the rest of its border runs along Canada and the Gulf of Maine.