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Map Showing The Perfect U.S. Road Trip, According to a Data Scientist.

The American road trip is a dream that almost everyone has had at one point or another. Let’s say you make your mind to have your dream come true and have a road trip along the U.S.

But one of the hardest parts of planning a road trip is deciding where to stop and which road to take. Given how large and diverse the U.S. is.

Wouldn’t it be nice if there is a map that hit landmarks in every state and not only that. Wouldn’t it be great if the map represented the optimal, most efficient route across the country.

us road trip

Road trip stopping at major U.S. landmarks - Randy Olson

 

To make this happen Discovery News blogger Tracy Staedter approached Randy Olson, a data scientist. To stand a chance at making an interesting road trip, They laid out a few rules  from the beginning:

1- The trip must make at least one stop in all 48 states in the contiguous U.S.

2- The trip would only make stops at National Natural Landmarks, National Historic Sites, National Parks, or National Monuments.

3- The trip must be taken by car and never leave the U.S.

 The result was an epic itinerary with a mix of inner city exploration, must-see historical sites, and beautiful natural landscapes. All that was left was to figure out the path that would minimize our time spent driving and maximize our time spent enjoying the landmarks.

Assuming no traffic, this road trip will take about 224 hours (9.33 days) of driving in total, so it’s truly an epic undertaking that will take at least 2-3 months to complete. The best part is that this road trip is designed so that you can start anywhere on the route as long as you follow it from then on. You’ll hit every major area in the U.S. on this trip, and as an added bonus, you won’t spend too long driving through the endless corn fields of Nebraska.

 

 Here’s the Google Maps of the route: [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6]

 

Here’s the full list of landmarks in order:

  1. Grand Canyon, AZ
  2. Bryce Canyon National Park, UT
  3. Craters of the Moon National Monument, ID
  4. Yellowstone National Park, WY
  5. Pikes Peak, CO
  6. Carlsbad Caverns National Park, NM
  7. The Alamo, TX
  8. The Platt Historic District, OK
  9. Toltec Mounds, AR
  10. Elvis Presley’s Graceland, TN
  11. Vicksburg National Military Park, MS
  12. French Quarter, New Orleans, LA
  13. USS Alabama, AL
  14. Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, FL
  15. Okefenokee Swamp Park, GA
  16. Fort Sumter National Monument, SC
  17. Lost World Caverns, WV
  18. Wright Brothers National Memorial Visitor Center, NC
  19. Mount Vernon, VA
  20. White House, Washington, DC
  21. Colonial Annapolis Historic District, MD
  22. New Castle Historic District, Delaware
  23. Cape May Historic District, NJ
  24. Liberty Bell, PA
  25. Statue of Liberty, NY
  26. The Mark Twain House & Museum, CT
  27. The Breakers, RI
  28. USS Constitution, MA
  29. Acadia National Park, ME
  30. Mount Washington Hotel, NH
  31. Shelburne Farms, VT
  32. Fox Theater, Detroit, MI
  33. Spring Grove Cemetery, OH
  34. Mammoth Cave National Park, KY
  35. West Baden Springs Hotel, IN
  36. Abraham Lincoln’s Home, IL
  37. Gateway Arch, MO
  38. C. W. Parker Carousel Museum, KS
  39. Terrace Hill Governor’s Mansion, IA
  40. Taliesin, WI
  41. Fort Snelling, MN
  42. Ashfall Fossil Bed, NE
  43. Mount Rushmore, SD
  44. Fort Union Trading Post, ND
  45. Glacier National Park, MT
  46. Hanford Site, WA
  47. Columbia River Highway, OR
  48. San Francisco Cable Cars, CA
  49. San Andreas Fault, CA
  50. Hoover Dam, NV

Related Topics:

 Reference: 

-  Computing the optimal road trip across the U.S.

- Researcher maps out epic U.S. road trip hitting all 50 landmarks in fastest route

 

 

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