Discover the United States - a continental nation of 50 states, from the Grand Canyon to Manhattan, Hollywood to Silicon Valley, jazz to hip-hop.
The United States is a country in North America. Its capital is Washington, D.C.
The United States is a country that needs no introduction but defies every simple one. It is the third largest country in the world by area, stretching from the frozen tundra of Alaska to the tropical beaches of Hawaii, from the Atlantic seaboard to the Pacific coast, with deserts, prairies, mountains, swamps, and every conceivable landscape in between. It is home to 340 million people from every corner of the Earth, speaking hundreds of languages, practicing every religion, and holding every political opinion simultaneously and loudly.
The cultural output is staggering and inescapable. America invented jazz, blues, rock and roll, hip-hop, Hollywood cinema, the internet, the personal computer, the airplane, and the atomic bomb. It put humans on the Moon. Its universities, technology companies, and financial institutions dominate the global landscape. Its national parks protect some of the most extraordinary landscapes on the planet. The country was founded on an idea - that all people are created equal - and has been arguing about what that means ever since. The United States is contradictory, complicated, infuriating, and fascinating in roughly equal measure, and there is nowhere else quite like it.
A box-canyon mining town with a steep mountain behind it. Four ski days, one day off, honest notes on expert terrain, passes and flights.
Bases: Telluride, Mountain Village
Vermont's biggest peak, a small ski area with a big reputation, and honest notes on ice, wind holds and weekend crowds.
Bases: Stowe village, Mountain Road, Spruce Peak village
A Colorado ski town with real cowboys and real Olympians. Four ski days in the trees, one day off in the hot springs.
Bases: Mountain Base Area, Old Town
Balboa Park, a carrier deck, sea lions at La Jolla Cove and tide pools at the edge of Point Loma. Five days in San Diego, planned by area.
California's high Sierra ski mountain, where the season runs into June. Four ski days, one day off, and honest notes on the drive.
Bases: The Village at Mammoth, Main Lodge, Town of Mammoth Lakes
Cliffs seen from a boat, a red canyon, a bay calm in July and rough in January. Five days on Kauai.
Bases: Poʻipū, Princeville and Hanalei, Kapaʻa
16th President who preserved the Union during the Civil War and abolished slavery with the Emancipation Proclamation
Civil rights leader whose nonviolent movement and I Have a Dream speech transformed America and inspired the world
Prolific inventor who developed the phonograph, practical light bulb, and motion picture camera, holding over 1,000 patents
Founding genius of jazz music whose trumpet playing and gravelly voice shaped American popular music for a century
Author of Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, widely considered the Great American Novel, and America's greatest humorist
The United States has no official language at the federal level, though English is the de facto national language
Alaska was purchased from Russia in 1867 for $7.2 million, about 2 cents per acre, in a deal critics called 'Seward's Folly'
The Interstate Highway System, at over 77,000 kilometers, is one of the largest public works projects in history
The US national park system protects over 340,000 square kilometers, an area larger than the entire country of Poland
GPS, the internet, the personal computer, and the smartphone were all developed in the United States
The Library of Congress in Washington, D.C. is the largest library in the world, with more than 170 million items
Yellowstone's Old Faithful geyser has been erupting roughly every 90 minutes for at least 100 years
Drop a pin where you think it is and see how close you got. A few rounds and you will place United States and its neighbours without a second thought.
North America
