13 questions · includes Alaska and Hawaii · score tracked
West states map quiz
The thirteen Census West states are asked one by one, Alaska and Hawaii included. Click each on the map; the inset boxes at the bottom left handle the two non-contiguous states.
How the quiz works
The West is the largest region by area: the eight Mountain states (Montana, Idaho, Wyoming, Colorado, Utah, Nevada, Arizona, New Mexico) and the five Pacific states (Washington, Oregon, California, Alaska, Hawaii). Thirteen questions, one per state, shuffled each time. Green means correct; a wrong click counts a miss and the third miss reveals the answer. When Alaska or Hawaii is named, click inside the inset box for that state rather than searching the main map.
Study list: the 13 states
| State | Code | Capital | Census division |
|---|---|---|---|
| Alaska | AK | Juneau | Pacific |
| Arizona | AZ | Phoenix | Mountain |
| California | CA | Sacramento | Pacific |
| Colorado | CO | Denver | Mountain |
| Hawaii | HI | Honolulu | Pacific |
| Idaho | ID | Boise | Mountain |
| Montana | MT | Helena | Mountain |
| Nevada | NV | Carson City | Mountain |
| New Mexico | NM | Santa Fe | Mountain |
| Oregon | OR | Salem | Pacific |
| Utah | UT | Salt Lake City | Mountain |
| Washington | WA | Olympia | Pacific |
| Wyoming | WY | Cheyenne | Mountain |
Tips for telling them apart
- The straight-edged states. Colorado and Wyoming are the two rectangles; Wyoming is on top. Utah is the rectangle with a bite out of its top-right corner, where Wyoming intrudes. New Mexico is nearly square with a small foot in the bottom-left corner. Arizona has the straight eastern and northern edges and the diagonal Colorado River on the west.
- Four Corners. Utah, Colorado, New Mexico and Arizona meet at a point. Learn them clockwise from the top-left: Utah, Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona.
- Nevada is the tilted shape between Utah and California with a point at the bottom. Idaho is the boot-shaped state with the narrow panhandle reaching north to Canada. Montana is the big state on top of Idaho and Wyoming with a straight southern edge and a diagonal west edge along the Continental Divide.
- The Pacific coast: Washington on top (with Puget Sound cut into it), Oregon in the middle, California below, running 770 miles down to Mexico.
- Alaska is the largest state and appears in the inset at reduced scale; Hawaii is the chain of islands in the other inset.
- Time zone as a hint: Pacific (WA, OR, CA, most of NV), Mountain (the other seven), then Alaska and Hawaii each in their own zone.
Related pages
- Western states map — the region with populations and capitals.
- Mountain, Pacific and Pacific Northwest maps.
- Blank US map to practise on paper, with the labeled map as the key.