ArizonaMountain division. The capital is Phoenix. It is the most populous state capital in the country. Admitted as the 48th state on February 14, 1912, last of the 48 connected states. The Colorado River marks its border with California and much
ColoradoMountain division. The capital is Denver, also its largest city. Admitted as the 38th state on August 1, 1876, four weeks after the nation's 100th birthday, hence the nickname Centennial State. All of it lies above 1,000 meters.
IdahoMountain division. The capital and largest city is Boise. Admitted as the 43rd state on July 3, 1890. Six states and British Columbia touch it. Hells Canyon, on its Oregon border, is the deepest river gorge in North America.
MontanaMountain division. The capital is Helena, and the largest city is Billings. Admitted as the 41st state on November 8, 1889. It is the fourth largest state, the largest with no coast, and the only one that borders three Canadian provinces.
NevadaMountain division. The capital is Carson City. The largest city is Las Vegas. Admitted as the 36th state on October 31, 1864, during the Civil War, hence the nickname Battle Born State. It is the country's driest state.
New MexicoMountain division. The capital is Santa Fe, founded in 1610. It is the oldest state capital, and the highest, at about 7,000 feet. Admitted as the 47th state on January 6, 1912. The Rio Grande runs north to south through the middle of the s
UtahMountain division. The capital is Salt Lake City, also its largest city. Admitted as the 45th state on January 4, 1896. The Great Salt Lake, in its north, is the Western Hemisphere's largest saltwater lake.
WyomingMountain division. The capital and largest city is Cheyenne. Admitted as the 44th state on July 10, 1890, one week after Idaho. It has the fewest people of any state. Yellowstone, the first national park (1872), fills its northwest corner.
Pacific 5
AlaskaPacific division. The capital is Juneau. No road connects it to the rest of the continent. Admitted as the 49th state on January 3, 1959. It is larger than Texas, California and Montana combined, and it touches no other state.
CaliforniaPacific division. The capital is Sacramento. The largest city is Los Angeles. Admitted as the 31st state on September 9, 1850, two years after Mexico ceded the land. It has the most people of any state and is third in area.
HawaiiPacific division. The capital is Honolulu, on the island of Oahu. Admitted as the 50th state on August 21, 1959, the most recent. It is the only state made up entirely of islands, and the southernmost, about 2,000 miles from the mainland.
OregonPacific division. The capital is Salem, and the largest city is Portland. Admitted as the 33rd state on February 14, 1859. The Columbia River marks much of its border with Washington. Crater Lake is the deepest lake in the country.
WashingtonPacific division. The capital is Olympia, and the largest city is Seattle. Admitted as the 42nd state on November 11, 1889, three days after Montana. It is the only state named after a president. Puget Sound is the inlet in its northwest.
How this list was compiled: State list and the two divisions: U.S. Census Bureau, Census Regions and Divisions of the United States, https://www2.census.gov/geo/pdfs/maps-data/maps/reference/us_regdiv.pdf, checked 2026-09-19 (Region 4 West: Division 8 Mountain, eight states; Division 9 Pacific, five states). Order and dates of admission: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_U.S._states_by_date_of_admission_to_the_Union, checked 2026-09-19. Capitals: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_capitals_in_the_United_States, checked 2026-09-19. Largest cities, borders, rivers, area and population ranks in the hints and detail lines: the Wikipedia articles on each of the thirteen states, plus https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colorado_River and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nevada (the Arizona borders: the river is the California line and much, not all, of the Nevada line), https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hells_Canyon, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bitterroot_Range (the Idaho and Montana line) and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Salt_Lake, checked 2026-09-19. Other lists of the West and the Southwest: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Western_United_States, checked 2026-09-19. Scale of the two insets: the notes of the drawing. Hints and detail lines written for this site. Licence: own work
The drawing: Drawn for this site from U.S. Census Bureau 2023 cartographic boundary file cb_2023_us_state_5m (scale 1:5,000,000), https://www2.census.gov/geo/tiger/GENZ2023/shp/cb_2023_us_state_5m.zip, downloaded 2026-09-19. Surrounding land from Natural Earth 5.1.2, ne_10m_admin_0_countries_lakes (scale 1:10,000,000), https://raw.githubusercontent.com/nvkelso/natural-earth-vector/v5.1.2/geojson/ne_10m_admin_0_countries_lakes.geojson, downloaded 2026-09-19. Albers equal-area conic projection, central meridian 113°W, standard parallels 34.3°N and 46.1°N. Alaska; Hawaii moved into insets. Outlines simplified; small islands are left out. Licence: public domain (work of the United States government, 17 U.S.C. 105): https://www2.census.gov/geo/pdfs/maps-data/data/tiger/tgrshp2023/TGRSHP2023_TechDoc_Ch1.pdf; public domain (Natural Earth terms of use: https://www.naturalearthdata.com/about/terms-of-use/)
How it works
This western states quiz covers the largest region on the U.S. map: 13 states, from Montana and New Mexico out to Alaska and Hawaii, which sit in inset boxes. It asks all 13 or one division. The map of the western United States prints blank or labeled.
Read the full guide
The 13 states, Mountain and Pacific
The list is the U.S. Census Bureau's West: 13 states in two divisions. The Mountain division is Arizona, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming. The Pacific division is Alaska, California, Hawaii, Oregon and Washington. Many textbooks move Arizona and New Mexico into a Southwest. This page asks all 13 and calls no list wrong.
A round, with Alaska and Hawaii in their boxes
In Find it, this western states map quiz names a state and you tap it. Alaska and Hawaii are tapped inside their dashed boxes. A wrong tap shows the right state. Miss four, and Practise the 4 you missed asks them again. Name it lights a state for you to name from a short list or by typing. Study writes all 13 names on the map. Print blank numbers all 13, the two in boxes included, and Print labelled is the key.
Wyoming and Colorado get swapped most: both are plain blocks with ruled edges. Wyoming is the upper one, under Montana, and Colorado sits below it.
Learn the Four Corners clockwise from the upper left: Utah, Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona. Utah's upper right corner is notched where Wyoming fits in.
Read the coast from the top: Washington, Oregon, California. Behind them, Idaho is the chimney that reaches Canada, and Nevada is the wedge pointing down at Arizona.
Questions and answers
Why are Alaska and Hawaii in boxes?
Neither touches another state. With Hawaii about 2,000 miles out in the Pacific and Alaska beyond western Canada, a map with both in place would be mostly water. Each sits in a dashed inset: Alaska at 27 percent of the main scale, Hawaii at 92.
My book puts Arizona and New Mexico in the Southwest. Is this list wrong?
No. The Census Bureau has no Southwest and files both states under its Mountain division. A Southwest unit usually adds Texas and Oklahoma. Those two are on the Southeast page, which asks all 16 states of the Census South.
Do Alaska and Hawaii count in the Pacific round?
Yes. The Pacific set asks 5 states: Alaska, California, Hawaii, Oregon and Washington, two of them in the inset boxes at the lower left. The Mountain set asks the other 8 and zooms in on the block from Montana down to Arizona.