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Grand Canyon Railway

Image: Kurt Hänel

Can you imagine looking at the Grand Canyon National Park from aboard a train? You can do this, by taking the Grand Canyon Railway, which departs from Williams, Arizona, 30 miles west of Flagstaff.

This train travels past forests of ponderosa pines and parts of the Sonoran Desert into the heart of Canyon country, where you’ll spend the day exploring and hiking before boarding your return trip—just in time for sunset.

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The Rocky Mountaineer

Image: Taylor Brandon

The spectacular views of Western Canada, along with the red rock wonders of Colorado and Southern Utah can be fully appreciated through the nearly all-glass cabins of the Rocky Mountaineer.

This luxurious train takes passengers from Denver to Moab, Utah, where they are treated to fine dining and cocktails while enjoying the majestic views.

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Amtrak California Zephyr

Image: Levi Meir Clancy

Travelers aboard the California Zephyr can enjoy a 51-hour journey from Chicago to San Francisco that traverses through the magnificent landscapes of Colorado, Utah, Nevada, and northern California .

The ride passes through the Rocky Mountains, travels by the canyons of Colorado’s Western Slope, and spends an entire half-day on a trek through the Sierra Nevada, complete with views of Donner Lake and the Truckee River.

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Cass Scenic Railroad

Image: Josh Nezon

The Cass Scenic Railroad was originally built in 1901 to transport lumber through the mountains of West Virginia . Today, it helps preserve the legacy of America’s locomotive history. The railroad offers two routes, including a four-and-a-half-hour round-trip journey to Bald Knob —the highest summit of Back Allegheny Mountain at 4,842 feet.

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Amtrak Empire Builder

Image: Max Bender

The Empire Builder earns its name by traveling along major portions of the Lewis and Clark Trail. This 46-hour train departs daily from Chicago and traverses through Wisconsin, Minnesota, North Dakota, and Montana , before concluding in either Seattle or Portland .

Passengers on this less-crowded route can enjoy views of the Mississippi River and the North Dakota plains, as well as the stunning scenery of Glacier National Park in Montana.

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Amtrak Southwest Chief

Image: Ezra Jeffrey-Comeau

The long road from Chicago to Los Angeles can be traveled in great style and comfort aboard the Southwest Chief. The train traverses more than 2,000 miles, passing through Illinois farmlands, the Mississippi River, the red mesas of New Mexico, and the Mojave Desert .

This 40-hour ride can be taken in its entirety or partially, but no serious view collector should miss the most scenic stretch, which spans Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona, and southern California, including Raton Pass—a National Historic Landmark along the Santa Fe Trail.

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Cape Cod Central Railroad

Image: Melanie Hughes

This short, two-hour round trip is available only from May through October , immersing travelers in distinctive New England landscapes , including cranberry bogs, salt marshes, dunes, and woodlands.

The Cape Cod Excursion train offers an amazing sightseeing tour of the Cape’s natural attractions, including the charming Cape Cod Canal.

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Amtrak Coast Starlight

Image: Lukas Robertson

This 35-hour journey between Los Angeles and Seattle departs daily and stops in some of the West Coast ’s greatest cities, including Santa Barbara, San Francisco, Sacramento, and Portland .

The southern half of the route features long stretches of the Pacific Ocean shoreline before moving inland to the valleys of the state’s agricultural heart, eventually reaching the snow-covered peaks of the Cascade Mountains. The observation lounge on the train offers the best views in the house.

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Amtrak Adirondack

Image: Robert Macleod

The final Amtrak train on this list is the Adirondack. This route runs from New York City to Montreal, departing from the new Moynihan Train Hall at Penn Station. The 10-hour ride takes its passengers along the Hudson River up to Albany then passes through Saratoga Springs and Lake Champlain before arriving in Canada .

It is highly recommended to take this route in the fall during peak foliage season to watch New England’s changing autumn colors pass by your window.

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Napa Valley Wine Train

Image: Daniel Salgado

Imagine being able to drink wine from the beautiful wineries in Napa Valley without worrying about who is going to drive. That is exactly what passengers of the Napa Valley Wine Train can do.

Originally built in 1865 by a local millionaire to transport visitors to a spa resort in Calistoga, the train now offers travelers the chance to sip local vintages from a luxurious railcar while passing vaunted vineyards on a three-hour round-trip journey .

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Arizona skips Daylight Saving Time

Image: Christoph von Gellhorn

This is partly true because most of the state doesn’t bother with Daylight Saving Time . They stopped changing the clocks back in 1967. The exception is the Navajo Nation, which stretches into Utah and New Mexico and keeps DST so all its communities stay on the same schedule. Now, as for the smaller Hopi reservation, inside the Navajo Nation, it sticks with Arizona time… Yes, quite confusing if you’re not a local.

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Georgia isn’t really the Peach State

Image: Jessica Furtney

Georgia loves its peaches, sure, but the state’s top fruit money-maker is actually blueberries . In recent years, blueberries have brought in several times more cash for farmers than peaches. Meanwhile, California grows far more peaches than Georgia ever has. The nickname stuck from the old days when Georgia peaches were famous for their flavor, not their volume. So while the pride is real, the peaches aren’t quite the powerhouse people may think.

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Nevada didn’t record the hottest US temperature

Image: tommao wang

You probably think of Nevada’s desert heat as unmatched, but the all-time record belongs to California’s Death Valley . In July 1913, it hit a mind-melting 134 degrees Fahrenheit, the hottest temperature not only in America but the hottest ever recorded on Earth!

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Minnesota doesn’t have the most lakes

Image: Tom Conway

Minnesota proudly calls itself the "Land of 10,000 Lakes," but that’s selling itself short… The real number is closer to 12,000. However, Alaska wins this battle . The state has more than 3 million lakes over five acres in size. In fact, Alaska contains over 40 percent of the nation’s surface water. If you love fishing, kayaking, or just staring at a quiet stretch of water, the true lake capital of America is far up north.

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Pineapples aren’t native to Hawaii

Image: Christian Joudrey

Pineapples are everywhere in Hawaiian imagery, but the plant actually comes from South America , mainly Paraguay and southern Brazil. Spanish explorers likely brought them to Hawaii in the 1500s after spreading them across the Pacific to places like the Philippines and Guam. Hawaii’s climate turned out to be perfect for growing them and by the 1900s, the islands were producing so many pineapples that the fruit became a symbol of Hawaii itself.

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Maine isn’t the country’s easternmost point

Image: Chris Henry

If you’re a Geography geek, you’ll love this one. You might picture Maine’s rocky coast as the eastern tip of America, but the actual easternmost point is thousands of miles away, on Alaska’s Semisopochnoi Island in the Aleutians. How is that possible? Well, that’s because it crosses the 180th meridian, putting it in the Eastern Hemisphere. That means part of Alaska technically sits farther east than anywhere in Maine.

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The biggest US earthquake didn’t happen in California

Image: Lala Miklós

California has suffered some big earthquakes in its history, but the most powerful earthquake in America struck Alaska in 1964 . It hit Prince William Sound with a magnitude of 9.2. It was so strong it shook the ground for four and a half minutes and triggered massive tsunamis. In today’s dollars, the damage would total more than $2 billion. Alaska sits on a collision zone of tectonic plates, making it one of the world’s most seismically active regions.

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The Everglades isn’t America’s biggest swamp

Image: Joshua J. Cotten

A lot of people picture the Florida Everglades when they think of swamps, but technically, the Everglades isn’t a swamp at all. The real title of the largest swamp in the United States goes to Louisiana’s Atchafalaya Basin , which spans about 1.4 million acres. This swamp has a vast mix of cypress forests, bayous, and marshes, and it’s more than twice as productive as the Everglades when it comes to wildlife and plant life.

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Big cities aren’t always capitals

Image: Mackenzie Cruz

It surprises people how often the biggest city isn’t the state capital . New York City? Not the capital… Albany is. Chicago? Nope, that honor goes to Springfield. Pennsylvania’s capital isn’t Philly or Pittsburgh, it’s Harrisburg. Even California’s capital isn’t L.A. or San Francisco, it’s actually Sacramento. Out of fifty states, only seventeen have their most populous city as the capital.

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Alaska isn’t divided into counties

Image: Rod Long

Alaska likes to do things its own way. Instead of counties, it’s split into boroughs , and a massive area known as the Unorganized Borough has no local government at all. People out there don’t pay property taxes, but that freedom comes with challenges, limited services, fewer job options, and tough living conditions.

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12. Portuguese

Image: Etienne Girardet

Today, there are over 845,000 Portuguese speakers in the United States, making it the 12th most spoken language after English.

The Portuguese-speaking community is composed of immigrants from both Portugal and Brazil. Since the 1960s, many Portuguese immigrants have settled along the coast of Massachusetts, where they could continue their traditional fishing activities. Besides Massachusetts, Portuguese is most commonly spoken in Connecticut, Rhode Island, and Utah.

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11. Hindi

Image: Rohan Solankurkar

Hindi is the most widely spoken Indian language in the United States, with more than 890,000 people speaking it . Hindi belongs to the Indo-European language family and has been included on the U.S. State Department's list of critical languages due to strategic commercial interests in South Asia.

Hindi-speaking Indians began immigrating to North America in the early 19th century. The community has primarily settled in large cities such as New York City, Washington D.C., San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Chicago.

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10. Russian

Image: Tessakay

There are currently almost 950,000 Russian speakers in the United States. Did you know that Russian is one of the two official languages aboard the International Space Station? NASA astronauts typically take Russian language courses to communicate with their Russian counterparts.

Another well-known Russian-speaking community is in New York's Brighton Beach neighborhood, often referred to as "Little Odessa." Cultural events, festivals, and markets featuring traditional Russian foods, music, and crafts are common sights here. Los Angeles is another city where Russian is regularly used.

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9. Korean

Image: 昆 阿

Over the past few decades, the number of Korean speakers in the United States has grown significantly, with nearly 1,100,000 people now speaking Korean .

Los Angeles is home to the largest Koreatown in the country, and many residents in other major cities speak Korean at home, helping to maintain and promote the heritage of this Asian culture in the United States.

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8. Arabic

Image: Rawan Yasser

With more than 1.2 million speakers, Arabic is the eighth most spoken language in our country.

Arabic is spoken in immigrant communities from countries such as Egypt, Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, and Yemen. These communities are most prominent in states like California, New York, and Michigan, where Arabic is commonly heard in homes and community centers.

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7. German

Image: FotosFuerBlogger

German is widely spoken in states with high populations of German ancestry, such as Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, and Texas. When including Yiddish, Pennsylvania Dutch, and other West Germanic languages, there are over 1,450,000 German speakers in the United States.

Cities like Fredericksburg and New Braunfels, Texas, were founded by German immigrants and continue to celebrate their heritage with festivals such as Oktoberfest. In Pennsylvania, a large number of Pennsylvania Dutch speakers—predominantly among the Amish and Mennonite communities—speak this German dialect, which is not, as one might expect, Dutch.

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6. Vietnamese

Image: Huynh Van

The number of Vietnamese speakers in the United States is similar to that of the previous language on this list, with more than 1.5 million people speaking the language of this Southeast Asian country.

In recent decades, the number of Vietnamese immigrants has been increasing exponentially. Most have settled in California, followed by Texas, Florida, Washington, and Georgia.

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5. Tagalog

Image: Emmanuel Nicolas Jr.

Despite being the fifth most spoken language in the United States, Tagalog is often overlooked. For those who have never heard of it, Tagalog is one of the official languages of the Philippines.

A significant number of Filipino immigrants have settled in the United States since the early 19th century. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, there are currently more than 1.7 million Tagalog speakers . Thirty-eight percent of Filipinos in the United States live in California, with relatively large concentrations also in Hawaii and Texas.

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4. French

Image: Erik Mclean

If we include Patois, Cajun, Haitian, and Louisiana Creole—a hybrid of French and various African languages—French is the fourth most widely spoken language in the United States.

The French influence, which dates back to the 17th century, is evident in a wide variety of American English words and phrases. Today, there are nearly 2.1 million French speakers in the country.

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3. Chinese

Image: 五玄土 ORIENTO

The Chinese language, including its different variants such as Mandarin, Cantonese, and Hokkien, contributes significantly to the cultural diversity of the United States. Although the gap between the second and third most spoken languages in the country is considerable, the number of people who speak Chinese is still representative.

With approximately 3.5 million Chinese speakers across the country, the greatest influence of this culture can be found in states with the highest concentrations of Chinese immigrants, such as New York and California.

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2. Spanish

Image: Leeloo The First

Spanish is the second most spoken language in the United States and one of the fastest-growing languages in the country. This is no surprise, as approximately 19% of the total population is of Hispanic origin.

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, more than 40 million people speak Spanish in addition to English in the United States. Hispanic communities are found throughout the nation, with the largest concentrations in California, Texas, Florida, and New York.

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1. English

Image: Wilhelm Gunkel

Although it is not surprising that English is the most widely spoken language in the United States, it is still not recognized as an official language. However, more than half of the 50 states have passed laws granting it official language status.

English speakers make up a large percentage of the U.S. population, with approximately 78 percent speaking only English . American English is also incredibly rich, composed of dozens of regional dialects with distinct grammar, vocabulary, and pronunciation.