Randal S. Olson · Optimal road trips

Pareto-optimized U.S. state capitol road trips

These maps come from the 2016 post "Computing optimal road trips on a limited budget". Each map is the best possible loop for a given number of state capitols, from 2 to 48. They were restored in 2026 and work again.

47 of 47 maps restored.

Pick a number of capitols

  1. 299 mi2.3 hours
  2. 3225 mi4.9 hours
  3. 4338 mi7.3 hours
  4. 5455 mi10.4 hours
  5. 6593 mi12.8 hours
  6. 7815 mi18.1 hours
  7. 81,046 mi22.3 hours
  8. 91,095 mi24.2 hours
  9. 101,231 mi26.6 hours
  10. 111,460 mi31.9 hours
  11. 121,709 mi37 hours
  12. 132,016 mi43.3 hours
  13. 142,279 mi47.1 hours
  14. 152,505 mi50.7 hours
  15. 162,654 mi54.1 hours
  16. 172,862 mi57.8 hours
  17. 183,015 mi60.7 hours
  18. 193,172 mi63.8 hours
  19. 203,365 mi67.2 hours
  20. 213,594 mi72.6 hours
  21. 223,905 mi79.4 hours
  22. 234,143 mi83.7 hours
  23. 244,372 mi89 hours
  24. 254,634 mi93.9 hours
  25. 264,877 mi97.2 hours
  26. 275,088 mi102 hours
  27. 285,311 mi105 hours
  28. 295,540 mi111 hours
  29. 305,803 mi116 hours
  30. 316,113 mi123 hours
  31. 326,445 mi129 hours
  32. 336,863 mi135 hours
  33. 347,294 mi143 hours
  34. 357,633 mi150 hours
  35. 367,965 mi156 hours
  36. 378,310 mi162 hours
  37. 388,642 mi168 hours
  38. 399,072 mi177 hours
  39. 409,606 mi187 hours
  40. 4110,228 mi193 hours
  41. 4210,560 mi203 hours
  42. 4310,892 mi209 hours
  43. 4411,237 mi215 hours
  44. 4511,574 mi221 hours
  45. 4612,004 mi229 hours
  46. 4712,538 mi239 hours
  47. 4813,341 mi252 hours

Animated maps

These two pages play back over time instead of showing one fixed route: one cycles through all 47 Pareto-front loops, the other replays the optimizer improving the 48-capitol loop.