Part of why we travel is to have that moment to look out over a vista point and feel awe. We crave that sense of wonder and being able to marvel over a new landscape we’ve never seen before. And of course, most of us also reach for our phones, capture that beautiful sight and upload it to our Instagram feeds. Storyboards, the company that makes stickable photo tiles, has picked several picturesque landscapes in America and toted up how many times people hashtagged the destination name on Instagram to come up with a list of the top ten most picturesque places in the US.
Lake Tahoe is first on the list—and both California and Nevada get to take credit for the lake, which literally straddles the border. It’s the clearest lake in the US (99.994 percent purity! Dang—we now feel dirty) and is an alpine lake surrounded by high, ski-worthy mountains that reflect in the waters. In summer, Lake Tahoe converts to a hiking and water sports paradise. It won first place with 2,986,225 Instagram hashtags.
The silver medal goes to Lake Michigan, with a hashtag count of 2,788,904. It’s the third-largest lake in the US and the fifth-largest globally, stretching for 307 beautiful miles. It has sand dunes that reach a height of 450 feet and many bluffs overlooking the lake, all to get a bird’s eye view. These states have access to the lake: Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana and Michigan.
And bronze goes to Florida’s Clearwater Beach, with 1,298,877 hashtags. The white sand made of Appalachian Mountains quartz sparkles in the sun (most beaches have sand composed of powdered seashells). People refer to it as “sugar white sand.” Clearwater Beach also boasts amazing sunsets and warm waters for swimmers.
The remaining places on the list are:
4. Lake Superior, with 1,157,663 hashtags
5. Lake Ontario, with 1,007,124 hashtags
6. Waikiki Beach, with 969,640 hashtags
7. Lake Norman, with 640,978 hashtags
8. Lake Huron, with 560,434 hashtags
9. Lake Powell, with 456,329 hashtags
10. Mohave Desert, with 429,066 hashtags