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What is the shortest time you can drive in order to be in 3 states? 4 states? 6 states? So on and so forth...

I will specify some rules for this thread as to what counts:

• Only public, paved roads or well-maintaned, well-accessible unpaved roads count. Nothing like obscure jeep trails or something you couldn't do in an average sedan will count for the purposes of this thread.
• I specified driving because this is a forum about roads, of course, and to exclude things like standing on the Four Corners monument.
• Other posts about surprisingly short driving times between areas, states, counties, etc, generally not considered to be nearby are also welcome - for a well-known, obvious example, you can drive from Ohio to New York in under an hour via I-90, and most of Ohio and its population are much further than that from New York. Same situation with NC to WV via I-77. Something doesn't have to be *the* shortest to be posted here.
• Different records for different regions are welcome. An answer on this thread for somewhere in New England would be a lot less interesting than an answer for somewhere out West.
• Being open-ended is fine. If something looks like it could be somewhat related to the topic, it is fine to post it. The shortest time between specific states or groups of states is also welcome.

[froggie]

   

• I specified driving because this is a forum about roads, of course, and to exclude things like standing on the Four Corners monument.

Well, considering you can drive between 3 of the Four Corners states in the span of 3 minutes, this is not saying much.  And the 4th in about 15 minutes.  Even if we were to do a few destinations, like starting in Teec Nos Pos, stopping at the monument, then continuing on to Montezuma Creek, it can be done in under an hour.

There are 2 cases I can think of offhand where you can drive in 4 states in well under an hour...the more "famous" one (and one mentioned in the past on this forum) is I-81.  From Winchester, VA to Greencastle, PA takes about 45min, traffic permitting.  And going from Elkton, MD to Bridgeport, NJ via I-95 and US 322 is usually less time (assuming no casualties on I-95).

[oscar]

Off the top of my head, VA (exit 323)-WV-MD-PA (exit 1) via I-81. Four states, 38.5 miles, about 35 minutes drive time.

Barry Stiefel's legendary records of 21 states in a (26-hour) day, and 19 states in the first 24 hours of that trip, is discussed elsewhere on this forum.

[TheStranger]

The distance along old US 66 from Oklahoma to Missouri through a sliver of Kansas is 11.5 miles - on my big 2021 roadtrip, I got to experience that segment first-hand!
https://www.google.com/maps/dir/36.9964569,-94.7396679/37.0787092,-94.6179555/@37.0451679,-94.7369998,12z/data=!4m2!4m1!3e0?entry=ttu

[gonealookin]

For four states in the Southwest, using the Arizona segment of I-15 (29.4 miles) helps.  Add the 123.8 miles of I-15 in Nevada and it's about 153.2 miles from the UT/AZ line to the NV/CA line.  Hit Las Vegas at the right time and that's only a little more than 2 hours.

[Dough4872]

You can drive through Delaware, Maryland, and Pennsylvania in the span of a minute along Route 896.

[1995hoo]

DC isn’t a state, of course, but you can pass through Virginia, DC, and Maryland in less than a minute as you cross the Woodrow Wilson Bridge.

[Max Rockatansky]

The shortest three state route for me from Fresno would be taking I-40 out towards Needles.  I can enter Nevada via Needles Highway and jump into Arizona via Aztec Road.  Without stopping and speeding it probably is doable in about six hours flat. 

[Revive 755]

Going off Google and when there are no issues with the bridges at Cairo it appears possible to do 6 (MS, TN, AR, MO, IL, KY) in a little under 3 hours via I-55, I-57, and US 60.

[gonealookin]

If we can visit states in Mexico, another four-state one in the Southwest would be starting in Winterhaven, CA, crossing the Colorado into Yuma, AZ, heading down US 95 to the international border at San Luis, AZ, crossing over to San Luis Río Colorado, Sonora, and then taking the short hop on Mexico 2 back across the Colorado into Baja California.  Google Maps has that at about 29 miles in 46 minutes, time depending on how long it actually takes to cross the international border.

[milbfan]

US 58 West out to where it ends at US 25E at Cumberland Gap.  Three states, maybe 5 minutes.

-Virginia, where most of US 58 is located
-Tennessee - dips into for the last mile or so, heading west.
-Kentucky - take 25E heading north via the Cumberland Gap Tunnel

[roadman65]

Rhode Island? Isn’t all points of that state less than an hour from parts of CT and MA?

[CNGL-Leudimin]

I've driven through four Spanish communities in just 10 minutes . N-113 weaves across the short Aragon/Rioja line on its way between Castile and Leon and Navarre, however signs doesn't acknowledge the road enters the first of them.

In China it is possible to go from Inner Mongolia to Xinjiang Uyghur in just over a hour on G7. However it takes very long to even get to that really desolate section...

[jmacswimmer]

I think I covered 4 states in about an hour & a half while driving back from New England a few weeks ago: CT, NY, NJ, & PA via the Merritt/Hutch, I-287 over the Tappan Zee, and finally I-78 to its toll bridge over the Delaware River. IIRC I got gas at the Greenwich Service Plaza just before the CT/NY line around 5:45, and then my timestamp for the E-ZPass transaction at the I-78 toll bridge was 7:17. It was probably about a half hour to do CT-NY-NJ, and then another hour on I-287 & I-78 to reach the Delaware River & PA.

Another low-hanging-fruit example that comes to mind is I-95 ME-NH-MA in 15ish minutes?

[BlueOutback7]

I-275 in Cincinnati can be done in 10 minutes with Ohio, Indiana, and Kentucky.

[hobsini2]

You could drive from Putnam CT via Slatersville RI to Kittery ME in 2 hours and 8 minutes covering 5 states.
https://www.google.com/maps/dir/41.9161753,-71.7977477/43.0949728,-70.7622126/@42.5795636,-72.0298585,9.18z/data=!4m14!4m13!1m10!3m4!1m2!1d-71.7482074!2d41.9207202!3s0x89e43b459a8efec3:0x250f9f656a1e66f3!3m4!1m2!1d-71.566166!2d42.200997!3s0x89e473520bf46053:0x92650fc1b4cb2ea2!1m0!3e0?entry=ttu

[hobsini2]

Another couple of 4 state routes people wouldn't think about right away:

South Fulton TN to Wyatt MO via Cairo IL - 49.9 miles, 1 hr 2 min
https://www.google.com/maps/dir/South+Fulton,+TN/36.9214526,-89.2232773/@36.8926052,-89.280858,12.07z/data=!4m9!4m8!1m5!1m1!1s0x88797bbc6bfe8b41:0xe187b1c3349788f6!2m2!1d-88.8753371!2d36.5008943!1m0!3e0?entry=ttu

White Cloud KS to Hamburg IA - 62.2 miles, 1 hr 6 min
https://www.google.com/maps/dir/White+Cloud,+KS/Hamburg,+IA/@40.2903476,-95.8163404,10z/data=!3m1!4b1!4m14!4m13!1m5!1m1!1s0x87955b9a89edd591:0xbf15367abc8775a!2m2!1d-95.2969223!2d39.9763876!1m5!1m1!1s0x8794f96946eef553:0x913d6cb2d6227c32!2m2!1d-95.6577711!2d40.6044458!3e0?entry=ttu

[hbelkins]

US 58 West out to where it ends at US 25E at Cumberland Gap.  Three states, maybe 5 minutes.

-Virginia, where most of US 58 is located
-Tennessee - dips into for the last mile or so, heading west.
-Kentucky - take 25E heading north via the Cumberland Gap Tunnel

Shorter than that before the tunnel came along, using 25E alone.

Another couple of 4 state routes people wouldn't think about right away:

South Fulton TN to Wyatt MO via Cairo IL - 49.9 miles, 1 hr 2 min
https://www.google.com/maps/dir/South+Fulton,+TN/36.9214526,-89.2232773/@36.8926052,-89.280858,12.07z/data=!4m9!4m8!1m5!1m1!1s0x88797bbc6bfe8b41:0xe187b1c3349788f6!2m2!1d-88.8753371!2d36.5008943!1m0!3e0?entry=ttu

I hadn't thought about adding South Fulton in, but I was going to suggest KY-IL-MO.

Also, KY-OH-WV via the Ashland bridge and US 52.

And OH-WV-PA via US 30, US 22, and I-70.

[CoreySamson]

You can do LA/AR/TX/OK in about 75 minutes using this route, taking advantage of the fact that US 71 barely jogs over the TX state line:

https://www.google.com/maps/dir/33.0194024,-93.9008084/33.6633585,-94.4861847/@33.3097753,-94.2842116,9.84z/data=!4m2!4m1!3e0?entry=ttu

And you can do TX/NM/OK/KS/CO in about 1 hr and 43 minutes using this route:

https://www.google.com/maps/dir/36.3866217,-103.0391514/37.1426487,-102.0434761/@36.5642506,-103.6490729,8.61z/data=!4m9!4m8!1m5!3m4!1m2!1d-103.0549237!2d36.4918443!3s0x870564757aa64101:0x79735c22e335b8f9!1m0!3e0?entry=ttu

You could cut it down to 90 minutes if you run your car off the road of US 56/412 at the NW corner of Texas, though.

[Bruce]

ID-MT-WY on US 20 only takes about 20 minutes (assuming no wait in town or at the park entrance): https://goo.gl/maps/2J5fX5uGQnCzvmAF6

[MikeTheActuary]

I'm going to assume that the question is really "how long would it take you, from more-or-less where you normally reside, to visit n states".

One of my regular drives has me gong CT-MA-VT or vice-versa in about an hour (depending on traffic/construction).

It would take only a few additional minutes to make it CT-MA-VT-NH.

[vdeane]

According to Google, you can get from Nova Scotia to PEI via New Brunswick in under an hour.  That's probably the only example that's purely Canadian, but there are a couple of similar jaunts between Alaska and the Yukon via British Columbia, depending on how long customs takes, as well as Ontario-Minnesota-Manitoba.

[MikeTheActuary]

And you can do TX/NM/OK/KS/CO in about 1 hr and 43 minutes using this route:

https://www.google.com/maps/dir/36.3866217,-103.0391514/37.1426487,-102.0434761/@36.5642506,-103.6490729,8.61z/data=!4m9!4m8!1m5!3m4!1m2!1d-103.0549237!2d36.4918443!3s0x870564757aa64101:0x79735c22e335b8f9!1m0!3e0?entry=ttu

You could cut it down to 90 minutes if you run your car off the road of US 56/412 at the NW corner of Texas, though.

In case anyone else wondered about the "run your car off the road....", here's a collection of photos of the northwestern corner of Texas from Google Maps.
https://www.google.com/maps/place/Northwestern+Corner+of+Texas/@36.5003738,-103.0419676,3a,75y,90t/data=!3m8!1e2!3m6!1sAF1QipOM6sAE8YKhkEgS1iVEr71y2ZKmYz0iV5dhUIME!2e10!3e12!6shttps:%2F%2Flh5.googleusercontent.com%2Fp%2FAF1QipOM6sAE8YKhkEgS1iVEr71y2ZKmYz0iV5dhUIME%3Dw203-h270-k-no!7i3024!8i4032!4m25!1m15!4m14!1m8!2m2!1d-103.0391514!2d36.3866217!3m4!1m2!1d-103.0549237!2d36.4918443!3s0x870564757aa64101:0x79735c22e335b8f9!1m3!2m2!1d-102.0434761!2d37.1426487!3e0!3m8!1s0x8705638479bff2af:0x67f50142351490ed!8m2!3d36.5001975!4d-103.0417924!10e5!14m1!1BCgIgAQ!16s%2Fg%2F11g6qjd_gy?entry=ttu

If you know where to look, you can see the concrete pad supporting the benchmark in GSV.

[GaryV]

Start in Ohio north of Billingstown, north about 3/4 of a mile in Michigan to Territorial road, the west about 1/2 mile into Indiana.

[Rothman]

And you can do TX/NM/OK/KS/CO in about 1 hr and 43 minutes using this route:

https://www.google.com/maps/dir/36.3866217,-103.0391514/37.1426487,-102.0434761/@36.5642506,-103.6490729,8.61z/data=!4m9!4m8!1m5!3m4!1m2!1d-103.0549237!2d36.4918443!3s0x870564757aa64101:0x79735c22e335b8f9!1m0!3e0?entry=ttu

You could cut it down to 90 minutes if you run your car off the road of US 56/412 at the NW corner of Texas, though.

In case anyone else wondered about the "run your car off the road....", here's a collection of photos of the northwestern corner of Texas from Google Maps.
https://www.google.com/maps/place/Northwestern+Corner+of+Texas/@36.5003738,-103.0419676,3a,75y,90t/data=!3m8!1e2!3m6!1sAF1QipOM6sAE8YKhkEgS1iVEr71y2ZKmYz0iV5dhUIME!2e10!3e12!6shttps:%2F%2Flh5.googleusercontent.com%2Fp%2FAF1QipOM6sAE8YKhkEgS1iVEr71y2ZKmYz0iV5dhUIME%3Dw203-h270-k-no!7i3024!8i4032!4m25!1m15!4m14!1m8!2m2!1d-103.0391514!2d36.3866217!3m4!1m2!1d-103.0549237!2d36.4918443!3s0x870564757aa64101:0x79735c22e335b8f9!1m3!2m2!1d-102.0434761!2d37.1426487!3e0!3m8!1s0x8705638479bff2af:0x67f50142351490ed!8m2!3d36.5001975!4d-103.0417924!10e5!14m1!1BCgIgAQ!16s%2Fg%2F11g6qjd_gy?entry=ttu

If you know where to look, you can see the concrete pad supporting the benchmark in GSV.

Isn't that just the witness marker?  I believe the actual corner is nearer to the road.