Instagram filters may make your photos look better, but they can’t do much by way of originality. When it comes to our collective obsession with documenting our lives — be it our food, our pets, or most commonly, our travels — it turns out that there’s not a whole lot of variation among our feeds. And understandably so, perhaps — after all, they’re called landmarks for a reason. But if you really want to be avant-garde in your Instagramming (which may be a bit oxymoronic in and of itself), you may want to avoid the places Busbud has identified as the most Instagrammed location in each U.S. state.
Despite the diversity of landscape offered by the 3.8 million square miles that is the United States, when it comes to popular photo opps, the list is pretty predictable. In New York, it’s the Empire State Building and in California, Disneyland. And while the two most populous states in the union attract tourists with their man-made wonders, Busbud found that the most popular Instagram moments overall were of “the numerous parks and geographic landmarks found across the nation.” Alaska’s Denali National Park, New Hampshire’s White Mountains, and Wyoming’s Yellowstone National Park are favorites, with other natural wonders also ranking high on the general list of Insta-tractions.
Then, of course, there are the beaches, where ‘grams of hotdogs and legs abound, as do pristine photos of white sandy beaches and sparkling blue waters. And it doesn’t matter if you’re looking for the Atlantic or the Pacific — their beaches were both strong draws. Just ask Floridians and Oregonians, both of whom chose the waterfront (South Beach and Cannon Beach, respectively) as their prime photography destinations.
Busbud did us a solid by also offering an interactive Instagram map of Canada, so you can see what our neighbors to the north enjoy memorializing. Again, it’s a lot of nature.
So if you’re planning your next roadtrip across America or into Canada, you now know what places other photo enthusiasts have frequented. And let’s be honest — these places are popular for a reason. So don’t skip over them just because they landed on Busbud’s list.
