The West Coast of the United States is a region rich in history, culture, and natural beauty. From the bustling cities of California to the rugged landscapes of Washington and Oregon, the West Coast is a unique and diverse part of the country. West Coast trivia questions are a great way to test your knowledge of this fascinating region and to learn more about the people, places, and events that have shaped the West Coast.
This list of West Coast trivia questions covers a wide range of topics and is designed to challenge your understanding of the region. Some of the questions are straightforward and can be answered by simple recall, while others require a deeper understanding of the subject matter. Regardless of your level of expertise, this list of West Coast trivia questions is sure to be both educational and entertaining.
Whether you're a resident of the West Coast, a visitor, or simply someone who is interested in learning more about this fascinating part of the country, this list of West Coast trivia questions is sure to provide you with hours of enjoyment and learning. So why not put your knowledge to the test and see how you fare? Let's explore the rich history, culture, and natural beauty of the West Coast and see how much you really know!
134 West Coast Trivia Questions Ranked From Easiest to Hardest (Updated for 2024)
- According to legend, Washington's Puget Sound was created by what giant lumberjack?
Answer: Paul Bunyan
- Since 2014, San Diego officially dedicated May 29th to what famous skateboarder who became the first to land “The 900” trick at the 1999 X Games?
Answer: Tony Hawk
- What man was the first openly gay elected official in the history of California? He was elected to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors in 1978.
Answer: Harvey Milk
- What national park in California’s Sierra Nevada Mountains is known for mountains such as Half Dome and El Capitan?
Answer: Yosemite National Park
- What California National Park, located in the southern Sierra Nevadas, east of the city of Visalia, is named after the “S” tree species found in the park, a variety of Redwood?
Answer: Sequoia National Park
- In 1976, Guinness World Records named the 452-square-inch landmark Mill Ends Park as the world’s smallest park, which is located in what U.S. West Coast city that’s also home to the NBA’s Trail Blazers?
Answer: Portland
- Though the opening credits feature Alamo Square Park's Painted Ladies, "Comet's Excellent Adventure" was the only episode of "Full House" shot on location in what West Coast city where the show was set?
Answer: San Francisco
- Don't say Christopher Marlowe: poppy and mandrake make up one of the floral displays at a San Francisco garden dedicated to flowers name-dropped in the sonnets and plays of what English dude?
Answer: William Shakespeare
- Which Major League Soccer team named after a frequent geological event on the West Coast plays at PayPal Park and is known for quoting “The Goonies?”
Answer: San Jose Earthquakes
- What West Coast city is home to Comic-Con International, or otherwise just referred to as Comic-Con, and has been since 1970?
Answer: San Diego
- The University of California San Diego's Theodore Geisel Library is named for a writer who might be better recognized by what pen name?
Answer: Dr. Seuss
- The Nike San Francisco Women's Half Marathon features a hilly course ending with tuxedoed firefighters awarding finishers their medals in the signature blue box of what jewelers?
Answer: Tiffany & Co.
- Each spring, the Boysenberry Festival juices up what California theme park whose namesake birthed that hybrid fruit?
Answer: Knott's Berry Farm
- What West Coast transportation shares an acronym name with a famous cartoon character voiced by Nancy Cartwright?
Answer: Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART)
- What “M” Aquarium, focused on the marine habitats of the Bay located its namesake California town, is home to exhibits on the “Mission The Deep” and kelp forests?
Answer: Monterey Bay Aquarium
- Which city, found in a state along the U.S. West Coast, is the primary setting for the sitcom Frasier, which ran from 1993-2004?
Answer: Seattle
- The B&W Seaplane was the first model of plane designed by what ginormous Seattle aviation company?
Answer: Boeing
- What is largest U.S. newspaper not published on the East Coast, having been published on the West Coast since 1881? Owned by Nant Capital, it is currently based in El Segundo, CA.
Answer: Los Angeles Times
- What observatory, located on Mount Hollywood in its namesake park, offers views of the Los Angeles basin, and is advertised as “California’s Gateway To The Cosmos?”
Answer: Griffith Observatory
- Colorado Avenue in Santa Monica, CA is home what large, double-jointed raised structure that is home to an amusement park, concessions, as well as fishing and viewing areas?
Answer: Santa Monica Pier
- What is the name of the peninsula in southern Alaska that is home to cities such as Seward, Soldotna, and Homer, and also features most of the coastline of the Cook Inlet?
Answer: Kenai
- How many U.S. West Coast states have coastlines on the Pacific Ocean?
Answer: Five
- The Kennewick Man—the oldest and most complete skeletal remains found in North America—was discovered in what West Coast state in 1996?
Answer: Washington
- Which Paula Deen-approved food that's made using the fat and protein of churned cream is sold as long, skinny sticks on the East Coast, but as short, fat sticks on the West Coast?
Answer: Butter
- What were the names of the two rappers who were the focal points of the East Coast and West Coast hip hop rivalry that ultimately led to both of their deaths in the mid 1990s?
Answer: 2Pac and Biggie Smalls
- Combined with North Bend, what is the largest town you will find on the coast in Oregon? This bay shares a name with what you hear from a flock of doves.
Answer: Coos Bay
- What TV show, set in San Francisco, stars Tony Shalhoub as a former police detective who develops Obsessive Compulsive Personality Disorder after the death of his wife, and solves cases as a private detective?
Answer: Monk
- The first Blue Shield plan to pay doctor fees was started in 1939 in what West Coast state?
Answer: California
- Approximately one million people a year visit what cheese factory, known particularly for its cheddar and gourmet ice cream, just north of its namesake town on the Oregon coast?
Answer: Tillamook Creamery
- What fort in its namesake Washington city was a 19th-century fur trading post and headquarters for the Hudson’s Bay Company’s Columbia Department? It shares its city name with a large city in British Columbia, Canada.
Answer: Fort Vancouver
- What lake in south-central Oregon, namesake of its own national park, is famous for its deep blue water color? It is named after the hollowed-out depression, created by impact, that allowed the lake to form.
Answer: Crater Lake
- The main ballroom of what Portland building famously features a "floating" dance floor that absorbs shocks from physical activity and was long-considered the only one of these floorings remaining on the West Coast?
Answer: Crystal Ballroom
- Oregon is a popular fishing spot for what “D” crab species, Metacarcinus magister, that grows to 20 cm across the carapace and is a popular seafood order?
Answer: Dungeness Crab
- What U.S. national park (and UNESCO biosphere reserve) consists of five islands off the coast of Souther California, as well as a marine sanctuary extending six nautical miles out from the islands?
Answer: Channel Islands
- Built in San Simeon, CA in 1947, there is a large estate known as the Castle of what “H” American newspaper tycoon? His empire inspired the movie “Citizen Kane.”
Answer: William Randolph Hearst
- As the only U.S. state with two different symbols for each side of its national flag, the obverse of Oregon’s flag depicts a portion of its state seal, while the reverse side shows an image of what herbivorous, semiaquatic rodent that is also the state animal of New York?
Answer: Beaver
- Providing software that focuses on customer service and market automation, what San Francisco-based company has a blue cloud logo with its name in the middle?
Answer: Salesforce
- In November 2022, San Francisco residents voted to permanently ban cars from John F. Kennedy Drive in what city park that runs from Haight-Asbury to the sea?
Answer: Golden Gate Park
- San Francisco was named in honor of Saint Francis of Assisi, who is the patron saint of which European country?
Answer: Italy
- What Christian college overlooking the Pacific Ocean in Malibu, California, frequently appears on lists of the world's most beautiful college campuses?
Answer: Pepperdine University
- Given the institution featured one named “Puddles” at its sporting events in the 1920s, what feathered animal currently serves as the official mascot of the University of Oregon?
Answer: Duck
- In what U.S. national park would you find the highest waterfall in North America? The falls share the name of the park.
Answer: Yosemite
- Extending from British Columbia to Northern California, name the Pacific Northwestern mountain range that’s home to Washington’s stratovolcano Mount Rainier.
Answer: Cascade Range
- Tell me: "Meet Virginia" was the breakthrough song for what "Drops of Jupiter" rock band from the San Francisco Bay Area?
Answer: Train
- What popular two-word Rum cocktail takes its name from the Tahitian word for “good” or “excellent”, but was actually invented in Oakland, California in 1944?
Answer: Mai Tai
- After the Port of Los Angeles, the busiest shipping port in the United States is in what West Coast city where the RMS Queen Mary retired, and Snoop Dogg grew up?
Answer: Long Beach
- Sightglass, Saint Frank, and Philz are all acclaimed coffee shops in what West Coast city?
Answer: San Francisco
- What hyphenated “Water Displacement” oil product was invented in 1953 in a small laboratory at Rocket Chemical Company in San Diego?
Answer: WD-40
- What annual music festival is held over three weekends in April at the Empire Polo Club in Indio, California?
Answer: Coachella
- Nike founder Phil Knight wrote his MBA thesis on marketing athletic shoes while attending what West Coast school?
Answer: Stanford
- Verkada Security provides surveillance that can handle 7,000-foot elevation and 100-MPH winds at Crystal Mountain, a large ski-resort area in which West Coast U.S. state?
Answer: Washington
- Given its resemblance to bales of horse fodder, what’s the name of an iconic 235-foot-tall monolithic rock formation in Cannon Beach, Oregon?
Answer: Haystack Rock
- Human composting is legal in six U.S. states, including which West Coast state with a population of more than 39 million?
Answer: California
- What “W” mystery house built in 1884 in San Jose, CA, which was once the mansion home of the widow of a firearms magnate, is known for its chaotic floor plan and for allegedly being haunted?
Answer: Winchester Mystery House
Answer: Galway
- Cobie Smulders played private eye Dex Parios in a Portland-set crime drama that shares what name with a prominent Rose City coffee roaster?
Answer: Stumptown
- A wacky chase down San Francisco's Lombard Street is one of the twists in what 1972 Barbra Streisand comedy that shares its name with a Looney Tunes catchphrase?
Answer: What's Up, Doc?
- Nike founder Phil Knight is famously an alum of the University of Oregon, but what other West Coast school awarded Knight his graduate degree?
Answer: Stanford
- The United States baseball team got a surprising gold medal win in the 2000 Olympics, defeating Cuba under the leadership of what manager? The Italian American with a big personality won two MLB World Series in the 1980s managing on the West Coast.
Answer: Tommy Lasorda
- An 11-mile coastal trail that ends in Anchorage’s Kincaid Park is named for what former Democratic governor of Alaska, serving from 1994 to 2002, as well mayor of Anchorage from 1982 to 1987?
Answer: Tony Knowles Coastal Trail
- What neighborhood in Los Angeles has canals like the Italian city it was named after?
Answer: Venice
- If you’re in Mecca near the border of Mexico, what’s the name of the saline lake you can visit that’s saltier than the ocean and full of dead fish?
Answer: Salton Sea
- Which West Coast university does Nike have a close relationship with (they designed the football team’s uniforms and donate a lot of money to the athletics programs)?
Answer: University of Oregon
- In July 2022, officials at Redwood National Park officially put up a barrier of one square mile around the world's tallest tree, which had been increasingly threatened by human visitors. What's the name given to this tree, which it takes from a Greek Titan and the father of the sun god, Helios?
Answer: Hyperion
- What sea off Alaska's northwest coast is connected to the Pacific by the Bering Strait?
Answer: Chukchi Sea
- In 1994, which West Coast state passed its Death With Dignity Act, making it the first state to legalize physician-assisted suicide?
Answer: Oregon
- Cape Alava, the westernmost point in the United States, lies in what national park that protects mountains and rainforests as well as coast and beaches?
Answer: Olympic National Park
- The "Emerald Triangle," composed of California's Humboldt, Trinity, and Mendocino counties, gets its name from the fact that it is the United States' leading producer of what plant?
Answer: Cannabis
- Eschscholzia californica is the scientific name for the official state flower of California. By what name is it commonly known?
Answer: California poppy
- Situated along the Eastern border of Oregon, what “devilish” canyon was created by the waters of the Snake River and is the deepest river gorge in North America?
Answer: Hells Canyon
- The United States Board on Geographic Names designated the collective waters of Puget Sound, the Strait of Juan de Fuca, and the Strait of Georgia, by what name, reflecting the Native Americans who lived in the coastal regions of Washington State and British Columbia?
Answer: Salish Sea
- The USS Oakland (LCS-24) is the third ship in the Navy fleet to be named after a city in what West Coast state?
Answer: California
- What is Oregon's state gemstone? It is a variety of crystal feldspar, and its color (which ranges from water-clear to pale yellow, soft pink, blood red, blue, and green) is determined by the amount of copper in the stone.
Answer: Sunstone
- Which river in North America empties into the Pacific Ocean, just a little to the West of Astoria in Oregon?
Answer: Columbia
- While no hurricane has (as of July 2023) directly hit the West Coast of the U.S., in 1939 a tropical storm with winds of 50 mph came ashore near what Southern California community?
Answer: Long Beach
- What cape in far south Washington state, on the northern side of the mouth of the Columbia River, got its name in 1788 when Captain John Meares failed to cross from one side to the other?
Answer: Cape Disappointment
- The movie "Sideways," which starred Paul Giamatti and Thomas Haden Church, involved the two main characters taking a road trip to the wine country in what California county?
Answer: Santa Barbara
- UPS began life in Seattle in 1907 as the American Messenger Company, but changed its name to United Parcel Service when it expanded to what other West Coast city in 1919?
Answer: Oakland
- The Olympic marmot is the official "Endemic Mammal" of what Western state? This marmot is found only in this state.
Answer: Washington
- "Let me serenade the streets of L.A / From Oakland to Sac-town, the Bay Area and back down." That's some questionable geography from the lyrics of what classic 2Pac hit?
Answer: California Love
- Founded as a weekly by Thomas Dryer in 1850 and published daily since 1861, what is the oldest continuously published newspaper on the U.S. West Coast? This paper is also one of the few to have an explicitly statewide focus.
Answer: The Oregonian
- What U.S. city is affectionately known as the "biggest little city in the world?"
Answer: Reno
- Prospected by pretty much any school with a golf program, Tiger Woods opted to attend what West Coast PAC-12 school?
Answer: Stanford University
- I-90, the longest interstate highway in the United States, has its termini in Boston and what West Coast city (which is NOT its state's capital)?
Answer: Seattle
- Which city along Oregon’s Deschutes River is known for its glorious natural wonders (like Mirror Pond and the Badlands Wilderness) and is also home to the last Blockbuster Video in the U.S.?
Answer: Bend
- A certain author's 1957 research trip to Florence, Oregon began as an attempt to write an article on environmental efforts to use grasses to slow the spread of beach sands. Though article was never written, the trip did inspire what appropriately named 1965 science fiction novel?
Answer: Dune
- Alfred Hitchcock used gulls captured at a San Francisco garbage dump to film what 1963 movie, set in the coastal town of Bodega Bay, California?
Answer: The Birds
- Someone got an electric chair at a hot discount during the 2009 bankruptcy auction of what West Coast hip hop label?
Answer: Death Row Records
- What politically outspoken Hollywood legend spent two years in the 1980's as mayor of posh Carmel-by-the-Sea, California?
Answer: Clint Eastwood
- Orcas Island is the largest of what group of islands that lie between mainland Washington state and Vancouver Island, Canada?
Answer: San Juan Islands
- In the Pacific Northwest, what "B" named dam spans the Columbia River forty miles east of Portland, Oregon?
Answer: Bonneville Dam
- The largest fungal colony in the world is found in the Malheur National Forest in the Blue Mountains of what state? Considered as a single organism, this fungus is the largest living organism on earth, taking up 2,200 acres.
Answer: Oregon
- San Diego produces over 60% of the California's output of what crop, the most of any place in the United States?
Answer: Avocado
- According to the 2020 U.S. Census, what is the third largest city in the state of Oregon?
Answer: Salem
- California provides 100% of the plant with thescientific name "allium sativum," which is exported by the United States. What is this fragrant relative of the onion called? There is an annual Northern California festival dedicated to it.
Answer: garlic
- No relation to the three-time NBA MVP with the same last name, which Seattle Storm player is one of only two people (or either gender) to win 5 Olympic Gold medals for basketball?
Answer: Sue Bird
- Obviously not a Seattle sports fan, Ice Cube mentions "the Lakers beat the SuperSonics" as one reason he's had an excellent 24 hours in what 1992 song?
Answer: It Was a Good Day
- Released by author Susan Orlean in 2018, "The Library Book" is a nonfiction account of a catastrophic fire that occurred in April 1986 in the public library of what West Coast American city?
Answer: Los Angeles
- The origin of the Hawaiian-sounding name “Aloha” is disputed and might have been down to a post office mistake. Which West Coast state is the mysteriously monikered locale in?
Answer: Oregon
- What is the name of the train that Amtrak runs between Seattle, Washington and Los Angeles, California?
Answer: Coast Starlight
- Of cities in California with populations over 500,00, which is the most northerly? This city is away from the coast, located around two rivers.
Answer: Sacramento
- What is the northernmost U.S. National Park? Located in Alaska, this national park lies entirely within the Arctic Circle.
Answer: Gates of the Arctic
- "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest," the highly acclaimed Miloš Forman film starring Jack Nicholson, was filmed in a mental hospital in what state?
Answer: Oregon
- West coasters know that you should order your In-N-Out Burgers and fries according to what "style," meaning they'll come slathered with cheese, onions, and Thousand Island dressing?
Answer: Animal-style
- An island named for what British Explorer is the largest on the West Coast of the Americas by both area (12,000 square miles) and population (860,000)?
Answer: George Vancouver
- Mount Eddy is the highest point in which mountains system in north-western California and south-western Oregon whose name derives from the Chinook word “tlamatl,” meaning a people native to this area?
Answer: Klamath
- A national historic site in Danville, California preserves the home of what author of A Long Day's Journey into Night, and the only American Nobel Prize-winning playwright?
Answer: Eugene O'Neill
- The California coastal town of Mendocino was used as a stand-in for Cabot Cove, Maine, in what television show that ran for twelve seasons?
Answer: Murder, She Wrote
- From 1992 to 2009, Finnish composer and conductor Esa-Pekka Salonen was the music director of what West Coast American orchestra?
Answer: Los Angeles
- Which small neighborhood in Cincinnati goes by two names, each one after a place on a U.S. coast? (Hint: The first is Grove Park after the first name for Coney Island, NY on the East Coast and the second is a whole West Coast state)
Answer: California
- What is the westernmost state capitol in the contiguous United States? It is nicknamed "The Cherry City," reflecting the historical importance of cherry growing to the community.
Answer: Salem, Oregon
- Rivers run through it! What two rivers are part of Oregon's borders? One river provides most of the border between Oregon and Washington, while the other forms a part of the border between Oregon and Idaho.
Answer: Columbia, Snake
- Which “devil” of a canyon can you visit in Wallowa-Whitman National Forest along the borders of Oregon and Idaho?
Answer: Hells
- The stretch of California Highway 1 known as Big Sur runs from Carmel in the north to what town, home to Hearst Castle, in the south? This area is known for its incredible beauty and stunning vistas of cliffs and the ocean.
Answer: San Simeon
- Gold's Gym on the West Coast and Bev Francis' Powerhouse Gym on the East Coast both have what M-word attached to their brand, signifying their significance and acclaim in the bodybuilding world?
Answer: Mecca
- In 1899, the first ship-to-shore radio transmission was sent from a lightship to a coastal receiving station located at the Cliff House in what city on the West Coast of the U.S.? The message was "Sherman is sighted," about the return of a troopship from the Spanish-American War.
Answer: San Francisco
- Which public park is the largest in Seattle? (Hint: It was built in the 1970s using extra land from Fort Lawton).
Answer: Discovery
- After a redistribution after the 2020 census, how many electoral college votes will California be worth in the 2024 US presidential election?
Answer: 54
- What Hollywood-set 2016 film, famously mis-announced as the winner of a Best Picture Oscar, will get the Broadway treatment in an upcoming live stage musical?
Answer: La La Land
- What is the name of the gift-giving feast practiced by indigenous peoples in the Pacific Northwest Coast of Canada and the United States? A similar practice is celebrated by Interior and Subarctic peoples, though with less elaborate rituals.
Answer: Potlatch
- The California town of Castroville produces four-fifths of the U.S. supply of what veggie, which, among other uses, gives its flavor to the liqueur Cynar?
Answer: Artichokes
- With a name translating to "inside the Skeena River," what is the name of the indigenous people of the Pacific Northwest Coast that consist of ~10,000 members of seven First Nations? Their society is kinship-based and matrilineal, and they traditionally fashioned most goods out of western red cedar.
Answer: Tsimshian
- What “T” 20th century American West Coast painter created such surreal and dynamic images such as “The Innocent Eye Test” and “Action Painting II?”
Answer: Mark Tansey
- Crescent City is both the name of a town on the extreme northern coast of California, and also one of the nicknames of what American city near the Gulf of Mexico?
Answer: New Orleans
- Which northern California river that starts in the Sierra Nevada and has a birdly name is a tributary of the Sacramento River?
Answer: Feather
- What attraction of the Santa Monica Pier was used in the Academy Award-winning film, "The Sting" (1973).
Answer: carousel
- Based out of Salem, the Wheatland Ferry has been taking people across the Willamette River since the 1850s. Each ferry is named after the man who founded it. What was his name?
Answer: Daniel Matheny
- Dennis, Earl, and Sigourney all walk into a bar. Dennis orders a Juicy Expat, Earl orders a Day Job, and Sigourney orders a Seafarer. They're all drinking beers from what Inglewood brewery?
Answer: Three Weavers Brewing Company
- Its name means “mirage” in Chumash, but the little volcanic island that sits just over 10 miles off Port Hueneme, CA, is very real! What’s the name for the islets (East, Middle, and West) that make up the island?
Answer: Anacapas
- What type of lager is made by fermenting yeast at a warmer than normal temperature? Historically, it comes from Bavaria and is associated with the West Coast of the U.S., where it was produced by brands like Anchor.
Answer: Steam Beer
- What theme park meant to rival Disneyland opened in 1958 in Santa Monica, CA, and boasted a host of attractions, including a sea circus, a simulated submarine voyage, diving bells, and an ocean skyway with suspended gondolas that took passengers a half-mile out to sea? The park shut down in 1967 after long-term construction in the area made it difficult for guests to reach the park.
Answer: Pacific Ocean Park
- In June 1859, the Comstock Lode was unearthed in what Nevada city? This remarkable discovery stifled the Gold Rush and was the first major silver deposit found in the US. We're looking for two words here.
Answer: Virginia City
- In 1935, Pan American World Airlines (a.k.a. Pan Am) began Pacific passenger air service with flights to Honolulu from what West Coast city?
Answer: San Francisco
- What man was a critical figure in Northwest Coast style art (specifically, that of the Kwakwaka'wakw Aboriginal people) while also a prominent singer and songwriter? First hired by the Museum of Anthropology at UBC, he later created his most famous work—a massive totem pole standing 160 feet tall—that was raised in 1956 and stood until 2000.
Answer: Mungo Martin
Play West Coast Trivia with Water Cooler Trivia
Water Cooler Trivia is well-equipped to provide you with exciting and engaging trivia quizzes.
So, how does it work?
Each week, our team will deliver original trivia quizzes straight to your inbox.
All you have to do is pick the categories.
You can leave the rest of the heavy lifting to us.
Take Water Cooler Trivia for a test run with our four-week free trial.
About the Author
Eli Robinson is the Chief Trivia Officer at Water Cooler Trivia. He was once in a Bruce Springsteen cover band called F Street Band.
.png){kind=logo}
.jpeg){kind=spacer}
.png)