From National Parks to Pickle Recipes, This Is What Everyone Was Googling in 2024

It’s been a long year, that’s for sure. Do you remember when Usher performed at the Super Bowl? What about the Olympics? Or Ryan Gosling singing “I’m Just Ken” at the Oscars? All of those things happened this year believe it or not.

And all throughout this year, people were using Google to search for all the topics du jour. The tech company just released its annual Year in Search recap, and let’s just say that the collective population was searching for some predictable things (“Election,” “Olympic medal count,” “demure,” “Los Angeles Dodgers,” and “How often is a solar eclipse?”), but also some surprising things (pickle recipes, Internet theories, and “how often do whales come up for air?”).

You can see the full list of top trending searches on Google, but we’ve also pulled out some of the searches that are most applicable to the West. Check them out below.

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Top Hiking Areas

Out of the top 10 hiking areas in Google Maps, seven were found in the West: Columbia River Gorge National Scenic Area outside of Portland, Oregon; Garden of the Gods in Colorado Springs, Colorado; Diamond Head Crater Trailhead in Honolulu, Hawaii; The Wave (a.k.a. Coyote Buttes North) near the border of Utah and Arizona; Hole in the Rock in Phoenix, Arizona; Annie’s Canyon Trail in Cardiff, California; and Devil’s Bridge Trailhead in Sedona, Arizona.

Top Visitor Attractions

Two of the top visitor attractions searched on Google Maps are located in Vegas: the Sphere and the Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas Sign. Another top attraction on the list was PIER 39 in San Francisco.

U.S. National Parks

Seven out of the top 10 searched national parks are located in the West: Crater Lake National Park in Oregon; Mount Rainier National Park in Washington; Kobuk Valley National Park in Alaska; North Cascades National Park in Washington; Gates of the Arctic National Park in Alaska; Grand Canyon National Park in Arizona; and Grand Teton National Park in Wyoming.

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Babymoon Destinations

The West is a popular domestic destination for babymoons. The top destinations included were Ojai, California; Maui, Hawaii; San Diego, California; Sedona, Arizona; Scottsdale, Arizona; and Palm Springs, California.

Honeymoon Destinations

Of the top 10 honeymoon destinations, all of them were outside of the U.S. except for Jackson Hole, Wyoming; Big Island, Hawaii; and Carmel-by-the-Sea, California.

Destinations and Solo Vacations

For top destinations, Banff was number six. And Glacier Park was number two on the list for top Solo Vacations.

Annabelle Breakey

Food and Drink Recipes

When it came to food and drink, people were searching for the zeitgeist-y recipes of the moment, with a lot of these searches coming from TikTok, like Tini’s Mac and cheese, which was a viral Thanksgiving recipe; plus dense bean salads and onion boils. The top food searched was “Olympics chocolate muffins,” which were made popular after Norwegian swimmer Henrik Christiansen made TikToks about the decadent, gooey muffins. See the top 10 below.

1. Olympics chocolate muffins
2. Tanghulu
3. Tini’s mac and cheese
4. Mama Kelce’s cookie
5. Dense bean salad
6. Dubai chocolate bar
7. Logan cucumbers
8. Onion boil
9. Sleepy girl mocktail
10. Chia water

Thomas J. Story

Pickle Recipes

Apparently people couldn’t get enough of pickles this year. They searched for different ways to pickle ingredients, like daikon radish, cucumbers, and banana peppers. And they also were curious about using pickles as a stand-in for sandwich bread. Take a look at the top pickle searches here:

1. Dill pickle bread recipe
2. Daikon radish pickle recipe
3. Pickled cucumber salad recipe
4. Pickle Dr. Pepper recipe
5. Refrigerator pickle brine recipe
6. Pickled banana peppers recipe
7. Dill pickle chicken salad recipe
8. Pickle sandwich recipe
9. Pickle peppers recipe
10. Water bath pickles recipe

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Matcha

Like pickles, searchers were also mad about matcha and all the ways you can incorporate it into recipes. See the top 10 list below:

1. Lavender matcha
2. Matcha waffles
3. Matcha blondie
4. Matcha chia pudding
5. Strawberry matcha cake
6. Matcha sugar cookie
7. Matcha muffins
8. Matcha syrup
9. Matcha basque cheesecake
10. Matcha cold foam

Thomas J. Story

Interior Design Styles

People googled a wide range of interior design styles in 2024, from the leafy biophilic to the always popular mid-century to the trending-on-social-media cottagecore.

1. Biophilic
2. Modern colonial
3. Mid-century
4. Art deco
5. Japanese Scandinavian (Japandi)
6. Quiet luxury
7. Spanish revival
8. American colonial
9. Glam
10. Cottagecore

Thomas J. Story

Architectural Styles

And much like interior design styles, people searched for many architectural styles across the board: Biomorphic, Spanish revival, Colonial Revival, Brutalist, and American Colonial.

1. Biomorphic
2. Spanish revival
3. French gothic
4. Classical Greek
5. Colonial revival
6. Federal
7. Constructivist
8. Brutalist
9. Cape Cod
10. American Colonial