Discover America USA Travel Guide

Mountain

Colorado, Idaho, Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, Utah and Wyoming.

Glacier National Park, Montana. www.visitmt.com (James Randklev)

Although it´s known for its soaring snow-capped peaks, the Mountain Region encompasses much more. The grasslands of the Front Range on the eastern edge of the Rocky Mountains have their own quiet beauty.

These wide-open spaces are stunning in their vastness, home to real cowboy and Native American culture. National parks and wilderness areas preserve ancient landscapes that harbor bison, bears and other species rarely seen elsewhere.

Spectacular scenic drives are matched by an array of activities: skiing, horseback riding, fly-fishing, white-water rafting, mountain biking and much more. Discover ghost towns, watch a rodeo, hike gentle paths or backcountry trails, all against the magnificent Rocky Mountain backdrop.

Wyoming has some of the most distinctive peaks in the Rockies, the Grand Tetons. These jagged sentinels are supremely beautiful when dusted with snow and reflected in the glacial lakes of the surrounding national park. They overlook herds of moose and elk grazing in the watery meadows of the Jackson Hole valley.

The frontier town of Jackson is a laidback resort serving three nearby ski areas. These days you can buy a designer jacket as readily as a cowboy hat in the stores along its boardwalks. It has fine restaurants, more than sixty art galleries, a performing arts center and a museum of wildlife art. The landmark elk antler arches in the town square came from the nearby National Elk Refuge.

Yellowstone National Park lies sixty miles north. Established in 1872 as America’s first national park, it contains towering geysers like Old Faithful, Mammoth Hot Springs and a wealth of amazing natural features. It also protects herds of free-ranging bison.

Buffalo Bill Cody is the larger-than-life Western figure forever linked to these magnificent animals which once roamed the Great Plains. At Cody, the namesake town he founded east of Yellowstone, you can visit the Buffalo Bill Historical Center. Here, five museums under one roof explore the soldier, hunter and showman’s life and times, the culture of the Plains Native Americans and the natural history of the region.

Much farther east, near the South Dakota border, is Devils Tower National Monument, the striking chiseled monolith rising out of the plain that was featured in the film “Close Encounters of the Third Kind.” The southeastern quarter of Wyoming is what the American folk song “Home on the Range” is all about. You’ll see herds of cattle grazing on vast stretches of unfenced grassland and graceful antelope bounding across the open range.

Cheyenne Frontier Days is the world’s largest outdoor rodeo, with ten days of top western entertainment every July. Wyoming’s capital has a rich ranching and railroad history, highlighted in several fine museums. Outside of town, you can take a motorized tour right into the middle of a bison herd at the Terry Bison Ranch.

Historic downtown Laramie looks much the same as it did in the 1870s. The town offers historic monuments and museums with art, history and natural history exhibits. The Wyoming Territorial Prison State Historic Site boasts the only prison ever to hold Butch Cassidy. The wealth of outdoor activities nearby includes snowmobile trails and superb trout-fishing in national forests and grasslands.

From Yellowstone in the south to Glacier National Park in the north, the western half of Montana has huge tracts of unspoiled Rocky Mountain wilderness. The pristine forests and rivers make this “Big Sky Country,” a favorite destination for backcountry hikers and fishermen.

Big Sky Resort, south of Bozeman, is Montana’s premier ski area, ranked among the top ten in the nation by sports journalists. Apart from winter sports, Montana is an outdoor adventure paradise for canoeing, kayaking and river rafting trips, cycling and mountain biking, rock climbing and mountaineering.

Cities here are small enough to be friendly but full of history and character. The capital, Helena, and nearby Butte began as mining boom towns. Great Falls’ mighty cascades astounded the explorers Lewis and Clark. Missoula is a lively university town with an alternative air. From here, you can drive north on one of Montana’s many scenic highways through the valley surrounding Flathead Lake, the largest natural freshwater lake in the West.

Kalispell is the gateway to Glacier National Park, a truly stunning place where, over the ages, some fifty glaciers carved out the awesome peaks surrounding shimmering alpine lakes. Going-to-the-Sun Road is a spectacular drive through the park, across the Continental Divide beneath Logan Pass. The southeast quarter of Montana is known as Custer Country, where the flamboyant General George Armstrong Custer made his last stand in a battle with Native American tribes on the Little Bighorn Battlefield. The site is part of the Crow Reservation, east of Billings. You can experience Native American culture firsthand at the annual Crow Fair festival.

Billings is Montana’s largest city, yet just a few miles from its tree lined streets and its fine theaters and museums, you are enticed by open roads leading to unusual rock formations, vast ranches and impressive farms.

The region’s enormous grasslands continue into North Dakota, where Theodore Roosevelt, 26th president and champion of America’s national parks system, once tried his hand at ranching. His Elkhorn Ranch is now part of Theodore Roosevelt National Park, where you can explore the North Dakota Badlands, a singular landscape of multicolored gullies, canyons and rocky deserts. The amazing Badlands are the backdrop to the frontier town of Medora; just three miles south is the unexpectedly enchanting and challenging Bully Pulpit Golf Course.

For a different sort of scenic drive, take the Enchanted Highway east of Dickinson, where a local artist has erected huge, whimsical metal sculptures along 32 miles of the road. In town, visit the Dakota Dinosaur Museum, with full-scale replicas of dinosaur skeletons. Or hunt for fossils in the northeast corner of the state’s Rendezvous Region, so-called because fur-traders used to gather here. There are many forts and historic sites. At Jamestown, visit a re-created frontier village and the National Buffalo Museum.

North Dakota is home to several Native American nations; their people live on reservations scattered across the state. Casinos on these plots of sovereign land are a big draw for visitors and boost the ranching and farming economy. For a more authentic experience of tribal life, attend one of the powwows, or celebrations, held throughout the year, when colorful displays of traditional dancing are at their best.

The Black Hills of South Dakota have long been a popular tourist destination. A variety of natural and man-made attractions are dotted throughout these beautiful, pine-covered mountains, which are surrounded by large expanses of prairie preserved in the grasslands of national parks. Drive the Spearfish Canyon or Peter Norbeck scenic byways. For cyclists, hikers and horse riders, the George S. Mickelson Trail runs through the heart of the Black Hills.

You can explore the subterranean wonders of the second and third longest caves in the country at Jewel Cave National Monument and Wind Cave National Park. An even more otherworldly landscape lies above ground in the Badlands, a desolate, starkly beautiful region of buttes, spires and deep crevices.

Central and northern Idaho is blanketed in deep forests and rugged mountains like the Bitterroot Range, which forms the boundary with Montana. Stanley, Idaho lies in the heart of Sawtooth National Recreation Area, at the crossroads of two scenic byways. This Idaho playground has abundant wildlife, natural hot springs, ghost towns, hiking trails and all sorts of outdoor activities. An extensive trail system in the Sawtooth Wilderness draws mountain bikers, hikers and horseback riders at all skill levels.

At the southern end of the Sawtooth Range is the ski resort of Sun Valley, near Ernest Hemingway’s last home in Ketchum. Nearby at Craters of the Moon National Monument and Preserve, see the eerie charred landscape of spatter cones, cinder heaps and lava flows where astronauts trained for lunar missions. Southern Idaho, a patchwork of fertile farmland, desert and mountains, includes the capital city of Boise, where bustling art, theater and dining scenes are literally minutes away from skiing, hiking and whitewater rafting.

Denver, Colorado showcases world-class art museums, fascinating history museums, one of the finest performing arts centers in the country and historic houses. Lively LoDo (lower downtown) is a booming nightlife area, where the old Victorian warehouses now house fine restaurants, art galleries and Denver’s famous brewpubs.

Almost every road is a scenic route in the Colorado Rockies: more than fifty peaks tower above 14,000 feet. Head northwest to Rocky Mountain National Park and take Trail Ridge Road across the Continental Divide. This is the highest continuous paved road in the country. Stretch your legs on a trail through the alpine tundra.

Get on I-70 to reach many of Colorado’s famous ski resorts, including Breckenridge, Vail and Beaver Creek. You can enjoy them year-round for glorious hiking and biking trails and chairlift rides to scenic vistas. Aspen is magnificent in the autumn, when the leaves of its namesake trees turn the slopes a shimmering gold.

Outside Colorado Springs is Pikes Peak, scene of a famous gold rush in 1859. Ride the cog railway to the top or visit the art colony of Manitou Springs and the old mining town of Cripple Creek. A fantastic way to see Colorado’s spectacular scenery is on the old steam railways that also run at Georgetown, Silverton-Durango and Antonito. Near Cañon City, take an aerial tram across the breathtaking Royal Gorge.

Climb the tallest dunes in North America at Great Sand Dunes National Park. More awesome scenery beckons amidst the rugged peaks of the San Juan Mountains. They lead to Mesa Verde National Park in the state’s southwest corner, which preserves the amazing cliff dwellings of an ancient Native American community.

In northwest Colorado, exciting prehistoric relics are on view at Dinosaur National Monument, which crosses the border into Utah. It’s a beautiful scenic drive west through the green hills of northern Utah’s Uinta and Wasatch mountains to the capital, Salt Lake City. The inspiring story of its founding by Mormon pioneers is told at several historic sites and museums, especially the architecturally impressive Temple Square.

Several of Utah’s thirteen ski resorts are on its back doorstep, including Alta, Snowbird, Brighton and Solitude. The terrain at Park City area resorts is favored by snowboarders. This Victorian town is a popular destination year-round, especially in January during the Sundance Film Festival, the nation’s most important showcase for independent filmmakers.

To the west, the Great Salt Lake is the largest saltwater lake in the Western Hemisphere. You can catch some stunning sunsets here and enjoy sailing, kayaking or swimming from the white-sand beaches of Antelope Island State Park. Further west across the Great Salt Lake Desert, land speed records are set on the Bonneville Salt Flats.

Wind, water and time have sculpted an awesome array of rock formations in the national parks of southern Utah. Bryce Canyon is a fantasyland of sandstone cliffs and “hoodoo” spires. Zion, Capitol Reef and Grand Staircase-Escalante hold more amazing natural sculptures.

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