Best of Great American West

Founded in 1859 by gold seekers from Kansas and Georgia, Denver marks the boundary between the Great Plains and the Rocky Mountains that provide a splendid backdrop. A university town and the capital of American craft beer, it is called the 'Mile High City' because it is located exactly one mile (about 1600 meters) high, as noted on the 13th step of its Capitol building. Modern and youthful, it has trendy neighborhoods for all tastes and is pleasant to explore on foot, featuring diverse architectures ranging from Victorian to postmodern, along with art, history, culture, shopping, and a vibrant nightlife.

Cheyenne marks the gateway to the great expanses of the north, with the Rocky Mountains in the distance and an endless horizon. The builders of the Union Pacific Railroad arrived here in 1867 and found an outpost of gamblers and gunmen, known as ‘Hell on Wheels’. The railway terminal can still be seen here, to the east of the city, while to the west are the military installations that housed the first intercontinental missile base in 1957. The cowboy atmosphere is tangible and authentic, in clothing stores such as the large Wrangler store in the main square and in the numerous honky-tonk bars, but above all during Cheyenne Frontier Days, a 9-day festival with the largest outdoor rodeo in America, which takes place every year at the end of July and attracts thousands of people to attend concerts by country music stars, parades, wagon races and air shows.

Il Custer State Park, il più grande dello stato del South Dakota, nelle Black Hills, è famoso per le belle strade panoramiche e la fauna selvatica - bisonti, alci, cervi, antilocapre e coyote. Una volta all'anno ospita li celebre roundup dei bisonti.

Badlands: the name says it all. For the travellers of the past, crossing this hostile region was truly an ordeal. A million-year old erosion process gave shape to precipitous gorges and towering pinnacles in ancient sedimentary layers – the oldest of which date back to 68 million years ago, even before dinosaurs became extinct. Myriads of fossils came to light in the area.

At the entrance of the scenic region of the Black Hills, Rapid City was born as a camp during the gold rush. Renowned for shopping at Prairie Edge, a magnificent store of authentic Native American art, and RCC Western Stores, one of the largest and oldest western merchandise stores in the nation.

Charming town with a wild west atmosphere, its main attractions are the Buffalo Bill Historical Center, the most comprehensive museum of the old west, and the rodeo that takes place every evening from June to August.

Continue along the Buffalo Bill Cody Scenic Byway, down the Shoshone river and through the tallest mountains and forests in Wyoming. An outstanding variety of landscapes will unfold before you: vast fields of wild sage, forests of firs, and glaciers, where moose, deer, mountain goats, grizzlies and brown bears roam free. Yellowstone is one of the largest parks in the USA, and the oldest national park in the world (it was opened in 1872). What truly makes it unique, though, is its enormous central area, which is in fact the huge caldera of a dormant volcano (the last eruption dates back to 640,000 years ago). Thousands of geysers outburst in the caldera, and several other geothermal features can be seen there – hot springs, mudpots, acid lakes. The area is also home to many animal species, including bears, wolves, bison, moose, deer, cougars and coyotes.

The landscape between Yellowstone and Jackson Hole is marked by the magnificent Teton mountains, rising sheer from the flat, large prairie, amidst lakes, waterfalls and forests where moose and bison roam free. The tallest peak of the range is Grand Teton, with a height of more than 4,000 m. Jackson is the typical base-camp for visiting Yellowstone and Grand Teton. This lovely, Old Western town has turned into a popular winter and summer resort for hipster youth; it offers several sushi bars and fashionable clubs.

Rock Springs is a transit town in the middle of the desert, which developed in the late 1800s with the coal mining boom of the Union Pacific and a large number of immigrants looking for work. An interesting fact: the outlaw "Butch" Cassidy worked here as a butcher when he was young, hence the nickname Butch.

Grand Junction is the main town in western Colorado and an excellent starting point for exploring the vast and spectacular canyon region with the pinnacles of the Colorado National Monument; here the Green River merges into the Colorado River.