Great American West - Idaho and Montana Rockies

Boise, the capital of Idaho, still strongly preserves its Basque cultural heritage from its early settlers. Known as "the city of trees," it is crossed by the Boise River and the Boise River Greenbelt Trail, which offer numerous outdoor activities accompanied by a vibrant cultural scene, beautiful venues, and craft breweries.

Ketchum, an important mountain center and chic and sophisticated resort, is an excellent stop between Craters of the Moon and Boise. It is attached to Sun Valley, a place beloved by Hemingway (buried here), offering high-level services and is popular all year round.

Missoula, with just 75,000 inhabitants, is the second largest city in Montana after Billings. It is a pleasant university town with a vibrant artistic scene, famous craft breweries, and the historic Fort Missoula Museum, a fort for settlers during the battles against the Nez Percé Native Americans.

Polson is a small town on the southern tip of Flathead Lake, which in turn is the largest freshwater surface in the American West outside of Alaska. It is the ideal base camp for the many outdoor activities in the area.

Bozeman, the "queen city of the Rockies" for its strategic location among mountains, canyons, valleys, lakes, and rivers, is also an important university town. Always culturally vibrant, it offers museums, art galleries, festivals, and in recent years trendy bars and hotels.

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.