Middle of the West

From Rapid City, we take a trip to Badlands National Park. On Badlands Loop, a scenic byway of approximately 30 kilometers, we experience the weird landscape up close. A must-see is the Wall Drug Store on Highway 90, a large souvenir store with a café that has been attracting visitors with a cup of coffee for 5 cents since 1931. In Rapid City, the Berlin Wall Memorial and the Norwegian Stave Church are worth a detour. Spearfish Canyon with the Roughlock Falls can be reached on a short hike, then the next highlight is coming up. Devils Tower is a giant monolithic block and volcano that you can walk around on a trail.

Via Sheridan we reach – now in Montana – the Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument, where the American army led by General Custer suffered a devastating defeat against the Indians of the region in 1876. In Billings, large city and supply base, be sure to check out the huge snow-white Montana Temple. Crossing Beartooth Pass we head south to our next destination, Yellowstone National Park, without doubt the highlight of this journey. We will stay in central Canyon Village for a total of four nights.

After this great park, its little brother right next door obviously seems a little smaller; we explore Grand Teton National Park with its rugged mountain peaks from Jackson Hole. Then it’s time for the state of Idaho, more specifically Idaho Falls. It is interesting to note that the waterfalls are located in the middle of the city. You should also visit the 8th temple of the Mormons which is gleaming white and impressively tall. After that, it’s back to nature, to the Craters of the Moon National Monument. That is how one imagines the landscape on the moon – lots of lava and pitch-black rocks. Surprisingly, however, there are some little flowers which obviously made it.

After we have visited a few more waterfalls in Twin Falls, we move on to the wasteland of Utah – just prairie, brown hills, rocks. The Rocket Garden of the ATK defense group is a welcome change, even if it’s not exactly our favorite industry. Anyway, it’s absolutely worth taking this route due to the Golden Spike National Historic Site.

In the middle of the desert, two brightly colored locomotives mark the spot where the transcontinental railway of the USA was closed in 1869. Via Ogden we finally reach Salt Lake City, headquarters of the Mormons and largest city between Denver and Las Vegas. The pretty city deserves a full day for sightseeing.

On the way east we pass the Flaming Gorge National Recreation Area (you can almost touch deer and mountain sheep) and after a while the Green River Dam. In Vernal at the Dinosaur National Monument you can see lots of bones of the extinct reptiles – if you like it! The wasteland of Utah eventually turns into the wasteland of Colorado; at the edge of the Rocky Mountains, we spend another night in Steamboat Springs. Via Winter Park we finally are back in Denver, where the round trip ends.