Wyoming

Yellowstone National Park is located in the Rocky Mountains, predominantly in northwest Wyoming, with small parts in Montana and Idaho. Founded in 1872, the park is considered the world's first national park, and you come for the hot springs, geysers, and free-ranging bison.The park boasts over 10,000 hydrothermal features, including more than 500 geysers. The most famous, Old Faithful, erupts on average approximately every 90 minutes. In the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone, the Lower Falls plunge 94 m, and Yellowstone Lake is situated at an elevation of 2,357 m. The park has been a UNESCO World Heritage site since 1978.The approximately 230 km long Grand Loop Road connects the main areas. Most roads are closed to regular vehicles from early November to late April; only the route from Gardiner to Cooke City is passable year-round. Admission costs 35 US dollars per car for 7 days. Visitors without US residency pay an additional 100 US dollars per person from age 16. A reservation is not required.

Utah lies between Nevada, Arizona, Colorado, Wyoming, and Idaho in the heart of the American West. You travel here primarily for the five national parks in the south, known as the "Mighty Five," and for the ski resorts in the Wasatch Mountains near Salt Lake City.The capital, Salt Lake City, hosted the Winter Olympics in 2002, and they will take place again in Utah in 2034. Northwest of the city lies the Great Salt Lake, a remnant of the prehistoric Lake Bonneville. The state is predominantly dry; its highest peak is Kings Peak in the Uinta Mountains.In the south, the parks are close together: Zion with the Narrows of the Virgin River, Bryce Canyon with hundreds of Hoodoos, Capitol Reef along the Waterpocket Fold, as well as Arches and Canyonlands near Moab. Monument Valley and Lake Powell are in the border region with Arizona.

The Grand Canyon National Park in Arizona protects the 446-kilometer-long canyon of the Colorado River, which is up to 29 kilometers wide and up to 1,857 meters deep. From the South Rim, about a 90-minute drive north of Flagstaff, you'll gaze upon a landscape that has been a UNESCO World Heritage site since 1979.The heart of the South Rim is Grand Canyon Village, home to the Hotel El Tovar, which opened in 1905. Hermit Road extends about 11 kilometers to viewpoints along the rim and is accessible only by shuttle bus from March to November. At Desert View stands the Watchtower, designed by Mary Colter in 1932. On the North Rim, over 2,400 meters high, a wildfire destroyed the Grand Canyon Lodge in 2025; there will be no accommodation there in 2026.Entry costs 35 US dollars per vehicle; visitors without US residency aged 16 and over pay an additional 100 dollars per person. This surcharge is waived with the America-the-Beautiful Pass for non-residents (250 dollars). An entry reservation is not required; payment is by card only.

Nevada is located east of California, between Oregon, Idaho, Utah, and Arizona. The state is primarily known as the home of Las Vegas, but you'll also find desert mountains, red sandstone canyons, and one side of Lake Tahoe here.With an average of around 180 millimeters of precipitation per year, Nevada is the driest state in the USA. Most of it belongs to the Great Basin, the south to the Mojave Desert, and over 80 percent of its area is federally administered. Its highest peak is Boundary Peak at 4,007 meters. Carson City is the capital, Reno is the center of the north, and about one-third of Lake Tahoe's water area lies in Nevada.To the east, the Great Basin National Park protects bristlecone pines, which are up to 5,000 years old, as well as the Lehman Caves. Around Las Vegas are the Hoover Dam from 1936, the Valley of Fire, Nevada's oldest State Park, and the Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area. A part of Death Valley also belongs to Nevada.

Downtown is the old Las Vegas: The first casinos were located here, long before resorts grew on the Strip. The Golden Nugget opened in 1946, and even today, casinos line Fremont Street, appearing smaller, louder, and more affordable than their rivals to the south.Since 1995, a roughly 420-meter-long and 27-meter-high barrel vault canopy has spanned four city blocks. The Fremont Street Experience was updated in 2019 with over 49 million LEDs; in the evenings, light and music shows run on it, with bands playing on three stages. Beneath the canopy, people zip past on the SlotZilla zipline. The latest addition is Circa, which opened in 2020, an adults-only hotel with a massive sportsbook and a rooftop pool amphitheater. East of Las Vegas Boulevard, Fremont East begins, featuring bars, the Downtown Container Park, and the neon bar Atomic Liquors.During the day, two museums are worth visiting: The Mob Museum, housed in the former 1933 federal courthouse, tells the story of organized crime, while the Neon Museum displays over 200 decommissioned city signs.Come in the late afternoon, visit one of the museums, and stay for dinner and the first light show. Downtown is more compact than the Strip; almost everything is within walking distance.