Page 563 - (DK Eyewitness) Travel Guide - USA

INTRODUCING THE ROCKIES  561

THE ROCKIES

One of the world’s great outdoor regions, the Rockies offer a variety of experiences
not found anywhere else. The sheer scale of the landscape is breathtaking,
and words can hardly express the thrill of seeing firsthand the broad expanses
of the Wyoming plains, Idaho’s deep river canyons, the towering peaks of
Colorado, or the rugged vastness of Montana.

The underlying geology of the Rocky are abundant, especially in the alpine
Mountains is ancient, with some of the meadows, while the dense forests are the
country’s oldest rocks forming the highly habitat of a wide range of wildlife. Moose,
stratified Precambrian peaks and valleys of elk, and bald eagles are spotted frequently
Glacier National Park. The rest of the range along trails and roads, and the backwoods
is varied, with mineral-rich granite batholiths areas hold some of the nation’s last wild
sharing space with the vast red-rock populations of carnivores, including mountain
mesas of the Colorado Plateau. Evidence lions, wolves, and massive grizzly bears.
of volcanic activity, forming and reforming
the landscape from deep beneath the History
surface, is also omnipresent, most The history of the Rockies is as wild and
prominently in Idaho’s Craters of the Moon larger-than-life as the land itself. From the
National Monument, and most famously late 18th century, intrepid “mountain men”
in the geysers, mudpots, and hot springs – French-Canadian and American fur
of Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming. trappers – traveled throughout the Rockies,
This region has also been shaped by trapping beavers and other animals for
some of North America’s mightiest rivers. their valuable skins. After the Louisiana
Beside the terrifying white-water rapids Purchase in 1803, the fledgling country
of the Snake and other tumultuous acquired control of the Rockies, and the
watercourses, the Rockies form the head- first official American presence was
waters of many major western rivers, established between 1803 and 1806 by
including the Colorado, the Missouri, the explorers Meriwether Lewis and William
Columbia, and the Rio Grande. These rivers Clark. These daring men were accompanied
and their many tributaries offer some of by a “Corps of Discovery” made up of 29
the finest fishing in the world. Wildflowers soldiers and fur trappers, and joined by the

Pool along the Firehole Lake Drive, Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming
Winter view of Coeur d’ Alene Lake, Idaho, from the mineral ridge hiking trail

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