The Far West is an ill-defined part of the USA, west of the Rocky Mountains.
Most people associate it with the old days of the Wild
West when Indians circled wagon trains, cowboys shot each other at noon in front of the saloon and speeding stage coaches were robbed
by masked bandits.
And all of this preferably set in the red background of Monument Valley.
Those wild days have long gone,
but most of the spectacular scenery remains, from Yellowstone up north in Wyoming to the magnificent Grand Canyon in Arizona
to the south.
Paiute and Shoshone lived in the area long before the first Europeans explorers and trappers arrived
in the 16th century.
Droves of homesteaders arrived In the 19th century with
disastrous consequences for the local Native Americans.
Today easily accessible and well maintained National Parks and Monuments
protect the land and its flora and fauna agains too much human exploit.
These places provide tourists with ample opportunity
to calibrate their nostalgic Wild West ideas against reality.
