Day 1 - Introducing the Rocky Mountains

Last year, Leonardo Di Caprio won an Oscar for his outstanding performance in the Revenant, an equally outstanding movie. The film gives a realistic picture of the life of the trappers at the time.

Back than, Americans lived on the edge of a vast continent. 200 years ago, caravans of pioneers, trappers and golddiggers crossed the Great Plains in search of a new and better life in the west. Of course, they considered themselves conquerors rather than nature conservationists. And so the pioneers chopped and burned their way deeper into the west. They dried out swamps and slaughtered animals. They saw the Rocky Mountains as an obstacle rather than a beautiful piece of nature. They expelled the locals from their natural habitat and changed the landscape forever. Many saw the land as an inexhaustible source of fur, minerals, wood and farmland. No one could have imagined that unspoilt nature would ever become a scarce good.

After many years of insistence, something was finally done on nature conservation. The oldest National Park of the United States is the renowned Yellowstone National Park. It was inaugurated in 1872. It is not only the oldest National Park of the United States but also of the world. The National Park Service, the government agency that manages the United States National Parks, was introduced exactly 100 years ago by President Roosevelt.

The Rocky Mountains, or Rockies for short, are a giant mountain range that extends across the entire North American continent, from Alaska through Canada to New Mexico in the United States. It has a total length of no less than 4,800 km. It was formed between 80 million and 55 million years ago. The Rockies is where the west begins. The heroic cowboy and indian stories from the wild west played against the background of the Rockies with its high peaks, deep valleys, steep snowy mountains, deep lakes, frozen glaciers, winding rivers, colorful hot springs and a unique collection of animals. The Rocky Mountains and surrounding areas are on the program in the next two weeks. Curious? I am ...