Future Bucket List Adventures - The USA - The West and the Mid-West - Wild West / American Frontier

The United States of America (USA) is one of my favourite places to visit for a holiday. There is so much to see in the USA, and each state has something different to offer. The mainland USA is so vast, that it is split into four regions - the South, the North-East, the Mid-West and the West. I have been lucky enough to visit a few parts of the USA as child with family. Most of our trips were to the West of the USA, and included Las Vegas, the Grand Canyon, Tucson, San Diego and Los Angeles. Most recently, I embarked upon a solo trip in 2025 to Laguna Beach, Palm Springs, Route 66 at Flagstaff and Williams, Sedona and Scottsdale. I also visited Los Angeles, Las Vegas and the Grand Canyon in 2023. I have compiled a long list of places that I would like to see in the future in the West of the USA, which include attending the Burning Man Festival, visiting San Francisco, Big Sur, Monterey Bay, Carmel-by-the-Sea, Yosemite, Lake Tahoe, Jackson Hole, Yellowstone, Grand Teton, Glacier National Park, Aspen, Monument Valley and Canyon Point.  The Mid-West in an area I have yet to visit. I have put together a small list of places that I would like to see in the future in Mid-Western USA, consisting of the Crazy Horse Memorial and Mount Rushmore at Custer County.

https://www.lonelyplanet.com/usa

The West

The West of the USA is home to some of the most fascinating landscapes and national parks in the country, and is probably my favourite region. The US government defines the West of the USA as the states of Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Utah, Washington and Wyoming.

Burning Man Festival

The Burning Man Festival is one of the most famous events on the planet and it takes place in the USA in Black Rock, Nevada. Burning Man is an annual nine-day festival that involves music, art, and culture.

San Francisco

With its iconic Golden Gate Bridge, historic cable cars, and beautiful Victorian architecture, San Francisco is undeniably one of the world's great cities.

1 Hotel

Located on the Embarcadero, 1 Hotel San Francisco is an urban oasis, with views of the city skyline and the San Francisco Bay.

Alcatraz

Alcatraz is a former federal prison located on an island in San Fransisco Bay. It is now one of the main attractions to visit in San Francisco.

Big Sur

Big Sur is a rugged stretch of California’s central coast between Carmel and San Simeon. California's coast redwoods meet their southernmost habitat along the Big Sur coast. Coastal redwoods (Sequoia sempervirens) are the tallest living things on our planet, growing up to 380 feet tall and 16 to 18 feet across.

McWay Cove

McWay Cove is a canonical location on the Big Sur Coast in California, part of the Julia Pfeiffer Burns State Park. It is famous for its waterfall, known as McWay Falls, which plunges onto the sand.

Alila Ventana Big Sur Hotel

A place of unmatched beauty and tranquility, Alila Ventana Big Sur embodies the notion that space is luxury in 160 magnificent acres of natural splendor on the rugged Pacific coast.

Monterey Bay

Monterey Bay is a bay of the Pacific Ocean located on the coast of the U.S. state of California, south of the San Francisco Bay Area. Often called the “Serengeti of the Sea," the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary is one of the best places in the world to see marine wildlife such as seals, sea lions, sea otters, whales, dolphins and seabirds any time of year!

Fisherman's Wharf Monterey

Fisherman's Wharf is a historic wharf in Monterey, California, United States. Used as an active wholesale fish market into the 1960s, the wharf eventually became a tourist attraction as commercial fishing tapered off in the area.

Carmel-by-the-Sea

Carmel-by-the-Sea is a small beach city on California's Monterey Peninsula. It's known for the museums and library of the historic Carmel Mission, and the fairytale cottages and galleries of its village-like center.

Point Lobos State Natural Reserve

Point Lobos is a State Park and Natural Reserve in Carmel-By-The-Sea, a city about 15 minutes south of Monterey.

Lake Tahoe

Located 1,897 meters atop the majestic Sierra Nevada mountain range on the California and Nevada border, Lake Tahoe is widely considered one of the most beautiful places in the world.

Tahoe Little Black Cabins

Tahoe Little Black Cabins is the perfect cabin rental near Lake Tahoe.

Yosemite National Park

Yosemite National Park is in California’s Sierra Nevada mountains. It’s famed for its giant, ancient sequoia trees, and for Tunnel View, the iconic vista of towering Bridalveil Fall and the granite cliffs of El Capitan and Half Dome. Yosemite is home to wildlife such as the Black bear.

Yellowstone

Established in 1872, Yellowstone National Park is a national treasure. Located primarily in Wyoming, the park is so large that it extends into Montana and Idaho and has five separate entrances. Yellowstone is home to a vast array of wildlife such as the Grizzly bear, wolves, elk, bison and moose. Yellowstone is also now famous for my favourite drama TV series 'Yellowstone' which stars Kevin Costner.

Jackson Hole

Jackson Hole is located adjacent to Grand Teton National Park and just 60 miles south of Yellowstone National Park.

Rustic Inn Creekside Resort & Spa at Jackson Hole

The Rustic Inn Creekside Resort & Spa is a luxurious, boutique hotel located on 12 acres adjacent to the National Elk Refuge in Jackson, Wyoming.

Grand Teton

Grand Teton National Park is in the northwest of the U.S state of Wyoming. It encompasses the Teton mountain range, the 4,000-meter Grand Teton peak, and the valley known as Jackson Hole.

The Ranch at Rock Creek

The Ranch at Rock Creek is in middle-of-nowhere Montana, surrounded by Granite County's big skies and mountains, and close to old mining town, Philipsburg.

Glacier National Park

Glacier National Park is a 1,583-sq.-mi. wilderness area in Montana's Rocky Mountains, with glacier-carved peaks and valleys running to the Canadian border.

Aspen

Aspen, in Colorado’s Rocky Mountains, is a ski resort town and year-round destination for outdoor recreation. It's also known for high-end restaurants and boutiques.

Vicaroy Snowmass

Viceroy Snowmass is easily the most luxurious resort in Snowmass Village with it's top notch amenities, spa and outdoor pool.

Monument Valley

Monument Valley is an iconic symbol of the Southwestern USA. The Monument Valley Tribal Park consists of a desert landscape that spans over 90000 miles, which is punctuated by red sandstone formations, slender pinnacles and massive buttes. Monument Valley Tribal is located within Navajo Nation territory along the Utah and Arizona border. If there is one place which epitomises the Wild West, it's Monument Valley. I've not been lucky enough to visit Monument Valley yet, but it is firmly on my bucketlist.

Amangiri at Canyon Point

Amangiri is a secluded, luxury resort hotel in Canyon Point in the Glen Canyon National Recreation region of Utah.

These are just a selection of places I wish to visit in the future in the West of the USA.

The Mid-West

The Mid-West of the United States is region of the country I have not yet managed to visit. It is known for being home of the great lakes, the expansive Great Plains, and an abundance of fields filled with grain and corn. The fields of the Mid-West are often referred to as the 'Bread Basket of America'. The area attracts storm chasers trying to catch a glimpse of a twister over the Great Plains. The US government defines the Mid-West as including the states of Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, South Dakota and Wisconsin.

Crazy Horse Memorial

The Crazy Horse Memorial Crazy Horse Memorial is a colossal tribute to the Native American heritage. The monument is still under construction on the rock face of land within the Black Hills, South Dakota.

Mount Rushmore

The Mount Rushmore National Memorial is a national memorial centered on a colossal sculpture carved into the granite face of Mount Rushmore, Keystone, South Dakota. The faces carved into the mountain are of the presidents George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, Thomas Jefferson and Theodore Roosevelt.

These are just a small selection of tourist attractions which are in the Mid-West of the USA.