American President Dwight Eisenhower was no stranger to the world of war. As a supreme commander of the Allied Expeditionary Forces, he played a key in the liberation of Europe from the Nazi Germany. However, when World War II ended in 1945, he was convinced that it was just a matter of time before the new war, this time with the Soviet Union, would begin. That's why, once he became president, he persisted that the country-wide network of highways be built in the US to assist the mobility of military troops and allow people to quickly escape big cities in case of a nuclear attack. The Interstate Highway System was finished long after Eisenhower had passed away, and the last stretch of the originally planned network was the Interstate-70 in Colorado.

The whole generation of Americans grew up on Western movies featuring John Wayne and other fearless cowboys fighting unruly Native Americans. But how well do we know the period preceding the Expansion of the American West and the forming of the United States in their present borders? Bent's Old Fort hidden in the vast plains of Colorado under the endless blue sky is a living book that was once at the frontier of the Anglo-American civilization.

Among all the things I like about the United States, their national parks are my favourite ones. I always enjoy visiting them no matter the season and the weather. Since the first national park was created in 1872, the goal has always been to provide recreational opportunities with the conservation coming after. As a result, most of America's national parks are very accessible and often draw big crowds, especially those parks near major highways and cities. It obviously seems appealing to me that tourism brings more profit to some areas than traditional mining of natural resources, but I believe there should be a better way to control crowds since most visitors to the national parks come to see nature, not other people. So I was really glad that Great Sand Dunes National Park in Colorado, which I visited this past December, was still a hidden gem with fewer visitors compared to other "big boys" in the Southwest such as the Grand Canyon, Zion and Arches.