This legendary land of red rocks and vast canyons, outlaws and gunslingers is a brutally tough place to live. But nature has found some extraordinary ways to win through, forging a pioneering spirit found nowhere else on earth. Discover the amazing ways that mustangs and coyotes, Hopi farmers and even desert tortoises have found to survive in this extremely testing land.

America's high country is the land of grizzly bears and giant trees, of frigid winters and scorching summers, of tough ranchers and gold rush fever. From the Rockies to the Sierra Nevada, survival demands endurance and know-how. From parasitic plants to thieving black bears, tenacious pikas and battling bison, it's in the high country that the west gets really wild.

From the mysterious Sea of Cortez to the wild and elemental Pacific Ocean, powerful earth forces shape the coastline of the wild west. These restless shores are a magnet for life; visited by the greatest of all animals, the blue whale, and by strange fish that come ashore on the full moon to spawn in their thousands. Fog-shrouded headlands nurture massive coastal redwoods and swollen-nosed lizards eke out a living on remote desert islands.