example_cartopy.py

import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
import cartopy.crs as ccrs
import cartopy.feature as cfeature
from matplotlib.offsetbox import AnchoredText


fig = plt.figure(figsize=(10, 10))
ax = fig.add_subplot(111, projection=ccrs.PlateCarree())

# Set extent of the map
ax.set_extent([-130, -90, 10, 60], crs=ccrs.PlateCarree())

# Create a feature for States/Admin 1 regions at 1:50m from Natural Earth
states_provinces = cfeature.NaturalEarthFeature(
    category="cultural",
    name="admin_1_states_provinces_lines",
    scale="50m",
    facecolor="none",
)
ax.add_feature(states_provinces, edgecolor="red")

# Create and add a feature for Coastlines at 1:110m from Natural Earth
ax.add_feature(
    cfeature.NaturalEarthFeature(
        category="physical",
        name="coastline",
        scale="110m",
        facecolor="none",
        edgecolor="#333333",
    )
)

# Show gridlines with labels
ax.gridlines(draw_labels=True)

# Add a label
my_label = AnchoredText("(a) the map", loc=2, prop=dict(size=18, color='b'))
ax.add_artist(my_label)

# ADD DATA TO THE MAP
ax.scatter(lons, lats, facecolor='C0', edgecolor='C9', transform=ccrs.PlateCarree())

If you want to make a plot with a satellite background a la Google Maps, you can do it in cartopy, here's an example: https://scitools.org.uk/cartopy/docs/latest/gallery/wmts_time.html#sphx-glr-gallery-wmts-time-py

However, I don't get why you would need such a plot - you only need to extract a polygon around the Rockies.
You can do it either manually by making a list of longitudes and latitudes around the Rockies, or you can ask around at the department, maybe someone already has it, ideally as a Shapely polygon. Then you can use this package to create a region mask:
https://regionmask.readthedocs.io/en/stable/notebooks/create_own_regions.html

Thanks Denis! Much appreciated!