Montana

At Lee and Florence's

To get to Yellowstone from BANFF, we had two options: the direct route, 9.5 hours of driving, or a slower one, 11.5 hours.
Our experience on the Canadian Prairies (2,200 miles in 4 days, no less!) has taught us a lesson. We'll take the pretty route (11.5 hours, about 680 miles), but over 3 days!

First stop: Bigfork, a little town on the shore of Flathead Lake. We're thrilled to discover that the campground we'd picked is, once again... full!
No matter, we spotted a nice marina a few miles back. U-turn, here we go!
The thing is, there's no public shoreline law here. The whole waterfront is private. And our nice marina turns out to be a very private marina. Nobody gets in without a membership card.

That's when Mag swings into action. We've stopped in front of a gorgeous lakefront house. Without a second thought, she heads for the doorbell. In under 5 minutes, Florence has opened the door and offered to let us park in her driveway (with a direct view of the lake, if you please)!
I've barely finished parking when Lee, her husband, pulls up. He welcomes us just as warmly. "If you need water or electricity, no problem!"
We're delighted. They even offer us the Jet Skis sitting in the yard (yes, really, I'm not kidding), but we don't want to take advantage.
At 8 p.m., Florence comes to get us and tells us Lee is waiting. He's just taken his boat out of the marina, tied it up at the private dock at the end of the yard, and is offering to show us the lake under a "Wonderful Sunset".
For our first evening in the western US, we get a welcome you could never imagine in France!
The next morning, we make the most of their private beach to get in shape before hitting the road again.
Thank you, Lee and Florence! Welcome to America!

Bison Range

On August 22, we say goodbye to Lee and Florence and follow Highway 35 along the east side of Flathead Lake (it's prettier), then Highway 93, which takes us to the gates of the Bison Range.

It's a small park you drive through (by car, or by KIFONS) safari-style, across wild open land full of wildlife.
Our first "real" taste of the American West, Wild West style. It's all there!
Huge herds of bison, pronghorn, bald eagles, snakes (which we run over with our KIFONS!), everything!
The kids are thrilled; we crawl along at 6 mph with all of KIFONS's windows open. The rules say you can't get out of your vehicle, just in case!
After this 3-hour outing we hit the road again in scorching heat. At 6:30 p.m., unable to take it anymore, Henri slams on the brakes right in front of a fantastic public pool with waterslides and the works!
We run to the front desk with our swimsuits under our arms, praying they're not closing!
The lifeguards tell us it's $20 for the five of us and there are only 20 minutes left before closing.
Too bad, we're just way too hot!
Seeing how determined we are, they let us in for free, and even ask if they should turn the water jets back on for the kids ("no, that's very kind", we won't push our luck)! Service is service!
They even recommend a good steakhouse nearby. After a great dinner, we come back to that same pool's parking lot for a good night's sleep, overlooking the baseball field and its games until 10 p.m.!

Yellowstone:

We spend the nights of August 23 and 24 in Gardiner, the north entrance to Yellowstone.

There we meet Jean-Louis, a 61-year-old French biker riding a BMW 1200 RS solo across the American West after a little "hop" up to Alaska: hats off, Jean-Louis!
He's already 4 months into his trip and has 2 months left to finish his journey.
Great conversation over dinner and a bottle of wine Jean-Louis brought. Thanks for the evening, fellow Frenchie!

Our stop in Gardiner, at a campground on the Yellowstone River, lets us get a feel for the park of the same name with a few quick forays in, and we plan our visits.

It's also where we ask ourselves a big question: are we really happy on this trip?

We get philosophical that night.
Juliette wants friends and somewhere to swim; she's tired of playing only with Alice and Alex.
Mag wants to work (we both miss our jobs); she's tired of doing laundry and dishes, even though Henri cooks every meal.
Time for some soul-searching. Then again, we're always asking ourselves questions.

Actually, traveling is a bit like marriage: after 7 years there's a rough patch, and with travel it hits after 3 months (the Mottes had warned us, and luckily we remembered)!
And it's been exactly 3 months since we left!
So Henri tackles a detailed schedule for the next 3 months, and we take a close look at what pace we can keep up (a little less frantic), making time to:
- homeschool the kiddos,
- sightsee,
- drive,
- live happily.

It's decided: we keep going.

Yellowstone: Grand Canyon

Yellowstone proves us right; we spend the nights of August 25, 26 and 27 inside the park.
The kids watch, delighted and a little worried, as our dear planet bubbles away from the inside.
The park was born from a huge volcano that erupted 630,000 years ago and left a crater more than 25 miles across (the caldera)!
Under our feet, a thin layer of the earth's crust, roughly 10,000 feet thick (no, no, that's not much), lets us hike among geysers, acidic hot springs (no swimming) and mud pots that smell lovely of sulfur.
"Ew! It stinks in here!" say the kids.
Still, they have a hard time grasping that their dear parents have taken them inside the crater of a volcano ("No way, you're kidding, we're inside the volcano right now!?!?").
Norris Geyser Basin, the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone and the Upper Falls, the 20-by-14-mile lake, Midway Geyser Basin and the Grand Prismatic Spring, and of course the famous Old Faithful: we don't miss a thing!

Yellowstone: Biscuit Basin

Biscuit Basin welcomes us for another hike!
We climb 1,000 feet at an average 10% grade!
The trail starts on a wooden boardwalk that winds between the hot springs and geysers.
From the top, the view is breathtaking: the whole park opens up before us, and we can even see Old Faithful's steam puffing in the distance.
Up there, not a sound. Just the cries of an eagle and its young.
Once again the kiddos blew us away!
Not many people on the trail, and even fewer kids!

Yellowstone: Midway Geyser Basin

A quick stop lets us admire the psychedelic colors of Grand Prismatic Spring, the second-largest hot spring in the world, and the deep blue (Mano, we're thinking of you) of Excelsior Geyser's spring.

Yellowstone: Old Faithful, and the kiddos become Junior Rangers!

Once again, we have to say we're lucky.

We stroll up to the geyser, which erupts every 90 to 120 minutes, without really knowing when the last one was.
A quick look at the Visitor Center tells us the next one is in 12 minutes, so we settle in like royalty in the front row among the crowd of tourists (lots of Asian visitors as usual) eagerly waiting for the next rumble from the earth.
Here it goes!
The water shoots up more than 100 feet, and Alexandre, who hasn't been impressed by anything lately, blurts out "OK, now THAT actually surprises me!".
The eruption lasts a few minutes.
Time for the kiddos to go collect their well-earned Yellowstone Junior Ranger badge.
But not just anyone gets to be a Junior Ranger!
The first time, a ranger sends us packing, claiming the kiddos haven't done anything in their booklet ("He didn't even look inside at my coloring" says Alice).
Turns out, on the last page the kiddos had to check a box saying they accepted all the rules, write, hand on heart, why they wanted to become Junior Rangers, and of course the parents had to sign.
At last, after these few formalities, the kiddos got their well-deserved badges for all the miles they hiked in the park!