From Grand Teton National Park, we head due south. We have five days to cover 480 kilometers. So we’ve got time. A lot of time. That’s why we decide to take it slow and make our way to Salt Lake City via the BDR. BDR stands for Backcountry Discovery Routes, public trails and roads for ATVs, motorcycles, buggies, 4x4s, and other off-road vehicles. There are all over the U.S., including Wyoming and Utah! Jeepy’s going to have a blast 😁

Sunday, September 25, 2022

When we wake up, our campsite in the dry lakebed is in the shade and it’s freezing! Braving the cold, Rémi crawls out of bed, moves to the front seat, starts the engine, and drives a few meters to park Jeepy in the middle of the lakebed, right in the sun. Phew, much better! So much better, in fact, that we end up spending the whole morning there, making pancakes, doing a bit of mechanical work, tidying up, cutting each other’s hair, etc., etc. A productive but above all peaceful morning!

We don’t hit the road until 1 p.m. First we pass through Montpelier, then twenty minutes later… Paris. That must be the fastest Montpelier-to-Paris we have ever done 😅 For our non-French readers, these cities exist in France and are 750 km (450 miles) apart.

We stop just two hours later. At the end of a forest road, we find a campground. It’s off-season, so it’s free. But it’s full. We keep driving. A second campground, also free, and it’s empty! Perfect! We pick the best spot and enjoy the whole place to ourselves.

Monday, September 26 🥳

It was cold last night. Really cold. I slept wearing a beanie, gloves, thick socks, a thermal base layer, and a sweater on top… In the morning, we stay in bed until the sun hits the tent. Once things start warming up, we finally crawl out for breakfast. An hour later, we’re in t-shirts! We get back on the road late in the morning and spend a few hours at the Bear Lake library, where we’re treated like royalty, we even get our own private conference room to work in peace.

Today’s a special day, it’s Rémi’s birthday! 😚 To celebrate, we find a great spot out in the countryside, surrounded by cows. And we bring out the birthday meal: a big, juicy ribeye steak Rémi’s been dreaming about for… four months! It’s delicious. Happy birthday, my love 😍❤️

Tuesday, September 27

Again, we don’t leave our campsite until late morning. Taking our time in the morning is a new thing for us, but we are really starting to enjoy it 😀 We have breakfast in the sun. It’s already hot! We rejoin the BDR. After deflating a bit the tires, we head off onto the rocky, dusty trail.

It’s the start of a full day of driving through Wyoming. Everything here feels wild. We alternate between forests, where the trees range from fading green to blazing orange, and vast, arid expanses where vegetation is sparse. The trail is mostly manageable, aside from a few particularly rough sections that toss the Jeep around. We see quite a few buggies and some dirt bikes, but for most of the ride, we’re alone, under an intense, scorching sun.

The great thing about BDR routes is that they run through public land. Which means we can stop and camp just about anywhere along the trail. By late afternoon, we find a peaceful spot to spend a peaceful night!

Wednesday, September 28

Another day on the BDR. All day, we pass lots of cows and a few buggies.

Thursday, September 29

We’ve made it to Salt Lake City, the capital of Utah! It’s huge. We spend the day here: deep-cleaning the Jeep inside and out (it really needed it!), doing laundry, enjoying an Indian restaurant to celebrate our third wedding anniversary ❤️ and stocking up at Walmart. Then we hit the road toward the Salt Flats, a vast salt desert. Jeepy ends up completely white — so much for washing it!

Tomorrow, a new adventure begins! My mom is flying into Salt Lake City to join us for ten days on the road in the U.S. It’s bound to be full of great memories — starting with the stunning Arches National Park! 😁

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Hard to follow up after the stunning Yellowstone National Park! But just a few kilometers further south, Grand Teton National Park managed to wow us with its jagged peaks and glorious autumn colors. Whether under clear skies, stormy clouds, or at sunrise, our eyes were constantly filled with awe.

Wednesday, September 21, 2022

After four freezing nights sleeping in the car at Yellowstone National Park, we treat ourselves to a bit of comfort. We spend the night just a few kilometers south of the park exit, at a free campsite. The rooftop tent is set up but, most importantly, we pull out the heater! We are done freezing! It ran all night, keeping the temperature inside around 15°C. Waking up to warm, dry air was absolute bliss! At Yellowstone, we often woke up to frost, without any heating, it was brutal 🥶

We take it easy in the morning and don’t leave the campsite until 1 PM. Destination: Grand Teton National Park, just a short drive south of Yellowstone.

After a quick stop at the visitor center, we set out on a short 5 km (3.1 mi) hike through meadows and forest. Nature here has put on its full autumn outfit in shades of yellow and orange, and it is gorgeous! We stay alert for any signs of wildlife, as bears are especially active this time of year. We don’t spot any, but we hike with the sound of the deer’s rut, powerful and distant cries that echo above the trees and reach us. It is beautiful and moving.

The trail takes us to Grand Viewpoint Point, where we get our first look at the Teton Range, jagged peaks stretching toward the sky. The tallest of them, Grand Teton, gave the park its name and raises an altitude of 4,199 meters (13780 ft.). Absolutely stunning!

Threatening skies and distant flashes of lightning force us to quickly find a place to spend the night. Luckily, the area around Grand Teton is a camper’s paradise. Just outside the park boundaries, the surrounding mountains are full of “dispersed campgrounds,” free camping spots out in the wild. We find a site facing Grand Teton. The storm rumbles, and the clouds approach, so we quickly make dinner and dive into the Jeep to eat. Just in time! Thunder cracks, the wind blows, and rain falls hard. It is only 5 PM! We spend the evening huddled inside the Jeep, riding out the storm.

Thursday, September 22

We wake to a wet world and a shy bit of sun. The jagged Grand Teton peaks pierce the sky as we eat breakfast with a splendid view, deer’s rut still echoing around us. So peaceful and beautiful!

The weather isn’t great today, so we decide to leave nature behind for the day and head to Jackson, a nearby cowboy atmosphere town in Wyoming. Very cute and full of character.

After an afternoon at the library, we return to Grand Teton determined to find an even better campsite than the night before! We climb Shadow Mountain, which directly faces the Tetons. But every spot is taken! We are forced to go higher and higher. The rain has made the road muddy and huge ruts have been carved, so we figure the RVs wouldn’t go up this far. Wrong! Even way up the mountain, we still find big campers and vans, they fear nothing! Finally, we get lucky near the top and grab one of the last available spots. It is late, so we rush to cook before it get too dark. We’ll enjoy the view tomorrow.

Friday, September 23 😢✨

It is a beautiful day, but a very sad one for my family. Our beloved Chouchou, our fluffy boy Elliott, our Newfoundland dog, passed away at the age of 13. He leaves behind a huge emptiness. We’re all deeply saddened.

Still, the journey continues. We descend from the mountain and spend the day exploring the park. Wildlife, and less wild animals, are out in force: mule deer, horses, pronghorns.

We have breakfast in the sun, then set off on a short 5 km (3.1 mi) hike to Moose Pond. The name don’t disappoint: we spot a beautiful moose! We hadn’t seen one since Anchorage, in Alaska, over a month ago!

Grand Teton also has some fun trails for 4x4s, perfect for us and Jeepy! Jeepy speeds along the muddy trail that winds through vast meadows. Rémi is at the wheel, and he’s having a blast in the puddles 😎

That evening, we try our luck again, hoping for a stunning view of the Tetons at sunrise. But it isn’t easy. It’s the weekend and campsites are packed! Some people have even left tents or RVs just to hold spots, they are not even there. Pff. Just like the night before, we climb higher and higher. Eventually, we score find one of the last free spots at the top of Shadow Mountain. No Teton view this time, but the scenery is still beautiful 😁

Saturday, September 24

We finally make it. A breathtaking sunrise over Grand Teton! A magical show of nature, which we watch with awe and emotion, cozy inside the Jeep.

After a hearty breakfast with a mountain view, it is time to leave Grand Teton National Park. We’ll return in two years, on our way back from our Pan-American road trip to Ushuaia, for more hiking adventures! But for now, we pass through Jackson for a few hours at the library, some grocery shopping, a car wash for Jeepy, and a shower for us… or not, it is closed! After a bit of driving, we end the day at a remote camping spot in a dry lakebed.

The days ahead will be all about rest and slow travel! We’ve got 6 days to cover the 450 km to Salt Lake City. Sure, that’s the direct route, but we plan to skip the highway as much as possible and cut across to discover the wild landscapes of Wyoming and Utah!

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What to say about Yellowstone National Park? We have been completely captivated and amazed by the natural beauty this vast park offers, an area as large as Corsica. A nature that is bubbling, trembling, roaring, erupting, steaming, dangerous, and breathtakingly beautiful, showing its full power and frenzy in every corner of the park. No doubt about it: Yellowstone lived up to its reputation.

Saturday, September 17 to Tuesday, September 20, 2022

We arrive at Yellowstone National Park after visiting the magnificent Glacier National Park in the American Rockies. With an area of nearly 9,000 km² (3,500 sq mi), larger than Corsica, Yellowstone is the eighth largest national park in the United States and the very first national park in the world, created in 1872. It’s celebrating its 150th anniversary this year! At the heart of Yellowstone lies a supervolcano. This is our second supervolcano after Lake Toba in Indonesia in 2018.

About 630,000 years ago, the center of what is now Yellowstone National Park collapsed, forming a huge caldera 72 kilometers (45 miles) wide. The geothermal activity of this supervolcano is visible throughout the park: geysers, hydrothermal hot springs, fumaroles, mud pots, boiling pools. Just walking on the many wooden boardwalks lets you see, smell, and hear all this impressive volcanic activity. A fumarole whistles steam into the air, a hole in the ground contains boiling water, bubbling mud pots hiss and pop, geysers erupt either predictably or unpredictably. walking through Yellowstone is a constant surprise and amazement. We show you all these natural wonders in photos!

And to discover our special article on wildlife and all the animals we saw at Yellowstone National Park, click here!

The Terraces

Located in the northern part of the park, at Mammoth Hot Springs, these are limestone terraces. Water flows from one basin to another, forming these beautiful terraces. Their orange hue comes from microorganisms that thrive in the hot water.

The Mud Pots

We loved the mud pots! These are acidic hot springs with little water. The acidity of volcanic gases and microorganisms breaks down the surrounding rock into clay and mud. The boiling is not only due to heat but also to escaping carbon bubbles. When you pass near a mud pot, you can hear a bubbling sound similar to pasta cooking. We love it!

The Geysers

Geysers are Yellowstone’s main attraction, there are nearly 400! But seeing them erupt depends on luck and timing. Most are unpredictable, so you need luck to witness an eruption. Some, however, are predictable! The intervals can range from 20 minutes to 4 hours, and the park rangers’ forecasts are generally quite accurate. We were lucky to see some beautiful eruptions.

Old Faithful is the most famous and touristy geyser, erupting every 90 minutes, making it very easy to watch. But in our opinion, it’s not the most impressive, probably because the crowds waiting for it break the magic a bit.

The most impressive geyser we saw erupt was undoubtedly the Grand Geyser. We had to try twice to see it erupt. The second time was the charm: it was scheduled for noon with a window of about 90 minutes. We finally waited 45 minutes before seeing it explode. What a show! It shoots up to 61 meters (200 feet) high, with eruptions lasting up to 12 minutes. A real fireworks display!

Thanks to the predictability and ranger forecasts, we also saw Daisy Geyser, Grotto Geyser, and Castle Geyser erupt, all on the same day, each with a very different style!

Yellowstone also hosts the world’s tallest unpredictable geyser: Steamboat Geyser. It can reach 120 meters (390 feet) high! Given that its eruptions range from every 3 days to… 50 years, our chances of seeing it shoot that high were slim. Still, we did witness some minor eruptions.

Out of nearly 400 geysers, we saw many more that gave smaller eruptions, little water jets here and there, and even an unexpected Beehive eruption while we were on the boardwalks a distance away.

The Fumaroles

Fumaroles are everywhere in Yellowstone! Wherever you are in the park, you can see steam rising above treetops or in the vast plains. These are the hottest spots in the park. Some are silent; others whistle as steam escapes.

The Wildlife

And yes, Yellowstone is also home to loooots of tourists! Oops, no, this is about wildlife! The park is populated by many animals: bison, deer, elk, wolves, black bears, grizzlies, and pronghorn antelope. We didn’t have the chance to see them all. But we saw many bison: they are everywhere in the park, alone or in herds! We also saw numerous elk and two beautiful deer.

The Hot Springs

There are nearly 10,000 hydrothermal hot springs in the park! Over these four days, we saw plenty. Some are small pools of boiling and steaming water, while others are immense, calm, and deep natural pools. Water from the surface flows down to the depths, is heated by magma, and rises back to the surface as boiling water. The colors are always stunning! The bluer the water, the hotter it is (even above boiling point). Conversely, yellows and oranges mean cooler water, thanks to thermophilic bacteria thriving around the edges.

Our favorite pool is undoubtedly Morning Glory Pool, with clear and deep waters. It used to be fully blue, but visitors threw objects in, clogging the hot water flow. The surface gradually cooled down, allowing bacteria to bloom, giving it its yellow color.

The park’s iconic hot spring is Grand Prismatic Spring, viewable from a short hike above. Here, the water is over 70°C (158°F). It’s the third-largest hot spring in the world, with nearly 2,000 liters (530 gallons) of boiling water rising from the earth every minute. The colors are simply breathtaking!

Yellowstone Canyon

Yellowstone has its own Grand Canyon! It is, in fact, its yellowish limestone rock that gave the park its name. Volcanic activity is present here too: fumaroles steam from the canyon walls near the river.

The Landscapes

While Yellowstone stands out for its volcanic activity, it also boasts varied and magnificent landscapes. Vast plains with autumn colors, forests, waterfalls, valleys, the park is so huge it offers a great variety of landscapes. Wherever you look, it’s stunning.

For encounters with bears, wolves, moose, and elk in Yellowstone, check out our other article! For now, we are heading to the other iconic park in Wyoming: Grand Teton National Park, where we are sure to fall in love!

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