We've made it quite a way into the far West, some 3000km from Chicago through the Great Plains to reach the Yellowstone.
Insufferable monotony awaits travellers on the interstates, we therefore prefer the rural byways of Iowa, Nebraska, South Dakota and Wyoming, much like the settlers of the 1800s.
An ocean of corn and soy beans has taken over the prairie, at least til the border of Nebraska, where the landscape changes to green sandy hills.
The prairie prevails again between the Badlands in South Dakota, the Black Hills in Eastern Wyoming -
and the first ranges of the Rockies in the West.
Most of our time since Chicago was spent driving, rushing West -
- with breaks at State forests or parcs.
As usual, we're easy to identify as foreigners and contact with locals is easy.
Yes, most campers are from the surrounding states, the economic crisis has made them abandon Cancun for the state parcs!
We've been criss-crossing the Yellowstone national parc for a few days, by car or on foot.
Fantastic panoramas reward the tired hiker in these high-altitude surroundings.
The parc's extremely busy in this summer season: tourists clog the roads, mosquitoes infest the forests.
It nevertheless remains a jewel, albeit one that we prefer in the wintery and quiet conditions that we found it in a few years back.
Wilderness hiking is our new hobby, and the Glacier national parc awaits us up near the Canadian border. Vancouver and Seattle will compensate with their urban environments, but that's another story completely!
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