Monday 23/07
We wake up at 7:30am. We reorganize the car, separating what we want to take with us for the campsite. Tonight we indeed camp (autonomous backcountry camping) in Yellowstone NP.
We have breakfast in the motel and leave at 9:30am.
We stop in the town / village to buy some groceries (for today’s lunch and dinner). I go and pay our monthly fee at Verizon. We also buy bear spray, apparently mandatory to do backcountry camping…
We head towards Teton NP. We see a moose with her ‘calf’; it’s great.
We stop to eat at a picnic area around 1:30pm. Salads (and fried chicken for Jules). There are a few chipmunks who come nearby.
In the US, we’ve already driven 6,000 km, and spent a little over 100 hours in the car!
We arrive at the Yellowstone NP (in Wyoming), so eagerly awaited by Isabelle.
We stop to get our permit (for backcountry camping). You have to watch a short movie explaining the basic things to know before camping.
At the entrance of each national park, we receive a map. We bought a card (80$) at the beginning of the trip that is valid for most of the parks we’ve visited.
We go to see the Old Faithful Geyser. There’s an eruption every 90’. We don’t find it so impressive.
We drive to the parking near our designated camping area; it’s 2.5km from our spot.
We take what we need; it’s quite heavy (large tent + mattresses).
Florence and I go back to the car to get the rest of the equipment while Jules and Isabelle set up the tent and light the fire.
We take a nice aperitif (sushi, chips and mozzarella sticks wrapped in ham) and then eat our dinner: Jules and Isabelle heat up sausages on the fire (on stick since we don’t have a grill) while Florence and I eat pieces of (already) grilled chicken.
Such an evening would not be complete without the traditional marshmallows for dessert (grilled on the fire).
We take a quick “shower” in the river that passes nearby.
We are all in “bed” at 10pm.
