The Combia River gorge is a must, it is beautiful and a scenic road follows the gorge and brings you to all the nice spots. The gorge started being formed millions of years ago, but at the end of the last Ice Age quick erosion due to floods, cut deep through the volcanic rock so that most affuents ended up as waterfall. After visiting the gorge we went to Dufur where we had booked a room at the Balch hotel. This historic hotel is situated in a small country village surrounded by wheat fields. We very much enjoyed our stay there as the place with its antique furniture was somehow surrealistic in such a rural place. In the morning it was a pleasure to discover that we got a 3 course gastronomic breakfast! Sometimes, you just ... read more

After Grand Teton National park we headed north to Montana and visited Glacier National Park. The park is on the border with Canada where it becomes Waterton Lakes National Park. The park is big and everything there is remote; bears are everywhere. From the park newspaper: “In 1850, there were an estimated 150 glaciers in the park. By 1968, the number was reduced to around 50. Today only 26 glaciers remain in the park, many of which are mere remnants of what they once were. Scientists predict all glaciers in Glacier National Park will be gone by the year 2030”. The park is easy to explore. Being so far north Spring arrives here quite late, so we saw many wild flowers we had not seen yet in the other parks. The trails are well maintained and ... read more

We left Billings (Montana) early morning and decided to enter through the Northeast Entrance and take the scenic way to Yellowstone instead of the busy interstate. We made our way through a town called Red Lodge and as soon as we started climbing we experienced dramatic changes in the weather, something Yellowstone is famous for. The N-E entrance is at 2 245 meters and the peaks surrounding it can reach over 3 300 meters. No wonder we were greeted by a snow storm, pretty frightening and awesome at the same time. The park covers north west of Wyoming, south of Montana and east Idaho. The biggest part is in Wyoming. It is located just above what is now believed to be a super volcano. You soon realize the extent of the volcano when you look at ... read more

Back to our hiking boots. In the 'rockies' we stayed in the town of Estes which is already about 2,500 metres above sea level. This time we got our own cabine and after 3 months on the road we were able to prepare our own meals for five days. That was a real break from cafes and restaurant food. It is one of the most beautiful regions we saw in the US. It was not early spring but flowers in the fields were still blooming and there are lakes and waterfalls everywhere. We did long walks everyday and the biggest challenge we took was climbing Mount Ida which is about 4000 metres high. It was our test to see how we will cope with the altitude in Bolivia. It went almost fine. Nevertheless we were able ... read more

Monument Valley is famous for its dramatic landscape, gigantic rocks shaped by erosion for millions of years and also for being the set of many Western movies, most of them featuring John Wayne. Some of you will be familiar with some of our pictures. Monument Valley is located inside the Navajo Reservation in the north of Arizona and south of Utah. The day before we toured Monument Valley we passed by the Navajo National Monument. Because the Navajo Reservation is private property very little can be explored without a guide. We joined a whole day tour with a Navajo guide at Gouldings Trading Post. The morning part of the tour took us to Mystery Valley just south of Monument Valley. This part is less well known because it is treated like an archaeological site and also ... read more