A border crossing and 5 states in 3 days...

Our first border crossing. I'm not sure if it was Florent jokingly replying to the border security officer's question of who was paying for this trip: "my former employer", our French license plate, the fact Pippa and kids had no Canadian entrance stamp in their passports while Florent did, or the unmistakeably antipodean accent of the woman presenting herself as a French citizen, but we got screened as "complicated/possibly dodgy" and we got the full inspection! We lost a pound of Canadian tomatoes and a couple of hours and the kids learnt that when the very serious-talking man says to go into the building, they don't get back in the camper, they do as he says, but we were eventually allowed into US territory!

And so the epic trip begins, Canada to Glacier National Park across Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, North Dakota and Montana as fast as we can because we a) had not planned this and have no bookings and b) after the immense beauty of the lakes in Canada, the not-to-be-missed sights up here are not immediately obvious!

The kids are prepared with piles of colouring books, the Thermos of thick coffee placed next to Florent's seat and the hours of driving go smoothly. We even manage a few last swims in the pristine waters of Lake Superior along the way.

Three pages of the road atlas later and we cross into North Dakota. Its easy to see why urban Americans call this 'fly-over country' - the vast flat plains, corn field after corn field lull us into a vacant trance. Luckily the North Dakota speed limit is higher at 70 miles an hour which makes the boredom of it roll by a little faster.

After 1500 miles of driving and hours and hours of sometimes patient, sometimes horrific children, the arrival in the Rockies is majestic. They appear grey blue on the horizon like a faded stage backdrop; we're not quite sure if it's real. Each mile forward brings colour and detail to the jagged peaks and glaciers until the walls of granite surround us. A visit to the info centre, junior ranger programme in hand and a night booked to sleep in our tent after a hike in the back country and we're off! Set to discover this storybook destination.

Six days later and we can’t quite leave… we’ll let the photos talk for themselves because after 40 kilometres of hiking in 3 days, grizzly bear spotting, Junior Ranger activities and lake swimming, we’re a little tired!