The Great North American Roadtrip

Highlights

Best Hike

Grinnell Glacier

Grinnell Glacier had it all. Two lake traversals by boat, seeing our first grizzly bear, incredible lake views, amazing bighorn sheep, a friendly mountain goat, and lunch alongside a glacier with a lake full of ice blocks.

Honorable mentions: Cascade Pass (North Cascades) which was even more beautiful. And Iceberg Lake (Glacier)

Best Nature

Churchill

Churchill takes the cake for close encounters with polar bears and beluga whales, as well as incredible Northern Lights (first time for us).

Honorable mention: Glacier was also amazing, with tons of really close encounters. And Yellowstone for the wolves, bison, bears, and plains.

Best Lake

Lake Moraine

We saw lots of absolutely stunning lakes, but Lake Moraine in Banff tops the list. The color is unreal, the mountains behind, and we had a surreal hour canoeing over flat waters. It is extremely busy because it is too easily accessed.

Honorable mentions: Iceberg Lake (Glacier), Emerald Lake (Yoho), Louise (Banff), Bow Lake (Banff), Grinnell (Glacier)

Best Town

Churchill

Churchill is one of the coolest towns that we've ever been to. The isolation (2 days by train or a plane), the personality of the town, and the nature were unbelievable.

Honorable mention: We also absolutely loved the charming little town of Marblemount in North Cascades

Best Wildflowers

Mount Rainier

Mount Rainier was absolutely festooned with flowers of many different colors. With the glacial backdrops and steep hillsides it was a wonderland.

Best Sunset

Reflection Lake

We loved setting up our camp chairs and snuggling in to watch sunset over drinks. The best was probably alongside Reflection Lake looking up at Mount Rainier.

Honorable mentions: Sunset wolves and a picnic in Yellowstone. Polar bear action in Churchill.

Best Hotel

Many Glacier Hotel

The Many Glacier Hotel stole our hearts. Incredible lake and mountain views, nature on your doorstep, proximity to some of the best hikes. And the hotel itself is charming, an old rickety wooden thing.

Best River

Marble Creek

Our favorite was the gorgeous Marble Creek that we camped alongside in North Cascades. Full of nature, very secluded, and absolutely stunning.

Wildlife

Over the course of our trip we saw tons of wildlife, much of it entirely new to us.

Polar Bear

It was quite something to see polar bears in the wild and up close. We loved spending time watching them go about their business.

Grizzly Bear

Grizzly was the last of the bears that we hoped to see and we got lucky in Glacier and then also Yellowstone.

Black Bear

We saw quite a number of black bears, especially in the Banff area.

Beluga Whale

Beluga whales hanging out in Churchill are really curious and charming. We loved spending time with them on the water.

River Otter

Early on in our trip we had an incredible sighting of a river otter in Redwood National Park. We'd spent the afternoon hanging out riverside and eventually spotted him.

Beaver

Neither of us had seen a beaver before the trip, and we saw several along the way. The best was in the lake alongside the Many Glacier Hotel where we were lucky enough to have two close encounters, including from a kayak.

Moose

We saw moose in Glacier and Grand Teton, with the big bull at Glacier really being quite special.

Mountain Goat

This being a mountain trip we saw mountain goats all over the show. Our best sighting was this guy who actually walked along with us coming down from Grinnell Glacier.

Pika

Pika weren't even on our radar before the trip, but they became a firm favorite up in the scree fields of our hikes.

Bighorn Sheep

Bighorn sheep we'd seen before, but we had plenty of really nice sightings of them on this trip. The best being a big ram hogging the trail up to Grinnell Glacier.

Ermine

Ermine was another animal not even on our radar before the trip. Jules mentioned their existence to me in the North Cascades and we suddenly saw one carrying very large prey up into a rock field.

Marmot

Marmots were quite common on the trails once we got north, especially in Rainier.

Wolf

Wolves! We were hoping that we would get lucky in Yellowstone, and we did. We saw them in the very far distance, but got extremely lucky when this beautiful one twice loped past our picnic spot. The next day we saw them hunting bison in the far distance.

Fox

This fox was easily our best sighting. As we were driving into Grand Teton we spotted him and we were lucky enough to watch him bedding down for the night.

Bison

Bison were everywhere in Yellowstone. We particularly enjoyed one that joined us for sunset, and the traffic jams they can cause on the roads.

Pronghorn

A really pretty antelope. We saw many in Yellowstone, but I most liked seeing them in the wide open spaces of Eastern Nevada.

Kingfisher

Before the trip we didn't even know North America had kingfishers. We saw them all over but had to work hard for any photo.

Loon

We especially loved following this family of loons along the shore of Emerald Lake.

Osprey

Since we spent so much time along lakes and rivers we ended up seeing tons of osprey.

Butterflies

Jules took photos of many, many butterflies and we would identify them after hikes.

Our 2025 North American Roadtrip

Stats

The Route

The Journey

California

Bend

Mt Hood

Mt Rainier

North Cascades

Banff

Churchill

Glacier

Yellowstone

Grand Teton

Homewards

Highlights

Wildlife