We've just crossed the border back into Canada! The guard barely gave us a second glance - much smoother than the US customs! The road signs say 100 miles per hour... WHAT? No, that's 100 km per hour. Good old familiar territory! And the weather isn't even that bad. Not compared to the insane winds and blizzards we drove through in Montana and Wyoming over the last week!

After days of driving through the great plains of Kansas and Missouri, our first stop in the American Rockies was Boulder, Colorado. We stayed the night in the spare bedroom of a nice couple we found that day on the website 'AirBnB'. Ahh, the internet! It was a comfy place and they were nice enough to recommend a few good local breweries for us to visit, which was pretty much the reason we chose to stop in Boulder in the first place. The standout was Upslope Brewery, established only a few years ago. We couldn't have found their beer outside of Colorado, and their ales were among the best we've tried. The best thing about the place though was the friendly locals who hung about the bar. Most were either brewers themselves, or friends or the brewers, so with a newly developed passion for craft beer we got along pretty well!

One of the guys we spoke to happened to have an Aussie dad, and was a claimed descendant of our first Prime Minister Edmund Barton. He even had the name to prove it! To add to our astonishment, his girlfriend was a rock-climbing film maker, which we thought was pretty cool, and perhaps just because they liked us we ended up getting a pretty hefty discount on our drinks too! Upslope definitely set the tone, and the rest of Boulder didn't disappoint either. This gateway town to the Rockies was ruled by bohemian students, beer lovers and outdoor enthusiasts. It was by far the friendliest place we visited in all the States!

Bizarrely for this time of year, there was barely a patch of snow on the ground, so the next morning we took the chance for a good stroll around the beautiful foothills. We didn't spend too long though as we had aimed to drive halfway to Yellowstone that day. Unfortunately we didn't get much further. A strange noise coming from the front left wheel had us reluctantly pull into a mechanic in the outskirts of Boulder. Five hours, a few hundred bucks, a new wheel bearing and a set of new brakes later we were on our way... at least the two mechanics were really helpful. Although they had plenty of other work to do, they dropped everything to help us on our way, and talked us through every minute of it. It turned out to be a good thing we fixed it. If the front wheel had fallen off or the brakes failed amidst the coming snowstorms it wouldn't have been pretty!

A couple of days later we arrived at the gateway to Yellowstone National Park. Being the first and one of the most beautiful of all the world's parks we were obviously pretty excited. The downside was that it was covered in a deep layer of snow. Apart from paying a fortune for a snowmobile tour, we were limited to the Mammoth Hot Springs area and an access road through the park leading to remote Cooke City. This meant missing out on Old Faithful and the most famous geysers, but what we did see was still spectacular. More so because we pretty much had the entire park to ourselves! A giant herd of Bison, or Wild Buffalo, happened to be passing through the town as we arrived in Mammoth, and we saw hundreds more as we drove along the access road through Lamar Valley. These are some amazingly mesmerising prehistoric looking animals! We couldn't put the camera down!

We decided that cross-country skiing (with our festive red Santa hats on) would be the best way to explore some of the trails. With some sparkling early sunshine, a crater full of soft snow and an amazing network of steaming geothermal pools and terraces, it was all-in-all a pretty good day!

Our final stop before crossing the border was Whitefish, Montana, to treat ourselves with a day of snowboarding. After all, we had carried them for over 18000km since leaving Banff in September! We stayed in a motel in a little town called Bigfork, beautifully located on the shores of Flathead Lake. It was snowing when we arrived and by the time we woke up in the morning there was a good four inches covering our car! Apparently Whitefish Big Mountain Resort had received around fifteen inches in the last couple of days, so we were in for a good one!

It didn't disappoint, with heaps of fresh snow, amazingly long tree runs and some of the most breathtaking views of all the mountains we've explored. Some trees were literally bent over with the weight of snow, and the caution signs for 'deadly tree wells' were even a little concerning! Despite losing each other for a couple of hours over lunchtime, nobody became stuck in a tree well and an exceptionally awesome day was had. As we drive back to Calgary now in time for Christmas, our festive spirits are flying high!