In terms of easy roadtrips and stunning natural wonders, the western half of North America is our favourite place for travel and adventure. It is truly blessed by a wide variety of natural beauty and has some iconic cities to pay a visit to for a recharge.

Luckily, we were able to live in California for nine months which made the majority of these travel stories possible. Our hire car (4x4) was ready for the scrap heap by the time we'd finished with it having put so many miles on the clock and general soiling of the cabin through countless camping trips.

Hats off to the National Park service in the USA. They do a stunning job of protecting these beautiful locations and hand out good informative leaflets to show you how to get the most out of the place. There's still a lot we didn't see or do, but otherwise I think we had a fair crack at it.