American Loneliness: Mathieu Le Lay's Film Through Five Western U.S. Parks

American Loneliness is a 52-minute documentary by filmmaker and cinematographer Mathieu Le Lay, shot during a six-week trip into the wilderness of the north-western United States. Its trailer follows him through Colorado, Wyoming, Montana and Washington, from the Rockies to the Pacific coast, with five national parks along the way.

American Loneliness: six weeks on the road

Le Lay spent about four weeks filming alone, then was joined in Montana for two weeks by Kier Atherton, who worked as assistant camera operator. The result is a quiet, slow-paced film about a person moving through very large landscapes: empty roads, forests, lakes, peaks and coastline.

The trailer is free to watch on Vimeo. The full film can be streamed or downloaded through Vimeo On Demand in English and French, and is also sold on DVD and Blu-ray.

The five national parks in the film

Le Lay's route links some of the best-known parks in the American West:

• Rocky Mountain National Park, Colorado (established 1915): it straddles the Continental Divide, with lakes, forest, alpine tundra, elk and bighorn sheep.
• Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming (1872): the world's first national park, famous for Old Faithful and its other geysers, colourful hot springs and the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone. It also reaches into Montana and Idaho.
• Grand Teton National Park, Wyoming (1929): the jagged Teton Range rising straight above lakes and the valley of Jackson Hole.
• Glacier National Park, Montana (1910): the U.S. half of the Waterton-Glacier International Peace Park, with glaciers, lakes and sharp peaks along the Canadian border.
• Olympic National Park, Washington (1938): Pacific shoreline, temperate rainforest and glaciated mountains, including some of the wettest places in the contiguous United States. Its highest summit is named Mount Olympus, after the home of the Greek gods.

Planning a road trip through the northern Rockies

Le Lay's six weeks are a realistic pace for this route. Yellowstone and Grand Teton sit side by side in north-west Wyoming and are easy to combine. Glacier lies to the north in Montana, and Olympic is a long drive west across Idaho and Washington. Rocky Mountain National Park, near Estes Park, is the natural starting point from Denver.

Late June to September is the main season. In the high parks, snow can close mountain roads well into early summer, and many roads and services shut down again in autumn, so check each park's road status before you go. Autumn brings fewer visitors, golden aspens in Colorado and the elk rut, and winter turns Yellowstone and the Tetons into snow country for skiers and wildlife watchers.

More mountain films and western destinations

For another landscape film, watch a Norwegian landscape film, or see the tent-door views from the Fann Mountains. Planning winter in the West? Start with Twelve North American Ski Destinations: Terrain and Trip Planning and Aspen Snowmass: Four Mountains and a Town Beyond the Slopes.

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