Colorado, from a New Yorker's point of view

I’m taking off on a road trip this Saturday.  I’m not sure where I’m going.  I’m just getting in my car.  All I know is I’m heading towards Yellowstone and I’m taking pictures.  I rented some kick ass camera equipment and I’m heading North.

I’m getting really close to really needing to find a job.  However, I’ve realized I’m spending a ton of money just being in Denver.  I might as well go somewhere.  The travel bug is strong.  I was suppose to go to Peru last week.  A good buddy of mine is in the middle of spending a year in South America.

I should have went with them, but I was being practical.  I didn’t want to spend the money without a job.  I’d still like to be able to buy a place and take advantage of the $8k tax credit.  I also needed to find a travel clinic to get some vaccines, although it was very questionable as to what shots I would actually need.  Regardless I put it off.   I’m glad I didn’t go.  My friend had to cancel his trip to Macchu Pichuu because of record rains,  A bunch of tourist got stranded and had to be evacuated.  My buddy was a about a day away from getting trapped.  You can check out my buddies web site here: www.twobackpackers.com

I also considered heading to Vancouver for the Olympics.  Flight and board would have been a grand.  Plus renting some fancy SLR gear, plus ticket prices.  And of course there is always the risk that they wouldn’t let me in to the venue with the camera equipment I wanted to bring.  The Olympics web site was very vague.  The site implied that as long as I was taking pictures for personal and not commercial use any equipment was allowed.  I just didn’t want to get hassled by security.  “What do you mean a 300mm 2.8 makes me a professional?”

Not wanting to spend all that money I decided to pass on Vancouver.  I did spend money getting my passport expedited.  Second time I’ve done that, second time I didn’t need it expedited.  I went to a passport office, so I thought I could avoid some of the fees.  However the office was at a post office and it still needed to be shipped to a different location for processing.

Since I’m getting my passport I should duck out of the country.

The plan is to check out Grand Tetons & Yellowstone.  On the way up I’ll check out Cheyenne WY and maybe some other small WY town.  I’ll spend a night in Jackson WY, explore Grand Tetons, maybe spend another night in WY and then head to Yellowstone.

I want to take pictures and explore the country.  I’d like to meet some cool people and comeback with some cool stories.  Although part of me says there aren’t too many people to meet in WY in the winter.

I’m not sure what to do after Yellowstone.  I might head home for this job, or I might keep exploring the country.  I want to keep exploring.  There isn’t much near Yellowstone.  I’ll probably have to head West.  I’d like to do Glacier National park but it is far up North and I think a lot of the park roads will be closed.  I could head South and check out Utah and New Mexico.  That would be cool.  Or maybe Seattle and the CA coast.