Saturday, June 25, 2011

How The West Was Won

Pocatello, ID

"So... why did you decide to come to Idaho Falls? Because you asked if there was anything interesting to do here, and there really isn't."

I've been pleasantly surprised with the last week or so, and I'm looking forward to the next week.  I did not expect that I would enjoy this portion of the trip as much as I have, and it's making me sad that I have deadlines to make and can't spend as much time as I want here. Here's why.

Thursday, June 23, 2011

Fool Me Once

Cody, WY

You'd think I'd have learned my lesson about altitude.  Then again, I didn't really know I was heading into high altitude until I started seeing some snow on the ground.  Then there was a lot of snow.  Then there were no patches of ground without snow.. It got cold pretty quick.  Driving down a road with 8 ft of snow on either side, the sun going down, not sure if I'll make it to lower elevation before it gets dark, no phone signal.

Wednesday, June 22, 2011

Breathing Hard

Casper, WY again

So my detour through Colorado has come to an end, and I'm back in Casper.  My motorcycle is currently in the shop getting an oil change that might take until the end of the day, so I'm going to be good friends with the employees at the Starbucks down the street by the end of the day.

After I left Denver Sunday morning, I headed into the mountains.  It was raining on and off, but when it wasn't, blue skies and sunshine made the day pretty nice and kept it from getting too cold (even if I did have to wear my rainsuit most of the time I was riding).  I rode highway 34 through Rocky Mountain National Park  which goes through the mountains and Estes Park.  At one point I stopped at a parking lot with an overlook to take some pictures, and I was at an elevation of around 12,000 ft above sea level.

Monday, June 20, 2011

Winter Wonderland

Grand Lake, CO

Well.  File this under "Oops."


So apparently I should have checked the weather before camping.

Sunday, June 19, 2011

Barely Breathing

Fort Collins, CO

I'm glad I made the side trip to Colorado. I wasn't planning on it originally, as my original plan had me staying pretty far north of Colorado when heading out west.  Then again, my original map was optimized for (a) shorter distances, and (b) fewer "destinations" while still getting the general idea, since Google Maps only lets you do 25 destinations.

But since I was going to be in Casper, and it's not too far from there to get to the Denver area, I decided to make a side trip.  And it has definitely been worth it.