That's over 0.88 photos a mile, or over 1.13 miles a photo. This was the furthest west I have ever driven (Ashton, ID), though not by too far (prior furthest was Moab, UT). Traveling 4432 miles and gone nearly 15 days (8/18/2012 - 9/1/2012), I journeyed to Yellowstone and stopped in the Big Horn National Forest for a Jeep Jamboree. Along the way I visited the Badlands the Black Hills of South Dakota, Custer State Park, Mount Rushmore National Memorial, Big Horn National Forest, Buffalo Bill State Park, Yellowstone National Park, Grand Teton National Park, Targhee National Forest, Caribou-Targhee National Forest, Devils Tower National Monument and probably some other national forests I wasn't even aware I had passed through. I hiked, took pictures, drove my Jeep and met a lot of nice people; but mostly I just decompressed.
I'm still uploading photos, a few at a time, to my Flickr Set, Western Trip 2012. (Click to view slideshow)
I'm also posting videos on my YouTube channel.
All of my 4th Big Horn Mountains Jeep Jamboree photos can be viewed on facebook. I also visited several new states, including visits to South Dakota, Montana and Idaho. Additionally I checked a ton of wildlife off the bucket list that I had never seen before and put my new 400mm lens to work:
Grizzly Bears (1 mom, 3 cubs)
Prairie Dogs (dozens, hundreds)
The wildlife highlight was definitely seeing a momma grizzly (#610) and her three cubs eating a moose in the Grand Tetons. Next to that, was probably walking out of my room in the Big Horn Mountains and seeing a bull moose only a few feet away or the bull moose walking through the stream between Yellowstone and Cody, WY. The thousands of buffalo roaming around were surreal, but seeing river otters was very cool as well. The scenery on the trip was amazing; although, often the view was obscured by distant (and sometimes nearby) forest fires. Hiking to Bucking Mule Falls in the Big Horn National Forest was an amazing hike and resulted in a breathtaking view. Driving through Needles towards Mount Rushmore was stunning. But probably the most breathtaking sight I saw was either the Grand Prismatic Spring as viewed from the Fairy Falls Trail or the view of Yellowstone Lake over the still Duck Lake taken on the evening I arrived at Yellowstone. What did I learn? It's not a good idea to decide to go backpacking and camping, alone, in the dark, on a steep trail, in areas with mountain lions (read more). Correction, it's not a good idea to do this more than once. Doing it once is exhilerating, doing it more than once is crazy. Not having data service (or any service) on my phone for days at a time and being cut off from news, current events and communication is liberating, but only after withdrawl symptoms have passed. Not until I was at a rest station on the Indiana Turnpike did I discover that I had missed a hurricane and Clint Eastwood addressing a chair, pretty sure that's all I missed.
Grizzly Bear (Grand Tetons)
Woodchuck Trail (Friday, Pink Group)
Splash Dam (Big Horn National Forest)
Shell Trail (Saturday, Blue Group)
Read my daily blog posts during the trip for more photos and details:
Day 1 - Toledo to Minnesota
Day 3 - Stalked by Mountain Lion(s)
Day 4 - Them Thar Mountains
Day 7 - Big Horn Jamboree 1
Day 8 - Big Horn Jamboree 2
Day 11 - Yellowstone, Montana, Idaho
Here's the general route for the trip: