Day 6 - Sunday June 4th: I left Buffalo Wyoming in the morning and headed towards Yellowstone. It was about a 3-4 hour drive (depending on whether you count the entrance or the first spot I pulled over, it is a pretty massive park). I checked into my campsite, which was about a half hour north of the main village area, and went to set up my camp. When I got there it had about 4-5 inches of snow in a pretty tight area, so I changed my mind and decided to get as much out of the day as I could and just sleep in my car. I was in the Canyon Village section of the park which is right next to the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone, so I spent the late afternoon going to the different overlooks around that. Then I spent the rest of the day until sunset going around to some of the springs and the Yellowstone River.

Powder Pass in Wyoming on my way to Yellowstone.

The Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone, it was starting to rain.

Sulphur Cauldron, it had stopped raining, and it smelled like sulpher.

Mud Volcano, apparently it used to shoot mud up in the air and now it just bubbles.

Yellowstone River, here's where I took the picture that's at the top of this post.

Day 7 - Monday June 5th: I got up around sunrise this day (not before but close enough that the light was still golden when I headed out). I decided to spend this day driving to see some of the more well known sites in Yellowstone like the Prismatic Springs and Old Faithful. I saw a lot of bison along the way (I saw one chasing a truck in kind of the same manner a dog chases a car) and ended up getting in all that I had planned by the early afternoon so I headed south towards the Grand Tetons. I spent some time at a few points along the way just taking in the awesome view of the Tetons, but I was honestly pretty tired today, and a little sun burned, so I didn't stay too late. I drove the rest of the way through the Tetons and out into Idaho where I spent the night in Rexburg.

A bison, I got out to take some photos of him and he started to wander over.After seeing how fast they can run when they want to I decided to get behind my car.

Jackson Lake, I thought it was weird seeing a half frozen lake in June.

Day 8 - Tuesday June 6th: Today my plan was to more or less take it easy and get close to Glacier National Park in Montana. I got to Missoula in the early afternoon, bought myself a hat so I could stop burning my head in the higher elevation sun, had some dinner, and went for an evening hike up Mount Jumbo. It was a pretty easy hike (although I probably shouldn't have eaten a whole pizza a half hour before it). From the concrete L laying on the side of the hill (I am still confused about what the L is for) you have a great view of the city, so I just sat there watching the sun set and the lights come on while taking a few photos.

Day 9 - Wednesday June 7th: I drove up from Missoula to Glacier National Park in the morning. It was a really beautiful drive, especially along Flathead lake for the last half of it before actually getting to the park. Once inside I got to see Lake McDonald and McDonald falls, both very beautiful with gorgeous glacial water running through them. I found a kind of beach on the lake with a bench where no one else seemed to be, and besides it being much hotter than I expected for a park named after a giant ice cube it was a perfect spot to just sit back and enjoy the landscape around me. The rest of the road through the park was closed at the time because at the higher elevations there was still a lot of snow, which was disappointing because most of the things that I was looking forward to seeing were on that road. At least I have a good reason to come back again. After a few hours around the lake I drove down into Kalispell where I spent the night.

This is another view of Lake McDonald, the color of the water was so cool and the front facing camera on my phone that I take all of these wonderful selfies with doesn't do great with colors, so this is still a cell phone picture but at least you ca… — This is another view of Lake McDonald, the color of the water was so cool and the front facing camera on my phone that I take all of these wonderful selfies with doesn't do great with colors, so this is still a cell phone picture but at least you can see the colors that I saw.

Day 10 - Thursday June 8th: I left Kalispell Montana and drove to Coeur d'Alene Idaho. I actually spent the night just over the state line in Washington but I wanted to explore this town a bit. It's a very pretty area, I walked around the beach and the boardwalk (which is apparently the world's longest floating boardwalk). I went a little west to Post Falls where one of the dams on the Spokane River is (which I guess is what creates the lake), and then drove into Washington to relax at the hotel until sunset. My plan was to go back to Coeur d'Alene to take some sunset pictures over the lake and boardwalk but when I got back there it was raining. I felt I really couldn't complain because the weather on this trip had been awesome so far, and the rain wasn't so bad so I still walked around for a while and found this moose. After that I went back to my hotel in Washington before heading to Oregon the next day.

A beach on the lake in downtown Coeur d'Alene.

Coeur d'Alene in some light rain, still pretty though.

My Route: About 1,200 miles

I quit my job about 2 months ago. There were a few reasons but the big one was I had reached a point where I wasn't sure if I was doing what I wanted to anymore. I felt like I was just keeping my career path because I was making decent money and it would be irresponsible to leave it without something else lined up. I was kind of trapped because it's hard to figure out what you want to do with your life when your working full time and there's no real motivation to find something else because you already have something that supports you. Then I realized that I have no one depending on me, and a bunch of money in my savings, and I'm a pretty smart guy so I could probably afford to take a break and figure stuff out. So I did.

For a long time (feels like most of my life but I don't know how accurate that is) I've wanted to drive across the country and back. This seemed like the perfect opportunity to do that and clear my head, hopefully I'd figure out what to do with my life along the way but if nothing else I'd accomplish something I'd always wanted to. I planned an outline of my trip and figured it would take about a month to see a few things along a loop around the country.

Day 1 - Tuesday, May 30th: The first few days were going to be mostly about driving, I felt like I had a good feel for a lot of the eastern parts of the country and really wanted to experience the west half. I left home in New York about 9AM and drove straight through New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Ohio. I made it to Fort Wayne, Indiana that night to share a hotel with my sister and brother in law, they were planning on going on another trip from Nashville to the Northeast. I didn't do too much else that day, but when I got to Fort Wayne I found this kind of cool overlook of a quarry.

Day 2 - Wednesday, May 31st: This day was again mostly about driving. I left Fort Wayne and got pulled over for speeding about an hour later. The officer was very friendly and let me off with a warning, and I didn't get pulled over again on the entire trip. I guess I really slowed down (until I got back to New York). I drove through the rest of Indiana, Illinois straight through Chicago at lunch time - which was the last traffic I hit until the West Coast, and into Wisconsin. This is the first state on this trip that I had never been to before, so I spent some more time here. Then I drove through southern Minnesota and into Sioux Falls, South Dakota where I spent my second night.

The Islands of Lake Wisconsin in Mill Bluff State Park

Day 3 - Thursday, June 1st: Today was less driving. I just had to get across South Dakota to meet up with some friends in Rapid City. We were going to spend the next couple of days together around the Black Hills and the Badlands. We met up in the early afternoon, explored a touristy village where you can kind of see Mount Rushmore and rode an alpine slide. Then we headed over to the Badlands and spent the rest of the day there.

Day 4 - Friday June 2nd: Today we we went around the Black Hills to see Crazy Horse, Mount Rushmore, and the Chapel in the Hills.

Day 5 - Saturday June 3rd: Today was my last day in South Dakota. My friends left early that morning and I headed into the northern part of the Black Hills to Roughlock Falls. I took some pictures there and relaxed a bit before heading into Wyoming to see Devil's Tower. That was a really awesome experience, such a strange feature in the landscape. After that I drove to Buffalo, Wyoming where I would get off the interstate and head into Yellowstone the next morning.

My Route: About 2,300 miles.

My 10,000 Mile Journey, or A Cross Country Trip in Selfies - Part 2

My 10,000 Mile Journey, or A Cross Country Trip in Selfies - Part 1