wyoming

          I feel like I haven’t written in so long, and so much has happened over the summer months. I can't believe it's almost Fall! There are so many things to write about, so I'll try to keep things in chronological order. In April, I came downstairs one morning to find one of my dad’s characteristic long-winded letters sitting on my placemat. Bottom line, he had written that I should seriously consider enrolling at the University of Wyoming, to make college even more of an adventure than it already is and to continue my pursuit of rugged individualism. I had always joked to my friends that I would end up there, and my dad’s letter really got me thinking. 

          At this point, I was wait-listed at a few schools, but I had a pretty clear idea of where I was going to deposit. I called my dad and told him I would consider it if we could visit campus to take a tour, and learn a little more about the programs they have for my major. Nearing the end of Spring break, we quickly booked two tickets to Denver, rented a car, and spent three nights in Wyoming. It was the most random thing I have ever done in my life, but the trip was well worth it. We left on a Friday, but our tour wasn’t until Monday, so we had a weekend to kill. I suggested we go to Cody, WY, since we had a great time there on one of our western vacations two summers earlier. It was a five hour drive, but we took turns, loving the 75 mph speed limit, lack of traffic, and wide open spaces. 

downtown Cody, Wyoming

a real cowboy (he travels all over the U.S. with three horses)

dad at the Buffalo Bill Museum in Cody

we love the wide open spaces

          






















          





          

          First of all, Cody in April is nothing like Cody in July. Like Newburyport, business booms in the summer months, and the rest of the year, it is much like a ghost town. Still, we managed to keep ourselves occupied, poking around downtown, visiting the Buffalo Bill museum, and going to the movies. If nothing else, it was great to spend quality time with my dad in one of our favorite places. 

          On Sunday, we began the haul back to Laramie, home of the university. It’s actually a decent sized city, with plenty of restaurants and shopping centers, wild horses grazing in parking lots and old Ford pick ups on every corner. During our tour the next day, I was surprised by everything I learned about the college; it’s the only 4-year school in the state, so they have a ton of funding and tuition is insanely affordable. Though I applied because of my love for Wyoming, it was my super safety school because their acceptance rate is almost 95%. 

          I brewed things over in my head for a long time, but I ended up deciding that UW was not for me. I hate flying, and the thought of having to buy a ticket and go through TSA whenever I wanted to go home was less than appealing. Plus, my mother pointed out that if I’m bored in Newburyport, I’ll be even more bored in Wyoming. And as usual, she was probably right. Even though I chose to continue my education elsewhere, Wyoming is still one of my favorite places in the world, and I can’t wait to go back. 

a film

This is a little movie I made of my family trip to the American West (see post below), summer of 2011. I filmed short clips everywhere we went with a goal of making a short video that would be able to capture the whole vacation in a few minutes.
Filmed throughout Colorado, Wyoming and Utah. Music is Death Cab for Cutie's latest single, "You Are A Tourist."

i can see for miles and miles...

I’ve mentioned my love for the American West several times, so I was thrilled to take a family vacation there this summer. We sped to the airport to catch our flight to Denver after Diana and I took our last exams of the year, and spent the first night at a dude ranch in Saratoga, Wyoming. We rode horses for two days in the beautiful Medicine Bow Forest before returning to Colorado Springs to drive up Pike’s Peak, which was a mistake--we were all nauseous upon reaching the summit, and I had to drive back down the narrow, winding, and unpaved roads. We then drove through the Garden of the Gods just as the sun was setting before heading to the Flying W Ranch for an outdoor cowboy (“chuckwagon”) dinner, complete with live music. The next day, we began our journey to Utah. We visited a ridiculous amount of National Parks, beginning with Arches National Park just outside of Moab, Utah. The four of us went on a sunset hike to one of the arches, which took about an hour round trip. Diana and I signed up to go to canyoneering the next day, which consisted of repelling off of a large rock face into a small cavern, and then off of one of the arch bridges. I’m really glad I did it, but it was slightly terrifying. We drove through Canyonlands National Park on our way out of Moab, which, like Arches, was mostly just red rock, but was still beautiful. 

         Next, we went to Four Corners Monument, which is operated by the Navajo Indians so our National Parks pass wasn't accepted. At the monument, you can stand in the states of Utah, New Mexico, Arizona, and Colorado at the same time. Native American vendors were selling jewelry and souvenirs at stands surrounding the monument, so we enjoyed shopping while eating traditional fry bread. We moved on to Monument Valley, where my dad's cowboy dreams finally came true. He always talks about "spaghetti westerns" and John Wayne, and he and I rode horses through the Valley for about an hour. The scenery is absolutely breathtaking, and it was definitely one of the highlights of the trip.

We made our way to Zion National Park, which reminded me of Yosemite, where we went on vacation in 2009. A free one-hour bus tour around the park allowed us to admire all of the scenery, and we spent the rest of the evening browsing through shops downtown. The next day we travelled to Bryce Canyon, which was also beautiful, but I was really too exhausted from the entire trip to care about taking pictures at every look out area. 

I was pleasantly surprised by Capitol Reef National Park, which, in addition to the mountains and rocks, had a small house next to a fruit orchard selling delicious pies. We skipped lunch and went straight to dessert before going on a brief walk through the park. 

We decided to go back to the Dead Horse Point part of Canyonlands on our way back to Denver, from where we flew home. Canyonlands Park is near Moab, so we stayed the night there after going to Dead Horse Point State Park at sunset. It was absolutely beautiful, with rock that reminded me of the Grand Canyon, and would have been a perfect picnic spot had there not been mosquitoes everywhere.

     I did a little research while we were there about local rodeos, because we went to two in Cody, Wyoming last summer and we had a blast. I found one in Colorado that was just a little bit out of our way on the journey back to Denver. While the rodeo in Cody was more of a tourist attraction, this one was pretty authentic. Unfortunately, it started raining and we ran back to the car, and watched the fireworks from inside.

The next morning we drove to Denver, where we had a lot of fun going through security, sitting through a flight delay, and then missing our flight. During our two week adventure, we did a ridiculous amount of driving and exploring, and I had a great time with my family and managed to escape from the real world for a little while.

medicine bow national forest, wyoming

a restaurant in downtown colorado springs, where we had lunch

dad and diana

      

view from the summit of pike's peak

 

the flying w ranch

mom and i at arches national park, utah

diana and i on our mountaineering adventure

(diana)

(me)

four corners national monument: utah, new mexico, arizona, colorado

wild horses at the chevron gas station

entering monument valley

car trouble...

diana at zion national park

pie for lunch!

diana and i at dead horse point state park, utah

pit stop at sonic

rodeo in colorado

heading home