Have you seen a yellow jeep lately?

Jeep hopes you have. They have launched a promotion with geocaching.com by releasing 4,000 travel bugs, with another 1,000 being released in a second wave.

Jeep is actually running two contests, but only one deals with the TBs. No, you cannot win a Jeep by finding a TB, and in fact, finding one does not increase your chances of winning at all. The contest is about capturing your geocaching experience as you look for a TB, and sending in a photo or essay about it.

The contest started June 1st, and will run until the end of the year. There will be six drawings, based on the entries received during each month of the contest. Every entry is available online as it is posted, just like a cache log. Starting in August, the visitors to geocaching.com will nominate essays and photos, and the contest administrators will decide the winner. Photos must include the Jeep TB, and essays must be less than 300 words (FYI this article is approximately 350 words). The prizes are Jeep gear worth about $50 each.

The contest was created by Chrysler and Geocaching.com. Jeep was the obvious choice of vehicle, and yellow was chosen to commemorate Yellow Jeep Fever Locationless cache(it’s been archived, so you’ll have to log in to view it.) The TBs themselves have special tracking tags and generate their own unique icons on the search pages and your stats page. They are not counted in your total TB find statistic, however.

Ready to start looking for some? As mentioned, they generate their own unique icon on the search pages, but this feature has been behaving spottily. You can also sign up to have updates emailed to you when one is placed in a cache near you.

As of now, Jeep owns the travel bugs. However, at the beginning of next year when the contest ends, they may be released to be claimed by whatever cachers want them.

There was some concern initially about releasing such a large number of travel bugs all at once, but no one seems to be complaining about any cicada-like infestations.

So get out there and find some Yellow Jeep Travel Bugs, and start taking photos and writing essays.