#1 Buffalo Bill State Park, Cody, WY; June 1 – 14, 2015

Our drive through the canyon was beautiful but, happily uneventful. Wyoming has markers identifying the age and type of rock formations and some of the ones we saw were Phosphoria FM, Permean: 225-270 million years, Ansden FM, Pennsylvanian: 270 – 310 million years, and Gallatin FM, Cambrian: 500-600 milion years. I am always awed at the age and size of the formations we are seeing. Imagine – 500 million years old!

We arrived at Buffalo Bill after a two hour drive (it's hard for me to believe that the landscape changes so much in just two hours) and chose a site in the campground nearest Yellowstone. We were dry camping again, but there was a good breeze, the weather was moderate and we needed neither heater nor A/C. The campground was in a beautiful spot – surrounded by mountains, some of which were still snow-capped. The lighting changes the mountains like nothing I've ever seen – sunset makes some of the rocks look golden, storms make it look totally creepy! The storms are strange – they take a while to boil up and it looks as though it's going to inundate the entire valley, but we never had more than some wind and a few drops of rain.

This country just gets more and more beautiful. I honestly believe if I had gotten out here 25 years ago I'd never have returned east, although the winters here can be brutal here. I would have loved to try, though.

The area we are in now, only 15 miles away from Yellowstone Park, is breathtaking. The park at which we are staying is named for Colonel William F. Cody, best known as a wild west showman, but his influence went far beyond entertainer. He first traveled to the region as a guide for a survey expedition and spent the next 20 years guiding and sponsoring hunting parties in the area.

“Buffalo Bill” Cody was influential in bringing irrigation and agricultural development into the area and in 1896, founded the town that bears his name. The Irma Hotel, built by Buffalo Bill in 1902 and named for his youngest daughter still welcomes travelers to the historic sleeping rooms, bar, and dining room. In addition to the park that bears his name, the dam, located between the park and the town of Cody, also honors his work at irrigating thousands of acres of arid wasteland using the Shoshone River.

We spent two weeks in Cody, just soaking up the atmosphere. The town itself is tourist oriented, but there are many places that offer an honest value. We had an early dinner at the Irma – Rich's buffalo burger was tasty but my taco salad left some room for improvement. I should know better than order a salad in a beef town. Then we saw the “gunfight” just outside. It wasn't quite what I expected, but a good time was had by all. We also spent a couple of hours at the Cody Dug Up Gun Museum. As the name implies, the hundreds of weapons representing the War of Independence, the Civil Way, Indian Wars, World War I and II, the gold rush era, and the roaring 20's were found in pastures and back yards. Many of the artifacts are identified with caliber and manufacturer and some have interesting stories as well.

The historic Buffalo Bill dam has a visitor center that is chock-full of information and informative volunteers. We lucked into one lady who was full of stories, having moved west from New York City as a young woman (probably about 65 years ago) and opened a lodge just outside of Yellowstone. The dam was built between 1905 and 1910 and at completion was the highest dam in the world at 328 feet. After raising and expanding the dam in 1993, the reservoir has a capacity of 650,000 acre feet of water, and 25.5 megawatts of power generation was part of the dam expansion. The movie about the difficulties encountered in building the dam was fascinating and the walkway high above the rushing water was (for afraid-of-heights me) nearly heartstopping. (The granite exposed at the dam is two billion years old.)

The two-lane tunnel gives you some idea of the magnitude of these mountains.

The driftwood has floated down the river and is caught at the dam. When the build-up gets too great, the dam is closed to visitors and the logs are removed.

The outflow from the dam winds through this canyon

View of the outflow just above the dam.

I hope that huge rock above the cars doesn't fall ...

Reservoir

We spent two days at the Buffalo Bill Center of the West. The huge building (seven acres in size) houses 50,000 artifacts and has five specialized sections: Plains Indians Museum, Whitney Western Art Museum, Cody Firearms Museum, Draper Natural History Museum, and the Harold McCracken Research Library.

The Plains Indians Museum illustrates the cultures, traditions, values, and histories of the people with the most beautiful examples of personal and household items I've ever seen. The artifacts are primarily from the Northern Plains tribes: Arapaho, Lakota, Crow, Cheyenne, Blackfeet, and Pawnee. Most of the items date from the late 18^th century to the 1930's.

Notice the amazing bead work on the enlarged sections of this blanket below.

Child's tepee

The white decorations on this dress are elk teeth.

Artwork on a tepee

Artwork on a tepee

The art museum features painting and sculptures of the American West representing heroes and legends, the cowboy, wildlife, horses in the West, landscapes, the first people of the West, and the Western experience. Replicas of Frederic Remington and Alexander P. Proctor help visitors learn about the artists and their techniques. Works by many of the foremost Western artists are included in the beautiful collection.

The Cody Firearms Museum houses the most comprehensive collection of American firearms in the world. The collection includes firearms ranging from a 16^th century hand cannon to modern weapons from nearly every significant gun manufacturer in the world. There are more than 7,000 firearms and more than 30,000 firearms-related items in the beautifully displayed collection. (I think I took photos of most of them...)

 

The Draper Natural History Museum covers about 20,000 square feet with interactive exhibits, videos, dioramas, photographs, and specimens that highlight geology, wildlife, and human presence in the region. It covers several levels that flow up and down in a winding display of information, so they pack a lot to see in that square footage.

The Buffalo Bill Museum was opened in 1927 and offers a view of the life and times of William Cody from his Wild West Show, his influence on the economic and cultural development of the American West, to his family life.

Buffalo Bill's coat and rifles

Buffalo Bill's camping tent

The Harold McCracken Research Library houses a collection of 30,000 books and more than 400 manuscript collections and more than a half-million photographs. The library is open to the public by appointment. I would love to go in one morning and spend the entire day reading accounts of life in the 1800's.

I can't say enough good things about the Buffalo Bill Center – it is the best museum we have ever been to. All the displays beautifully presented and often thought-provoking, there is a copious amount of information if you wish to partake, and the artifacts are of a quality rarely seen. The price of admission in 2015 is $19 for adults, but is good for two days, and both are needed if you enjoy poking around, reading signs, watching videos, and talking with the numerous docents who circulate throughout the rooms. What a delightful place.

We lucked into a friendly woman at the visitor center (that is not to say the other folks there were cranky) and when I asked about the Cody Rodeo, she told me it was an honest-to-goodness rodeo, not something cooked up for tourists. I didn't realize, but in spite of having had horses and going to gymkhanas in a previous life, Rich had never gone to a rodeo. When I was a kid, the annual fair had a rodeo segment with calf roping, bull riding and the like. It was my favorite part and I was excited to see it all again. We went one night just before we left the area – calf roping, bronc riding, team roping, barrel racing – the whole nine yards. About half-way through, all the kids in the audience lined up across the arena, a couple of calves were herded in, ribbons were tied onto their tails, the calves were then turned loose, and the kids raced to get the ribbons. The night we were there, there must have been 50 kids and it was a rout. The kids had a hard time finding the calves because of so many other kids and it took some time before both ribbons were in the hands of the two winning munchkins. All-in-all the rodeo was about two hours of good old yee haw fun and we had as much fun as anyone there.

Here is interesting (for me, anyway) text from a sign along the road between Cody and the tunnel to Buffalo Bill State Park to go along with the pictures below it labeled Colter's Hell for anyone interested:

Colter's Hell

John Colter, veteran of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, notably self-sufficient mountain man and indefatigable explorer, was the first white man known to have reconnoitered this locale. In 1807, possibly traveling alone but probably escorted by Crow guides, he crossed the Stinking Water (Shoshone River) via a major Indian-trail ford located about a mile downstream from this observation point. Here, extending along both sides of the river, he discovered an active geyser district. Steam mixed with sulfur fumes and shooting flames escaped through vents in the valley floor, subterranean rumblings were ominously audible. Although mineralized hot springs continue to flow along the river's edge, the eruptions Colter watched are now marked only by cones of parched stone.

This was primarily Shoshone and Crow country but other Indians came to the area. Particularly Bannocks and Nez Percé, journeying eastward over the mountains to hunt the plains buffalo, tarried to test the heralded medicinal values of these “stinking waters” baths. Ranged along bench-lands to the east and north are numerous tepee rings, evidence of former indian encampments. Heart Mountain, famous landmark and geological oddity, is conspicuous on the northern horizon.

Honoring a respected predecessor, mountain men of the 1820's – 1830's fur trade heyday, named this place Colter's Hell. Later, early0day officials of Yellowstone Park applied that name to the Park's geyser area – thereby causing a degree of historic confusion. The true Colter's hell is here in view.

We did venture into Yellowstone and the national forest, but since I've got a gazillion photos for this post and twice as many for Yellowstone, I'll put it in the next update.