Day 15: Cody (Wyoming)

First thing this morning we headed to the Buffalo Bill Center of the West, a famous collection of five museums and exhibits all about the American West. It’s hard to take good pictures in a museum, but below I’ll do my best to show you something.

We started with the natural history museum which showcased the geology and wildlife of the West.  This was a multi-level cylindrical exhibit.

The next museum was the one dedicated to Buffalo Bill Cody himself. It chronicled his life from beginning to end. Entertainer, cowboy, rancher, soldier, businessman, entrepreneur, he sure lived a busy life. Did you know that his “Wild West” traveling show performed in thousands of places across the U.S. and even in Europe? He was determined to educate the world about the American West and its wonders:

Quote from Buffalo Bill about the West

Holo-Bill!

Next up, an Indian museum.

Then, a museum of Western Art.

And finally, and most impressively in my opinion, the Cody Firearms Museum, where over 2,500 guns are on display.

Many Presidents' guns were on display. Here's Reagan's.
I wonder what Obama will send them... a water pistol?

Wheel... of... Fortune!

Finally, we hit the gift store and I got my picture taken with Buffalo Bill Cody outside. By the way, finally a place where you don’t look weird wearing a cowboy hat, which I’m taking full advantage of. 

In all, a very impressive museum that you should definitely visit if you are in the area.

We checked out downtown Cody for an hour or so and then headed West again, to Buffalo Bill State Park where we’d spend the night. The drive from Cody to this park is very neat – you’re following a river through a narrow canyon with dramatic views.

Eventually you hit a tunnel and when you emerge you’re on the other side of the Buffalo Bill dam and staring at a huge lake.

We pulled over right away to explore the dam’s visitor center. Although you can’t tour the inside of this dam (as with the much larger Hoover Dam) you can still walk over it and peer down at the river bottom.

On the other side, drift wood gathers and has to be removed every spring.

A couple miles down the road is Buffalo Bill State Park – this is probably my favorite campground we have stayed in so far. The site is right on the water, the views are incredible, and there’s a breeze to neutralize the 90 degree heat.

Entrance to Buffalo Bill State Park

Sharon made dinner:

Buffalo chicken and mac n' cheese.

Finally, we went for a night swim. The shore was littered with drift wood. Sharon found us a pair of walking sticks while I found a gun.

With that we called it a night, although at 3 AM Sharon got up to take a time-lapse photograph of the clear sky. It took one hour to take the photo and another hour for the camera to process it. Not bad for a first try:

Tomorrow: Yellowstone. We'll have to get up at 5 AM so we can get over to Yellowstone early enough to secure a campsite.

Random Fact of the Day: The river which the dam blocks used to be called the "Stinky River" because of its sulfur smell. To encourage tourism, they had to change it to the "Shoshone River."