Cody, Wyoming

We stayed at the rest stop in Greybull, Wyoming, until 10:00, so we could go to the local farmer's market. We haven't been to even one farmer's markets this entire summer, because we found out that the short growing season this far north means that the local gardens  weren't producing yet. But we did buy some farm fresh eggs and early peas before we left Greybull. Then we made the 55-mile drive to our next destination in Cody, Wyoming. This little city is all about its namesake--Buffalo Bill Cody.

Over and over we have heard visitors exclaim about the Buffalo Bill Center of the West in Cody. It's a huge museum that is actually made up of five museums under one roof. The five museums include displays on the Plains Indians, Western Art, Natural History, Firearms, and of course Buffalo Bill.

Even though we like an occasional museum--especially the free ones--we weren't interested in going to five of them at once. Plus, the tickets were pricey. They boast that the ticket was good for two days, but we didn't want to go to museums for two days. So we opted out of that $23 museum ticket and just walked the grounds to enjoy the displays outside.

Another way that Buffalo Bill put his stamp on the town of Cody was to build the Irma Hotel in 1902. Over one hundred years later, it still had a commanding presence on Main Street.

Named after Buffalo Bill's youngest daughter, the Irma also has a restaurant . . .

and saloon. That cherry wood bar in the background was presented to Buffalo Bill by Queen Victoria when his Wild West Show gave a command performance for her in England. We meant to eat here, but we never did squeeze it into our schedule.

Right outside the outdoor porch of the Irma is another statue of Buffalo Bill Cody, relaxing while he looks over Cody's Main Street.

Cody has some nice green spaces woven throughout town. Denisa doesn't have to miss her wildflowers when she can take pictures of these lovely purple blooms in the park on Main Street.

Denisa also liked the musical park where visitors can hammer out a melody.

Another interesting place on Main Street was "Dome, Dome on the Range." Filled with cozy furnishings, the domes were free places to enjoy the outdoors while staying out of the elements. Cozy means warm in the winter, but cozy warm in July wasn't as welcoming.

We went to the visitor center, where a Buffalo Bill impersonator was giving out advice on things to see and do in Cody. The list is long, and they have most of the scheduled items on a list posted inside. We will say that most of these items will cost $20 to $25 per person, so Cody can be an expensive town.

We decided to splurge and do one of those things, but certainly not all of them. For example, we didn't go to the Old Trail Town. But we checked it out from a distance one evening around sunset.

We didn't go to the nightly Cody Rodeo because we have been to many rodeos in our lives. Driving by the parking lot at 8:30, we could verify that the announcer was very entertaining, but tickets were $25.

Our big splurge was buying tickets for the Wild West Spectacular musical, with the guy from the visitor center playing the lead role. It told the story of Buffalo Bill Cody's life, and the Wild West Show that he imagined and then built. The show toured throughout the United States and Europe. Even though he was famous for being "America's Greatest Showman," we saw in the play that he wasn't the best husband or father because he was gone most of the time.

The actors were happy to serve sarsaparillas at the bar at intermission and shake hands on the street after the play.

The best free activity around Cody was a trip to the Buffalo Bill Dam just six miles west of town.

When it was built in 1910, it was the tallest dam in the world. We can say that 113 years later it still looks mighty tall. It was built without metal rebar that is commonly used now. Instead, they piled big granite boulders between every layer of concrete for stability.

The dam was built in the narrowest part of a tall granite canyon. We had read about a walk that goes from the dam down into that deep canyon, but there was a closed gate at the entrance of the hike. We were advised that it was all right to go under that gate to take the steep walk down into the canyon, so that's what we did. Denisa is in the picture below, but you'll have a hard time seeing her against that tall canyon wall.

Warning signs along the hike remind people of actions that are not allowed. We think the sign-maker did not think about punctuation or spacing when the sign below was made. You could read that sign to say, "Do not throw rocks, men, and equipment below." Denisa had no intentions of throwing Mark into the canyon only because of that sign. Perhaps that sign should have read, "Do not throw rocks. Men and equipment below." 

After giggling at the sign and walking down that steep hill, we found ourselves 300 feet lower and at the water's edge.

This was the Shoshone River, which continued towards Cody after the dam. 

With all the snow and rainfall this year, the overflow was high and the river was roaring as it continued down the canyon towards Cody.

The trail also continued for a couple miles further into the canyon. It went through the tunnels that were blasted at the water level for construction vehicles and crews when the dam was built. You can see Denisa standing just before the shadow of the tunnel on the left.

It was warm outside, so we opted to turn around after just one mile, and headed back to where our pickup was parked at the dam. We still had to walk back up that steep hill, and giggled when we passed that poorly-punctuated sign again.

We camped at Cody, Wyoming for four nights, so we explored it pretty thoroughly. We found a good spot for sunset at Beck Lake on the outskirts of town. We enjoyed a full hook-up camp site and the cute touristy town of Cody, but we're really here for the scenery outside of the city limits. We'll talk about that in the next blog.