Mountains and Plains
Trip Start
Aug 20, 2005
1
23
Trip End
Ongoing
Cody WY, United States
Saturday, August 20, 2005
Cody Wyoming
They bill this place as the gateway to Yellowstone and it's the Buffalo Bill headquarters of the world too.
Friday 8/19
We left the Rapid City area in the morning heading west toward Yellowstone. Along the way we took a short (25 miles or so) detour to see the Devils Tower Nat'l Monument in WY. It's huge and from what Jerry tells me, can be seen from an airplane with the naked eye. This side trip was more interesting than either of us thought it would be since getting another cancellation in my passport was the motivating factor in us being there. And, we're not on a set schedule so it was nice to be flexible. The American Indians revered this site and we could see why. Anything that big provokes emotion. The legend about the maidens and the bear makes sense to us.
We arrived at Gateway Campground towards evening and were both tired (read that as crabby) and so we made plans for sightseeing the next day, ate dinner, showered and went to sleep.
Saturday 8/20
We started the day at the Buffalo Bill Historical Center with it's 5 museums - Cody Firearms, Whitney Gallery of Western Art, Plains Indian Museum, Buffalo Bill Museum and the Draper Museum of Natural History. Each one was more interesting than the next. The design of the building was interesting too in that each museum led off from the central atrium and was incredibly deceptive in the amount of material exhibited there. You went in expecting a 10 minute visit and came out an hour later after snaking around it's hidden hallways with a smile on your face. We stayed there until about lunch time and found a great Mexican restaurant on Sheridan Ave where I had the best chicken I'd ever tasted. Shopping along the Old West looking main street was next on the agenda with a stop at the Yellowstone Gift Store where I was able to get some squished pennies. Since we had internet service at the campground I went to the pennycollector.com website and found two here in Cody. The Buffalo Bill Dam was one of them so that was our next stop. The dam was the first of it's kind out west and provides hydroelectric power for the area. The lake it creates was superb but hardly any boaters and no swimmers. We figured it's probably very cold.
At one of the many places extolling the virtues of Buffalo Bill here in Cody, one said that in his situation the man was maybe larger than his legend. Now, that's hard to believe since, in this town, his presence is felt everywhere. I guess I just need to read a bit more about this very interesting historical figure.
