Cody to Buffalo and onward to Rapid City, South Dakota

26th July 2012 - Cody, Wyoming

We had just come out of the movies and a couple of deer darted in front of Butter, Robie's beetle. The baby deer managed to make it across but mama decided to pull back on to the roadside trembling...poor things. She made it across safely-phew!

Thunderstorm at Absaroka Rv Park - high density living at this park, short lots, $29/night,basic but good. Could do with better animal control though...quite a few yapping dogs.

28th July 2012 - Leaving Cody at 7.50am. Diesel in Cody was the most expensive we've come across so far at $3.919/gal. Tax on Diesel and Petrol is 14cts/gal, State Tax is 4%.

We overnighted in Buffalo after a 4 hour drive from Cody.

Left Buffalo at around 0815 and it was already 23deg C.

What a bountiful state Wyoming is - from Yellowstone National Park in the west to brick red mountains in the east.

One could almost be in the Kimberleys of Western Australia but we are not, we are travelling on US I-90  East, Wyoming.

We spotted these riders out on one of the ranches.

We are doing 68-70mph so I'm hanging out of the truck window like a dog but managed to get a pic of this derelict looking barn.

As I zoomed in, I saw some rams with big curly horns.

The scenery gets even more interesting as we enter the town of Ten Sleep-boy it was like a roller coaster ride.

We enter the Big Horn National Forest,Wyoming and are wowed by the monolithic proportions of the mountain sides.

We pass signs advising that the rocks are older than Methuselah. The ancient granite gneiss range from 750million years to 3 billions years old. Granite gneiss, with an age of approximately 2.5 billion years, in the Black Hills, South Dakota, provides a link between ancient rocks in western Wyoming and Montana and in eastern North and South Dakota and Minnesota. The discovery suggests that early Precambrian rocks covered an extensive area in northcentral United States and were not restricted to several small nuclei.

At the highest point we have ever been on a highway on this trip..we are constantly ascending and descending.

Not only did we descend from 9,666ft to 4,000 odd feet, 7% incline, there are plenty of sharp curves. The electric brakes on the truck are constantly kicking in, noise in the cabin is deafening and I am being jerked around like a dog on its first day at Puppy School!

Some parts of US I-90 looks like its got a  bad case of varicose veins. The roads here are subjected to extreme weather conditions; snow in winter, wet in spring and searing heat in summer - no wonder they are all cracked and patched up.

Cody, Wyoming

23rd July 2012 - Cody, Wyoming

Cody - named after William F. Cody aka Buffalo Bill Cody. Elevation: 5,016ft. Built in 1895. Weather: hot, hot, hot. These tee pees graced the entrance of one of the RV Parks.

The Royal Palace Restaurant - a quaint little place with lots of memorabilia. We went there for breakfast, service rather slow and no, they do not do omelettes for breakfast (figure that out). Ordered extra crispy bacon but they were still doing the hula hula on my plate.

Inside of the Royal Palace Restaurant - guess they are a fan of  Clint - he would have known not to order an omelette w/extra crispy bacon..

There were some really lovely Coke advertising posters from years gone by on the wall.

Old Trail Town Cody...these buildings were relocated from other parts of the USA to Cody. They included a shack used by Butch Cassidy. There is an admission charge.

We saw this cute truck outside a motel - precursor to the modern RV perhaps?

It is worth a visit to the Buffalo Bill Historical Centre-admission is $16 and you can return for a second visit if you are not able to take in all the exhibits on your first day.
The gun exhibit is very impressive but my favourite was the Art Gallery where there are some fabulous paintings. The one above depicts Buffalo Bill rescuing early settlers from rampaging Native Indians. To be fair, it was Native land and the Indians were trying to protect it.

No sir - this is not a poster, its an actual painting.

A sculpture of Crazy Horse- one of iconic Native American Chiefs. I believe the Lakota tribe is also known as the Sioux. More info on Crazy Horse below.

Crazy Horse (Lakota: Tȟašúŋke Witkó in Standard Lakota Orthography^[2]), literally "His-Horse-Is-Crazy" or "His-Horse-Is-Spirited";^[3] ca. 1840 – September 5, 1877) was a Native American war leader of the Oglala Lakota. He took up arms against the U.S. Federal government to fight against encroachments on the territories and way of life of the Lakota people, including leading a war party to victory at the Battle of the Little Bighorn in June 1876.

Tom outside the BBHC. Bill Cody was born in 1846 in Scott County,Iowa. He was a pioneer and a entrepreneuner. 

Beginning in the 1870's, Cody embarked on a career as producer and star in Western melodramas. By 1873, he had planted the seeds of the Wild West Show that made him famous. Buffalo Bill was a showman extraordinaire. His show went to Europe and all over the USA. Bill Cody made the cowboy famous. Cody's show featured Annie Oakley and Miss Lillian Smith (sharpshooters); Johnny Baker, the Cowboy Kid; Jim Kid, champion roper; a herd of wild buffalo, Indian ponies, mountain elk, Texas steers, Mexican burros, mountain lions, coyotes, deer, antelope, mountain sheep, etc. Stars also included Mexican vaqueros, Russian Cossacks, and Native Americans (including Sitting Bull).

The Irma Hotel -built in 1902 by B.Bill and named after his youngest daughter Irma. Cody married Louise Frederici in 1866 and had 4 children-2 boys and 2 girls. Sadly for him his second son died of scarlett fever at the age of  6 and third daughter wsas 11 when she too sucummbed.

Robie and Sharon outside the Irma Hotel where a wildwest shootout show is on 6 days a week.

Proceeds from this show goes to charity and the chairs are $2 each - there's a lot of shooting, so beware if you are noise sensitive and have young children.

The cast of the Wild West Shoot Out show.

The Dan Miller Show - what a treat. We opted for a dinner and show package available from the Irma Hotel, great value. The buffet dinner is an all you can eat prime rib with salads, hot vegies, desserts. Tom and Robie were in bovine heaven...won't tell you how many steaks the boys had.

Inside the Irma with the lovely cherrywood bar in the background - a wonderfully nostalgic venue.

The Dan Miller show - an hour and a half of great entertainment-the young lass playing the electric mandolin is Hannah, Dan's 14 y.o. daughter.

Lovely sculpture found outside a bank - depicts 2 male elks tussling in a challenge for superiority in the herd.

The Cody Cattle Company also puts on a dinner and show, another great and reasonably priced entertainment. If you are looking for haute cuisine, then this is not the place for you - it is cowboy food....beef and pork, beans, coleslaw, cornbread.

The Trip C Cowboys provided the music the night we were there - they are family friendly and get the kids involved.

A photo op with the band after the show. We enjoyed their music so much we decided to follow them to their next venue.

The guys' next gig was at Cassie's steakhouse so like groupies albeit, geriatric ones we hotfooted down the road.

Wow...don't think we've ever done a pub crawl, if you can call 2 venues a "crawl". Tom and Robie having fun at 8 ball(?) whilst waiting for the band to arrive.

Ryan and Russ tuning up at Cassies. Ryan said they would love to do a gig at the Tamworth Country Music Festival in New South Wales, Australia.

Betty and Russ - check this out for a bit of "omg". When Tom and I were dating in Singapore back in the 70's, we used to go to a restaurant called the 4 Seasons where a Singapore band called Matthew and the Mandarins used to play western music. It was a hotspot for the Americans who used to work the oil rigs off Indonesia when they were on shore leave. Well, Russ said he played with Matthew in the 80's when Matthew got his own venue...how's that for a small world!

Sharon with Russ....no wonder Cher said he dig old guys! He was charming.

West Yellowstone to Cody, Wyoming

22nd July 2012 - Yellowstone NP to Cody, Wyoming

We left the Grizzly Bear RV Park on a beautiful Sunday morning and headed east to Cody, Wyoming. On this outgoing trip, the elevation would probably be about 8- 9000 ft above sea level - our truck does its job nicely as its a turbo diesel.

 

To get to Cody, we had to enter YNP once again and depart via the East Entrance. We saw herds of bisons again - what a treat!

Lake Butte - what a beautiful lake, especially with the reflections of sky and land captured on its mirror like surface.

Further along US 16/14 is Lake Sylvan - even here there are hot springs along its shores. Check out the pic below.

We had a coffee break at  Steamboat Point, Lake Sylvan-rather aptly named. Most disappointing to see the numerous spent cigarette butts strewn along the scenic pull in.

As we ascended further, the landscape changes quite dramatically - we passed through forests of burnt trees with new growth. A bit of background to the great fire of 1988 follows.

The Yellowstone fires of 1988 together formed the largest wildfire in the recorded history of the U.S.'s Yellowstone National Park. Starting as many smaller individual fires, the flames spread quickly out of control with increasing winds and drought and combined into one large conflagration, which burned for several months. The fires almost destroyed two major visitor destinations and, on September 8, 1988, the entire park was closed to all non-emergency personnel for the first time in its history.^[1] Only the arrival of cool and moist weather in the late autumn brought the fires to an end. A total of 793,880 acres (3,213 km²), or 36 percent of the park was affected by the wildfires.^[2]
Thousands of firefighters fought the fires, assisted by dozens of helicopters and fixed-wing aircraft which were used for water and fire retardant drops. At the peak of the effort, over 9,000 firefighters were assigned to the park. With fires raging throughout the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem and other areas in the western United States, the staffing levels of the National Park Service and other land management agencies were inadequate to the situation. Over 4,000 U.S. military personnel were soon assisting in fire suppression efforts. The fire fighting effort cost $120 million ($240 million as of 2012). No firefighters died while fighting the fires in Yellowstone, though there were two fire-related deaths outside the park.

It is 30deg. celsius but there were still sprinklings of snow on the mountains.

The Shoshone River winding its way into Cody - can you see the fisherman on the river bank?

The landscape is quite similar to that found in Bryce and Zion National Parks.

A beautiful scenic drive - one could almost imagine Indians on the top of the mountains, many moons ago.

This  derelict building caught our eyes - haven't a clue what it used to be.

Another change to the scenery as we approach the Buffalo Bill dam

The mountains are a mix of coral and sandstone colours.

Al and truck at carpark of Buffalo Bill DamVisitor Centre.

The Buffalo Bill Dam - at this pull in, you can visit the workings of the dam. There is a shuttle (golf cart) that will come and pick up visitors every 30 mins and take them to the main building.

This is one of 3 tunnels we drove through from the dam. The mountain side is an amazing palette of pinks, white and pale yellows.

Entering Cody, named after William F. Cody aka Buffalo Bill Cody.