Day 10: Yellowstone to Cody
There were just so many things that I experienced and so many things to write about in Yellowstone. Even now that I’m home, reliving the experience makes me miss it. I do plan to write a little more about my Yellowstone experiences at the tail end of my blog postings. All jokes aside, my Yellowstone experience was very relaxing, exciting, and fun.
– DV
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Day 10: Our sixth and last day in Yellowstone, and we headed East to Cody on 14. Out of approximately 300 miles of paved road within Yellowstone, I believe we only missed driving over about 30 or so miles of it. We will have to catch the little section between Mammoth Hot Springs and Tower Fall on another trip.
Check out was at 10:00 AM. By the time we gassed up the vehicle, got some ice for the cooler, and a couple new sets of batteries for the camera, we reached the east entrance to Yellowstone about 11:30.
Our Last Yellowstone Traffic Jam
Nice of them to come and tell us goodbye…
The Road to Cody
Although there was less evidence, on the road to Cody, of the big fire of 1988 that burned about a third of Yellowstone, there was some evidence of pine beetle infestation. In one of our previous trips through the Canadian Rockies, we saw a lot more infestation and a lot more concern about the pine beetle, so much so that they did not want you to be carrying fire wood from the US into Canada. From the look of Yellowstone, the Canadians have quite a bit more damage on their side of the border.
You may think that having one third of the park being burned away is a bad thing. Well, I’m sure from a beauty perspective, at least when it happened, it may have been a little disappointing to the eyes. The important thing to note is that because lodge pole pines need a very high temperature for their pine cones to give up seed, the fires actually are a natural part of the Yellowstone ecology. Now if only the land managers of Yellowstone knew this before the big fire, perhaps less than one third of Yellowstone would have burned in 1988. At least it seems that they have changed some of their practices for the better, including creating controlled fires. Controlled fires aside, there are still uncontrolled fires in the park. We saw one while we were there. Lightning, broken power lines (I think this is what started the one we saw), and people tend to start fires in Yellowstone. We were told by the kind dutiful rangers that if the fire is “natural” they will let it burn.
In my perspective, the fire of 1988 only made the scenery we saw more beautiful. The trees that have grown since that time were between 5 and 15 feet tall; this tree height allowed wonderful views. The small burned areas we did see, from newer fires, were beautiful in their own right.
Cody
We got into Cody about 1:00PM and checked into the Irma Hotel (look it even has a Wikipedia link), named for Buffalo Bill’s daughter. The Irma was cool on a historic level, and they have historic type rooms, the hotel being later expanded. We weren’t in one. The room we stayed in had no windows and walls thinner than the tent. It was right down town which was nice, but there was one thing that irked me…
No Working Wireless at the Irma Hotel
There was only a couple things that really irked me on this trip. One of them disturbed my other half and I so much that I’m still considering creating a “Yellowstone Wall of Shame” post just for it. This situation at the Irma was just annoying. The Irma advertises wireless, the Irma told us it had working wireless Internet access when we called for reservations, but the Irma did not have working wireless service when we got there. When I called the front desk to help me with my wireless woes, I was informed that this was a common problem… “Oh well,” she said, “try to connect to the cafe across the street’s wireless.” Nice. Buyer beware.
Buffalo Bill Museum – Five Museum’s in One
After having the Sunday lunch buffet at the Irma, which was ok for $12.95, we headed off to one of the first two stops we wanted to see in Cody, the Buffalo Bill Museum.
The Gun Museum
If you like guns, you will love this.
You ever see that look? You know… THE look. The look that gun aficionado gets when describing a treasure trove of guns. Kind of like a cross between a deer in the headlights look and that look that Charles Manson has in that famous mug shot picture. Yeah, that one. Well, while traveling through West Yellowstone, we stopped in a sporting good store to replenish some supplies, and this nice man behind the counter was helping us out. He seemed totally, well, sane, until we asked about the Buffalo Bill Museum, and then he changed into this:
“You have to see the guns… oh … the guns… you will love the guns… they have like every gun ever made there… you could spend hours…”
I am glad he kept his hands above the counter, because if he moved them below the counter, I’m not sure if I would have screamed, ran, or puked… well… I have digressed…
In any case, the West Yellowstone man with the scary gun fetish was partially right. Although, I didn’t get any type of hitch in my get along from seeing the guns at the museum, and there wasn’t every gun ever made there, it was quite the gun collection.
Here is a picture of a Tommy Gun (uncle Alphonse would be proud):
Well, you may think you get the picture when I say a lot of guns… but really there was A LOT of guns. I read there were 1500 guns on the first floor. After walking through 1500 guns, I no longer wondered what at least part of THE Look was from; after 1500 my eyes were feeling a blur. Then after seeing the first 1500, there was a sign to check out 1200 more guns on the second floor. Well, seeing the history of guns was really interesting, but then we thought we might save the next 1200 for a different visit.
The Whitney Western Art Museum
Much like the gun museum… if you like Western art (as in Country & Western) this museum is for you. There actually were some good pieces in there. The sculpture in the museum was really the draw for me.
The Plains Indian Museum
This was actually my favorite part of the museum. Unlike some of our other road trips through the “West” where we have run into loads of Native American history, stories of their history and culture, how they used the land, etc, we had found little of it on this trip. The Plains Indian Museum and later the Buffalo Bill Museum help with a little of this absence. Exhibits like these filled the gallery:
The Buffalo Bill Cody Museum
The Buffalo Bill Museum was quite interesting too. I always thought of the guy as the P.T. Barnum of the West, but there might have been some substance to this guy. Anyway, he entertained a huge amount of people, kept Native Americans in jobs, and set in place a whole set of stereotypes of the west and of Native Americans that are still alive and well today.
Note: Lots of pouty awwwwww factor around the Annie Oakley story… perhaps a later post.
The Natural History Museum
Eh. Was ok. Kids will like this one.
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Overall going to the Buffalo Bill Museum, or should I say museums, was entertaining. It gave a nice flavor to the area and put a time stamp on it. Again, it was nice to see some of the culture of the Native Americans, I felt by that time in the trip it was one thing that I was sorely missing.
The Cody Rodeo
After the five-museums-in-one we decided we wanted to check out the Cody Rodeo. The Rodeo in Cody is held every night for the three months of summer. Neither my other half or I remember ever being at a rodeo before, so we thought this would be fun, and it was.
The wind was howling a horrible ruckus. It was really “hold on to your hat” weather,but the rodeo went on.
I’m still wrapping my mind around rodeo, rodeo culture, and the modern cowboy lifestyle.
I got to meet a cowboy later in the trip and learned a little bit more about it.
Some of it still has to do with a kind of freedom, and with all the romance of the lifestyle, a lot of it seems to have to deal heavily with compromise.
I wish I would have gotten to talk to a cowgirl, to round out some of what I learned and see how it all fit on the woman side of the equation. All very interesting stuff.
After the rodeo was over, the wind was still bucking up some dirt. We headed back to the Irma to check for some wireless relief. The relief didn’t come.
Tomorrow: Thermopolis, and then Jackson Hole…
Articles that may interest you:
A Cool Yellowstone News Aggregator Site: Yellowstone Newspaper
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