We arrived in Cody on July 1st and spent the next two days exploring what became one of our best visits. The Buffalo Bill Museum is five museums in one that really deserves the two days your admission is valid to do it justice. In addition to the history of Bill Cody it has two art displays, an extensive native Indian exhibit, the largest gun collection in the world, and one of the best natural history museums of our western states and the Yellowstone area.
The first week of July is also Stampede Days and we spent an exciting, entertaining evening at the Rodeo! Great riders and a funny clown and announcer. Before the rodeo we went down to the Irma Hotel (built by Bill for his daughter Irma) sat on their veranda with a cool one and watched a reenactment of a western gunfight before going into the hotel for a delicious western buffet.
We plan our trips so well that on the 2nd of July we called Yellowstone reservations to see if they had a campsite the next day-and they did!
We then spent two days in the park seeing Old Faithful, the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone, Yellowstone Lake, and lots of wildlife. That first grizzly was a comfortable distance away, the other was 25 feet away but we didn't hang around.
This first grizzly was a comfortable distance away, the second was climbing towards us but at about 25 feet we didn't hang around to get a better view!
We departed Yellowstone through West Yellowstone, MT and spent another beautiful evening in the Gallatin Mountains about six miles south of Big Sky ski resort. The attractions of the National Forest campgrounds are not only their beautiful locations (this one was along a mountain stream) but that they are $5.50 a night with our Golden Age Passport!
