Next stop, another 2 hour drive, was Cody.WY and everything Buffalo Bill. Famous for the nightly rodeos and stampede which were still continuing during the pandemic. Tourism in all its glory, with the crowds to match

This is northwest Wyoming and east of Yellowstone National Park

We stayed at Buffalo Bill State Park on the road leading into Yellowstone just outside of Cody

All the sites here faced the Buffalo Bill reservoir, leading to the Buffalo Bill Dam which is situated 300’ above the Shoshoni River.

Another damn dam

We had to move sites after a couple of days but the view from both sites was the same

We decided to visit Yellowstone Park.

This is Yellowstone Lake, 100 miles wide and just a small portion of the this vast park. We didn’t spend too long as it was pretty crowded and we’d already explored the park from the west entrance last year.

On the drive to the park we came upon this house that was left incomplete in the 1970’s when the eccentric builder fell to his death from one of the decks. Apparently he used scraps of material to build it and never used any safety equipment.

Chris was geocaching along the wild Shoshoni river

The rodeo and stampede stadium which was crowded every evening

The massive Buffalo Bill Center which contains 5 different museums. We ventured in for a while on  July 4th, while everyone was pre-occupied

Buffalo Bill Cody was a Pony Express rider, served in the Civil War and also in the US Army during the American Indian wars as a scout.  Later,  largely due to the dime store periodicals glamorizing the western characters, he became an entertainer employing the real Native Americans he’d once fought against, plus the cowboys and cowgirls, like Wild Bill Hickok and Calamity Jane who had quite the reputation.

The Stampede and Rodeos were much more elaborate events back in the late 19th century, and the “troupe” took to the road and toured the US

Later they toured Europe and enjoyed an audience with Queen Victoria

In the Art museum of the center we were able to see how the magnificent statues were constructed.

4th of July in Cody was a little tame compared to past years. Unfortunately for us, the people of  Wyoming have ignored the pandemic for the most part, so anywhere we went there are no masks or social distancing, so we self enforced.

After Cody we drove south to Boysen State Park. When we arrived on Sunday afternoon our reserved spot was occupied by a large group with their boats and jet skis. We went over to the “host” who turned out not to be and just taking advantage of a free site, to ask about the squatters and they just told us they were having lunch and looked in no hurry to move. We even spoke to the Park a ranger who was more sympathetic with them.
Finally they moved on and we moved in to a lovely site with its own private beach.

 We we’re only 5 miles from the Copper Mountains, but the landscape becomes desert-like as soon as you leave them

We drove back down the road that led us here, through the Wind River Canyon, another beautiful area. This scenic byway runs from Thermopolis in the north to Shoshoni in the south and is a 45 minutes drive

Another damn dam

The drive up to Thermopolis

 

The drive back and some tunnels

 

Thermopolis is Greek for “hot city” and home to numerous hot springs which were thriving even during a pandemic.

Hot Springs State Park is a popular spot with its own herd of buffalo and oh those lovely wooden Wyoming fences

The Tepee fountain was built in 1909 to vent the steam from the hot mineral water,  as the steamed water cools it forms layer after layer of travertine

We welcomed more Millers moths into the coach while we parked here, and people from neighboring coaches watched as we did nightly routine of swatting about 200 them. Must have looked from the outside as if we were doing aerobics before going to bed. I believe we got the number down to 50 per night before we left