Cody, Wyoming

Cody is named after William Frederick Cody aka Buffalo Bill. More about Buffalo Bill tomorrow.

The Buffalo Bill Center of the West is a series of five museums and a research library in a wonderful facility in Cody. We spent a couple of hours there yesterday and will go back again today to view what we missed.

Here are some highlights from the museums we visited yesterday…

Draper Natural History Museum

This scene depicts a buffalo jump. Young Native American men would mimic the cry of a young bison in distress. This would cause the buffalo herd to gather together. Then the older men would drive the herd off of a large cliff. The tribe would then harvest the buffaloes.

Within the Draper Museum , there were many displays of taxidermied animals, and I loved the way they were all shown in action like this moose scratching himself among natural flora. The piece below is very unique. It is a combination of efforts of three local artists. The elk head is carved out of a single piece of wood. The antlers are pieced together from multiple pieces of wood. And the cougar is just amazing. It’s hard to see in this picture, but there’s a small butterfly on the elk’s head adding some color and whimsy…

Cody Firearms Museum

The next museum we visited was the Cody Firearms Museum. The displays were overwhelming… so many different types of firearms over so many time periods…

Each of the firearms is beautifully displayed and meticulously labeled.

The picture below shows all of the munitions that Winchester made during the time period and stated “Capacity of works: 2,000,000 Cartridges Daily.”  Not sure of the year, but amazing nonetheless.

There were many samples of firearms advertisements, and I was surprised at how many of them targeted women.

Whitney Western Art Museum

We moseyed on into the Whitney Western Art Museum, and I was in heaven because Carl Rungius, my favorite Western artist, had at least a half dozen pieces on display.

I know virtually nothing about art; all I know is that I LOVE his work. And I’m amazed that I can spot it in a crowded room…

The animals pop out from a muted background, and yet it all looks so realistic.

Here are two Rungius paintings with two bronzes, a Frederick Remington and a Charles Russell, in the foreground.

Could have sat there for hours…

Cody, Wyoming

Yesterday we drove from Sheridan to Cody. We stayed a day longer in Sheridan because of the early snow storm.

The view from and drive over Granite Pass in the Bighorn Mountains over Highway 14 was stunning, particularly with the fog settled in over the valley.

When we came into Sheridan a few days ago, it was raining and there was heavy cloud cover. We woke up to a couple inches of snow and it continued to snow all day. Yesterday we finally got to see Sheridan and the area surrounding it as we left. Sheridan is one place I would like to visit again…

As we drove up into the mountains, the snow got heavier and prettier. It was the best kind of snow–melts the minute it touches pavement or concrete!

One of the things I’m going to miss most about our house in the mountains outside of Boise is the snow. I love, love, love snow!

And so does my dog!

Because we’re heading south for the winter, yesterday was most likely the last time we will have the opportunity to play in the snow for a long time.

So we did!

On the other side of the summit, the road was crazy steep and curvy.

And the topogaphy was gorgeous. After eight long and steep miles, we reached the valley.

Wall, South Dakota

Drove through the Badlands National Park yesterday.

Stunning vistas and very diverse topology.

When we drove through the Badlands of North Dakota last month after lots of rainfall, the dirt was heavy clay and felt similar to wet Play Dough.  There hasn’t been much recent moisture here in South Dakota, and the dirt is hard as rocks.

We were lucky to see a pair of Rocky Mountain big horn sheep grazing right near the road.

We did see a handful of buffalo and dozens of prairie dogs along with big warning signs that the prairie dogs have the plague. I wondered if the idiots who got within five feet of the mountainsheep got that close to the prairie dogs…

There were lots of lookouts to pull off to get a better look. One of them was surrounded by grass which the deer just loved.

But we didn’t quite understand why the deer walked to the edge of the canyon to poo. There were only a few droppings in the grass and dozens on the dirt.

After some discussion we figured it was one of two things:

The deer were tourists who just stopped for quick bite and wanted to take in the view.

OR

The deer were graffiti artists marking the territory as theirs.

Wall, South Dakota

We moved from Spearfish to Wall yesterday to sit out an early brief fall storm.

Snow is predicted in the higher elevations, and we’d rather be safe than sorry.

I remember a saying about Nevada weather from when we moved there in 1964. “If you don’t like the weather, wait five minutes because it will change.”

We had moved to Reno from Sacramento, and the climate in Sacramento was much milder than the volatility of the weather I came to love in Reno.

Because my strongest and longest weather memories came from Reno, I was rather naive and didn’t realize that all places claim to have exotic weather.

In Wall, South Dakota, today’s high will be 90. In two days, the high will be less than 50.

While 40 degrees in 48 hours is a lot, Spearfish, South Dakota, takes the top prize for quick weather change.

Spearfish holds the world record for the fastest recorded temperature change.

On January 22, 1943, at 7:23 a.m. the temperature was -4 degrees Fahrenheit. The Chinook wind picked up speed rapidly and two minutes later the temperature was measured at +45 degrees Fahrenheit. That’s a 49 degree change in those two minutes!

The winds continued until 9:00 a.m., and the temperature topped out at +54.

The winds suddenly stopped, and the temperature plummeted to -4 again. That 58 degree drop took 27 minutes.

The sudden temperature drop caused glass windows to crack and windshields to instantly frost over.

I think Spearfish can safely say they have the most changeable weather in the world.

*Information from Wikipedia. And special thanks to the volunteer from Texas who pointed the display to me at the D.C. Booth Fish Hatchery. 🙂

Wall, South Dakota

Surprise! It’s supposed to snow in the area for the next few days, so we’ve taken a bit of a detour. That’s a big benefit of having a home on wheels and traveling when reservations are not necessary.

Several people we’ve talked with have mentioned that they were going to stop at Wall Drugs.

We had no idea what they were talking about until we finally Googled it after hearing out so often.

Wall Drug Store, commonly called Wall Drug, initially opened in 1931. Ted Hustead was a pharmacist who was looking for a small town with a Catholic Church in which to establish his business. Wall’s population at the time was 231.

“Business was very slow until his wife, Dorothy, got the idea to advertise free ice water to parched travelers heading to the newly opened Mount Rushmore. From that time on, business was brisk. ”

Wall Drug draws over two million visitors each year and over $10 million in sales.

How’d it get the word out? Billboards, lots of them.

Initially the billboards focused on the fee ice water.

Over 650 miles of interstate house thousands of billboards that cost Wall Drugs $400,000 each year. Not only are the billboards in South Dakota, they are scattered across the USA and the world! Here is one in Amsterdam.

Wall Drugs is now a shopping mall that consists of a drug store, gift shop, restaurants, and other stores. All entities are under the Wall business domain.

They still offer free ice water to all who visit.

They also offer a free coffee and a donut to honeymooners, priests, hunters, truck drivers, and service men and women.

*Information and quotes taken from Wikipedia.

PS I now know how they made so much money… Made in China and overpriced. 🙂

Spearfish, South Dakota

Took a tour around some beautiful ranching area on our way to Devils Tower yesterday. The picture below is from about 20 miles away showing the tower in the distance.

Devils Tower (which was supposed to be named Devil’s Tower but a typo years ago set the current name in stone) is called Bear Lodge by  some Native American tribes.

It is a HUGE geologic feature in northeastern Wyoming. “Devils Tower is a stock–a small intrusive body formed by magna which was colors underground and was later exposed by erosion. ”

“As the rock cooled, it contacted, forming hexagonal columns separated by vertical cracks. These columns are similar to those found at Devil’s Postpile National monument in California but those at Devils Tower are much larger.”

I remember visiting the Devil Postpile in California as a kid and was awestruck by it. Devils Tower elicited those same emotions.

In 1906 President Theodore Roosevelt proclaimed Devils Tower the first national monument. Earlier in 1872 his actions made Yellowstone the first National Park. Both firsts can be claimed by Wyoming.

We took a walk around the base of the tower. That walk is 1.3 miles long. The boulders that have fallen off of the tower to the base are ginormous.

The tower is big! It is 867 feet tall. The circumference around the base is nearly 5300 feet. And the plateau at the top is about 200 x 400 feet in size.

While we were walking around the base we saw six climbers on their way up. You can just see one of them on the right side of this picture about a third of the way up the columns.

The tower and the area around it is sacred ground to the Native Americans. They hang prayer cloth or bundles on trees where they have offered a prayer.

Because the Native Americans are upset with people climbing the tower, visitors are asked to voluntarily not climb it during the month of June. Since beginning this, there has been an 80% reduction in climb numbers for June. (Remember the Pareto Principle?)

The area around Devils Tower is very geographically diverse as shown below.

Spearfish, South Dakota

Right next to our campground in the middle of Spearfish is the D.C. Booth Historical National Fish Hatchery and Archives. Because it is staffed with volunteers who know their stuff, we learned oodles about hatcheries.

The Booth Hatchery was built to propagate, stock, and establish trout populations in the Black Hills of South Dakota and Wyoming.

The hatchery ceased operations in the mid 1980’s. It reopened with a partnership with the U.S. Fish & Wildlife and serves as a living fisheries museum.

First stop was the museum. 

It was chock full of original tools, furniture, and supplies. The cans below were used to transport the fish to remote lakes and streams. The cans were either carried by horseback or on hikers’ backs.

Next was a replica of a train car modified to transport fish by rail car. The car housed workers in sleeping berths above the fish tanks. (I don’t even want to think what that car smelled like…)

I was surprised to see the the Department of Commerce oversaw the Bureau of Fisheries’  operation.

Of course, there were lots of fish at the hatchery…

And a wistful and wonderful bronze called Generations showing a father and daughter going fishing.

Spearfish, South Dakota

We went for a drive and a hike up the Spearfish Canyon which runs up Spearfish Creek.

Very stunning, especially with the slightest blush of fall showing.

The water in the creek is incredibly clear. That’s because it is completely fed by springs–51 to be exact.

Many parts of Dances with Wolves were filmed in areas near there.  In fact, Kevin Costner owns several business ventures in the area.

Trout were planted in the creek until the 1970’s. Now all trout in the creek are wild. We saw some trout and even saw a fisherman reeling one in.

The 1000 foot canyon walls are a combination of Englewood limestone (10-400 feet thick and reddish in color), Deadwood shale (30-60 feet thick and dark brown in color), and Paha sapa limestone (300-700 feet and buff colored that weathers to a dull gray).

The road is winding and a perfect ride for all the motorcyclsts in the road.

And there are several waterfalls to take short hikes to and visit.

Hill City, South Dakota

We stayed in Hill City for a week. It was our home base for touring the middle and southern portions on the Black Hills.

During our drives, we came across some interesting sights.

We traveled through the small town of Deerfield and saw this sign informing us that the population is 2 and on the weekend it’s 13.

Deerfield Lake is quite pretty, and there were lots of fishermen trying their luck.

There is a drive through Custer State Park called the Wildlife Loop. It’s a very pretty drive, and we did, in fact, see some wildlife including antelope, a marmot, and some burros.

The burros are descendants of animals once used for guided pack trips many years ago. After they were no longer needed, the animals were set loose. Now they cozy up to cars looking for handouts.

There are about a half a dozen tunnels throughout the Black Hills. Three of them frame Mount Rushmore as you drive through. (Not my photo.)

And there is one ‘tunnel’ that is a particularly tight fit!

And yet we all stupidly tried to fit through it… 🙂

There are a series of pigtails bridges, also known as spiral bridges. Picturesque and functional, these would be fun on a motorcycle. (Not my photos.)

I would come back to the Black Hills in a heartbeat. There is so much to do here, and you can easily get away from the crowds because there are hundreds of miles of back country roads.

Fourwheelers and side-by-sides are common sights on those roads and the highways as well.