We left Cody and drove about 80 miles south-east to Thermopolis WY. The town is home to the world’s biggest hot spring. In 1896, a treaty was signed by Chief Washakie of the Shoshones and Chief Sharp Nose of the Arapaho, at Wind River Indian Reservation headquarters in Fort Washakie. The tribe sold the parcel of land (almost 10 square miles) on which the Hot Spring sits, to the United States for $60, 000 worth of cattle and food supplies. Chief Washakie stipulated a portion of the water had to remain free to the people. In 1899, the Wyoming legislature set aside the park and one quarter of the water from the Big Spring to be free for public use.

So, to our delight, we went to the State Bath House and soaked for about 20 minutes in 104F, undiluted, 100% pure mineral water, for free!

Bear soaking in mineral water

That’s not all there is to do in Thermopolis, there is also a world class dinosaur museum, where you can see rare specimen that can only be found in Wyoming or in only a few other places in the world. You can also observe workers cleaning bones and piecing them together. If you feel like it, there is a “dig site” tour available, where you can go visit a dig site and even try your hand at finding fossils.

Talk about stepping back in time, we found this little A&W diner, where you still have to order your food by picking the orange phone from the wall, like it used to be when I was a kid. We really did get a kick out of that, the diner was also attached to a bowling alley, so we played a game, Bear discovered he can still play bowling, I found out I can’t LOL LOL. 😀

Then we went to see Legend Rock, which is about 20 miles west of Thermopolis. You have to obtain a key and a permit in order to be allowed to go see it. An archaeological survey found there are about 283 pictures on 92 rock panels. The oldest work dates back 10, 000 years while the newer ones were carved after the arrival of the white man.

There were more things to do in the area, but we needed to move on, so we left with a promise to come back one day and finish our visit.

We left Yellowstone National Park and headed toward Cody, the town Buffalo Bill Cody founded in 1896.

There is a lot to do in Cody, they have a world class museum, the Buffalo Bill Historical Center. It encompasses 5 different museums; the Buffalo Bill museum, the Whitney Gallery of Western Art, the Plains Indian Museum, the Cody Firearms Museum, the Draper Museum of Natural History and also the McCracken Research Library.

Artifact in the museum of Plains Indians —————————————————– and in the Buffalo Bill museum

It takes at least 2 days to go through all the exhibits.

There is also a Trolley tour which takes you all over town, while a guide explains the history and shows you just about everything Cody has to offer. Combined tickets for the trolley and the museum are available.

The first night, we went to the movies, we were tired and decided that we had done so much sightseeing in Yellowstone, we deserved a break. To our delight, we ended up at the Cody Theater, built in 1936, it still has the “art deco” feel, only one show room, one movie only and they specify that they won’t play the movie unless at least 6 people show up, it was like stepping right back in time.

Bufflalo Bill’s Irma Hotel, named after his youngest daughter and built by the man himself in 1902 is still in business today. It also features the original cherrywood bar given to him by Queen Victoria, we had lunch there, the food was great (especially the bread pudding with whiskey sauce) and the prices were reasonable.

The cherry wood bar inside the Irma Hotel

From June to September, Monday to Saturday at 6PM, there is an Old West performance by gunfighters in the street next to the Irma Hotel.

Tecumseh’s Trading Post Old West Miniature Village and Museum offers a 7, 000 sqft diorama depicting scenes of the Old West, like buffalo hunts, Indians communicating with smoke signals etc. etc. etc. Portrayals are historically accurate.

The Old Trail Town actually sits on the original townsite as laid out by Buffalo Bill Cody.

Old Trail town

It contains an impressive collection of buildings moved there from less than 150 miles away but all of them have an historical significance.

It also features artifacts from the period and a cemetery where famous (or infamous) people of the Old West have been reburied like Jeremiah “liver eatin” Jonhson, made famous by Robert Redford in the movie Jeremiah Jonhson.

The grave of Jeremiah Jonhson

The Buffalo Bill Dam also merits a visit, although we didn’t have time to do it, but we saw it on our way down from Yellowstone. (We had to spend some time washing the motorhome, because the road we took from Yellowstone park to Cody was under construction, so by the time we arrived in Cody, we couldn’t even see the color of the coach, we were covered with mud 🙁 …

Downtown there are a number of galleries featuring work from local artists.

Cody is the Rodeo Capital of the world, and every night during the summer, you can go to a rodeo, they call it “Nite Rodeo“. That’s what we did for Bear’s birthday and we had a lot of fun.

In short, Cody is a fun town to visit and has a lot to offer.

We took one day out of our 9 days in Yellowstone National Park to go visit the Grand Teton and Jackson Hole. We didn’t have much time to explore but we saw the highlights of the Grand Teton and spent a little while walking around Jackson, not enough to know everything there was to do in town, but enough to get a feel of the place.

Grand Teton

Teton Range

It all started 13 to 17 million years ago when earthquakes along the Teton fault at the base of the range caused the mountains to rise and the valley floor to drop. The vertical displacement from the top of the mountains to the valley floor exceded 29, 000 feet. Most of this activity took place during the last two to five million years. Then glacial erosion formed the Teton landscape. Massive glaciers, some 3000 feet thick slowly filled the valley, eroded the mountains, then transported and deposited huge quantities of rock and glacial debris. The valley true floor lies 18, 000 feet below the surface we see today. Beautiful lakes formed at the base of the mountains.

Jackson Lake

Mount Moran supports five of the dozens of glaciers in the Teton range.

Jackson Hole

You can still go on a stage coach ride when in Jackson Hole Wyoming.

Our impression of Jackson Hole was of a very pretty western town, aimed at serving the tourists, with lots of colorful shops and restaurants.

Antlers Arch