Cody Trolley and Buffalo Bill Dam

Cody, WY

Monday was a nice weather day so we decided to take the Cody Trolley Tour to get an overview of Cody and the surrounding area. We purchased a combo ticket which included the Trolley Tour and a 2-day pass to the Buffalo Bill Historical Center (museum complex).  After speaking with other folks, we'll save the museum tours for some other days, as the collection is quite extensive.

William Frederick "Buffalo Bill" Cody was quite a character in his day. He was known for being an Army scout, Pony Express rider, ranch hand, wagon train driver, buffalo hunter, fur trapper and gold prospector, but possibly best known as a showman with his "Wild West Shows".  It was said that Cody was the most recognized man in the world at the turn of the twentieth century.

Cody's vision brought Cody, WY into existence.  In the early days of the town very little existed in this part of the Wyoming Territory.

The tour highlighted many of the older structures around town and the guides presented old photographs as the town looked in its' infancy.  I'll go into several of these "attractions" in following blogs as we get a chance to photograph and experience them.

For me, one of the most important spots on the tour was a quick trip out to Buffalo Bill Dam.

 I had not even considered visiting this area (not sure how I missed it in my internet research) prior to taking the Trolley Tour, but we wanted to learn more and visited after leaving the 1-hour Trolley Tour.

Buffalo Bill Dam is located only 6 miles west of Cody on US16-14-20 (Yellowstone Highway).  Initial construction on the dam began in the spring of 1904 and was finally completed in 1910.  At the time of completion, Buffalo Bill Dam was the tallest dam in the world at 325 feet.

 The dam was originally built to create a source of irrigation for the Bighorn Basin.

In 1922 the dam began to be used for power production.  The Shoshone Power Plant came on line in that year and expanded in 1931.  The plant continued in use until 1980 when the plant was decommissioned due to a deteriorating state of repair. Another power plant was constructed downstream towards Cody.

The dam has a Visitor's Center administered by the NPS and the site itself is on the National Register of Historic Places.

Far Side Looking Back Toward the Visitor Center

Spillway Towards Cody

We decided to drive about 15 miles west towards Yellowstone just to check out some of the road to the park.  We still haven't decided whether to drive the MH directly from Cody to Yellowstone Park and over to West Yellowstone, or take an easier (but far less scenic) route north out of Cody back to Interstate 90 into Montana.  We would then travel west and head as far as Bozeman, MT before turning south on US191 towards West Yellowstone.  If anyone has taken the direct route west from Cody to the east gate entrance of Yellowstone Park we would certainly appreciate any insight.

This was a a view of the Buffalo Bill Reservoir as we traveled west past the dam.

Thanks for dropping by to take a look!

On the Road from Gillette, WY to Cody, WY

Cody, WY

We left Gillette, WY early Sunday morning after having the MH weighed by the Escapees Smart Weigh program.  We had the coach weighed 6 months after we purchased it back in 2010, but we were not fulltimers then and we weren't carrying our "worldly possessions" with us at that time. I was very happy to find out that we are fine on individual wheel, GVW, and GCVW weights.  I'd recommend individual wheel weighing to anyone who has never had their rig weighed.  It was $45 thru the Escapees and well worth it for the peace of mind.

As we headed west on I-90 out of Gillette the landscape was basically rolling, with these occasional "bumps".

Even before we got close to Buffalo, WY (out point to leave the interstate) we began to be able to see the snow on the mountains of the Bighorn Range.

This was just west of Buffalo after leaving the interstate.

Rt. 16 thru the Bighorn Mountains is two-lane all the way.  It didn't take long before the climbing began.  Fortunately, we had very little westbound traffic either ahead of, or behind us for the climb.

Now that we're higher in elevation, the snow on the mountains is much easier to see.

Once inside the Bighorn National Forest there are signs indicating that there are "free range" stock areas.  Shortly after seeing that first sign we came around a curve and sure enough! They just wandered across at their own leisurely pace and didn't seem fazed by the traffic at all.

We got a good laugh out of this speed limit sign.  We never got close to 65 MPH.  We did get down to 35 MPH in 3rd gear several times going uphill, however.

When driving a larger rig you know that it's time to pay attention to your speed (and braking control) when you see these areas.

The final sign that made me a true believer was this "25 MPH Sharp Curve" sign.  We pulled off in the parking area to the left to take a few pictures of the area.  The curve is at the bottom of a fairly long descent.

Looking downhill from the pullout you can see the switchbacks leading to several tight curves.  The scenery in this area is beautiful.

We finally made it thru the Bighorn Mountains without too much "white knuckling".  Actually, US16 in this area is not too bad if you pay attention to your speed and stay off of your service brake.  There is another route a bit north of here thru a different section of the same mountains (on US14), but was advised that it was quite a bit more "stressful".  I really didn't want to experience that today!  LOL  Once we left the mountains, we experienced a lot of landscape similar to the picture at the left.  This is enroute to Ten Sleep.

We pulled into Absaroka Bay RV Campground in Cody around 1:30 PM.  We were certainly glad that we had made reservations as there are no vacancies tonight.  We will be here for the next 8 nights. Got set up and that was about it for today.  Tomorrow we'll probably hit the visitor's center and start planning our adventures here.

Thanks for stopping by to take a look!