This morning the effects of the wildfire west of us, near the border of Yellowstone, were visible toward the end of the lake, but the view was incredible. This picture was taken at the shoreline directly below where our camper was parked. You can see the heavy clouds off in the distance. We thought those clouds were rain but figured out later that there was a pretty sizable burn happening between us and Yellowstone.
We then hiked some of the trails right in Cody along the river. Here’s a shot from one of the bluffs near the north end of town.
The rest of the morning and part of the afternoon were spent at the Buffalo Bill Center of the West touring the Draper Museum of Natural History and the Buffalo Bill Museum. The Draper Museum was quite interesting in how they had it laid out, because it was a spiral that started in the alpine regions at the top and worked its way down to the plains at the bottom, descending in altitude as you went. The Buffalo Bill Museum was great because I actually didn’t remember all that much about him, and it was quite detailed in the entire story of him and his Wild West shows.
We finished off the afternoon at the Old Trail Town, which is an artificial ghost town comprised of real buildings and antiques that were moved to this location by a local historian. The featured image at the top of this article is a view of the entire ghost town taken from the northern end.
They were true to the look and feel of the time, even if the buildings weren’t in their original location. A great example is this picture taken from inside the saloon.
Another great example is this general store, complete with many of the goods that would actually be found in such a general store of the time.
It started raining during our stay, so we left, did some shopping, and returned to the campground to complete the day.