Wyoming’s Wild Wild West

After picking up my dad in Denver, we hit the road to Bondurant, Wyoming. My friend Shauna’s parents, Yvonne & Dan have a home just south of Jackson, WY and they were generous enough to host my father and myself for two nights.

That drive through Wyoming was very green and peaceful, unfortunately these were the first images that I’d lost (see why they were lost here). When we got to the Baileys it was dusk and gorgeous. They have made a breathtaking home in this gorgeous area of Wyoming.

They showed us around the house, we settled in and we had a delicious home-cooked meal 🙂

The following morning my dad and I woke up and headed to Grand Tetons National Park (see post here). When we got back from the park, the weather had cleared up and the Baileys generously took us on a Quad ride through the national forest which ended with a magnificent sunset.

We followed this with another amazing home-cooked meal (can you tell I enjoy home-cooking?? 🙂 ) The following morning on our way out we stopped to take a picture of their neighbors white bison. It was really foggy, but if you look closely you can see two in there!

From there my dad and I did Yellowstone National Park (see post here). Our last day in Yellowstone, we were going to try and camp in the Lamar Valley, but all the sites were full, so we settled on driving to Cody, WY (after seeing more of the park).

We eventually made it to Cody, WY which made it convenient for us to go to the Buffalo Bill Cody Museum Center of the West the next morning.

The Buffalo Bill Cody Museum was pleasantly surprising. I’m not sure what I expected but I would strongly recommend visiting it! William F Cody, or “Buffalo Bill” was a famous cowboy who represented the very image of an American.

Fun Facts:

• nicknamed “Buffalo Bill” for his skill at hunting bison (or buffalo)
• he fought for the Union during the Civil War
• hunted and scouted for the US Army during the Indian War
• planned, staged, and performed in an epic exhibition for the show arena, “Buffalo Bill’s Wild West”
• advocated for Indian people, for women & for conservation
• Annie Oakley was a performing member of Buffalo Bill’s Wild West

They also have an eagle rehabilitation center there. They had a bald eagle and a golden eagle, but the golden eagle was in with the doctor when we were there.

 

After the museum, we headed east.

The weather was quite interesting; it would be sunny then all of a sudden thick dark clouds.

We winded through the mountains, and around one corner we got to see one of the large mammals we had yet to see together… Moose!!

We arrived at our campground with a spectacular view of Devils Tower (see post here). Then we were on our way to The Black Hills of South Dakota!