Buffalo Bill Historical Center

Joe and I spent one and a half days in the Buffalo Bill Historical Center. The theme of the center is "celebrating the Spirit of the American West!". Since 1917, the Buffalo Bill Museum has been committed to the greatness and growth of the American West. The museum first opened in 1927 in a log cabin style building ( modeled after Cody's house at his TE Ranch) in downtown Cody. The museum stayed in that location until 1969 when it was relocated to a newly built wing of the Historical Center. Here, in its original incarnation, the Buffalo Bill Museums's focus is on the life and times of William F. "Buffalo Bill" Cody (1846-1917), the noted guide, scout, frontiersman, showman, actor, entrepreneur, and town founder. The Buffalo Bill Museum is the flagship museum of the Historical Center today. In addition to the Buffalo Bill Museum, there is also a Firearms Museum, Plains Indians Museum, Western Art Museum, and a Greater Yellowstone Natural History Museum all housed in the Historical Center.

This is the back of a chuck wagon...it carried the food and cooking equipment on the prairies. The cook's assistant was in charge of driving the bed wagon which carried the bedding and extra supplies such as firewood and ropes.

Early transportation through Yellowstone in the early 1900s.

The Firearms Museum is the largest of its kind in the world housing over 4500 firearms. The Winchester Collection is the heart of this museum, but don't expect to see only Winchester-made arms here. Virtually every significant manufacturer in the world is represented. This was Joe's favorite...

The Western Art Museum displays artistic masterpieces and modern views of the land, people, and wildlife of the West.

The Plains Indians Museum tells the significant story of the Plains Indian peoples, their cultures, traditions, values, and histories.

The Greater Yellowstone Natural History Museum....learn about grizzly bears, wolves, moose, eagles, wildfire geology and more. It was interesting to me to learn how much beavers contribute to nature.

Downstairs is an exhibit of Western Wear...from the early days of cowboys to the present day including rodeo attire. It was fun to try on different style hats.

Outside is a sculpture garden. It was cold, and rainy so we didn't get to go out.

Yellowstone National Park

The East Entrance...

 Yesterday Joe and I rode the Harley to Yellowstone. It was 196 miles round trip from Cody. It took us about 51/2  hours from beginning to end. The ride to the East Entrance of the park was through the Shoshone National Forest (which was a pretty ride also with lots of photo opps I will share later). The longhorn sheep were at the entrance of the park. I had been watching for them the whole way there and finally got a picture. All the pictures in this part of the post were taken as we were riding. I took around 750 pictures so you can just imagine how hard it was to pick out a few. I was looking and clicking so much, I didnt realize my hands were almost frozen.... We had a great day! We met  couples from Quebec, the Netherlands, and New York at different stops along the way.

The Sylvan Pass...a few miles into the park...

... a few more miles...I've never seen snow so thick...

...it was so pretty.

This is Yellowstone Lake. I have never seen a frozen lake before....the bison was headed to the edge of the lake. It was just beginning to thaw. We saw lots of bison grazing, but didn't see any bears.

This is a small thermal pool. You can really smell the sulphur.

A look at the Yellowstone River...

...notice the yellow pole...they were everywhere to measure the how deep the snow is.

The central plateau just before getting to Canyon Village.

An interesting photo....lots of areas burned by wildfires

The ride down was alot scarier...

This mile and a half was really fun.....looked like lots and lots of ski slopes.