Lots of things to check out in this great city. Especially the mothership. Yes, that’s right. The original Starbucks is here. I can smell it.
Big Sky Country
It’s easy to see why Montana is called Big Sky Country.
Montana Mountains
Check out the orange snow plow guide pole in the right corner
More Montana mountains
No shortage of rock in Montana
She’s no Butte
Butte, MT. These pictures make her look prettier than she really is.
It’s an old mining town which has 14 old headframes (which are the steel part that sits above a mine shaft). You can see them in the first picture, way up on the hill. The town has strung red lights up on about half of the headframes, so they are all lit up at night. The nicest part of town was a great walking trail that seemed to go everywhere and the kids really enjoyed the tunnels on the trail.
Old mine “headframes” in Butte (look at the top of the hill)
Tunnel rats
Our Lady of the Rockies
That white blur at the top of the mountain is Our Lady of the Rockies, She sits high above Butte and has an interesting story. If only I could remember it. Something about being built entirely by volunteers. Oh yeah, she’s as tall as the Statue of Liberty too.
From Walldrug to Walmart
Every campground within 100 miles of Cody, Wy was closed, so we camped out in the local Walmart parking lot. Surprisingly, it wasn’t so bad.
Pretty nice view for a Walmart parking lot
These ($900) boots are made for what??
While in Cody, we stopped in a shoe store to check out the wares. We mistakenly thought we might just pick up a pair or two of cowboy boots. At $900+ a pair, it wasn’t happening… even the boots on clearance started at $200. They were beautiful though.
So many boots, so little money…
Yellowstone!
Finally, the park opened back up & we were able to check it out…
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- Scenic drive from Cody to Yellowstone
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- Steamboat Geyser at Yellowstone Lake
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- More cool rocks on the way in to the park
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- Grand Canyon of Yellowstone
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- Rachel & Summer at the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone
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- Yellowstone waterfall
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- Ephedra Spring
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- Hot Spring
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- Hot, hot spring
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- Bubbling hot spring
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- Hot, steamy spring
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- Thumb paint pots
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- The elks were mooning us
Old Faithful
This gallery contains 10 photos.
Buffalo Bill Buffs
While calming our nerves after the terrifying drive through the Bighorn Mountains, we decided to check out the Buffalo Bill Center of the West in Cody, WY. We are all big Buffalo Bill Cody buffs now.
It’s billed as “the Smithsonian of the West”. Wow, they weren’t kidding. This museum is really five museums in total. Of course, the Buffalo Bill Museum; the fabulous museum of Western Art; the Plains Indians; Natural History; and then the Firearms Museum. The price of admission (a mere $56 for all four of us) included a 2 day pass. We had the luxury of having the place mostly to ourselves and were able to see just about everything there in only one day.
My Dad and my brother Shawn would have drooled at the site of the firearms museum. The place was huge. I’ve never seen so many guns in my life. (nor do I think I want to again).
Just a taste of all the guns here
Another morsel
The Museum of Natural History was incredible – there was an amazing collection of stuffed critters there. Like this one:
Rachel with her friend, Mr. Polar Bear
We met some Raptors at a super cool presentation put on by a wildlife refuge group at the museum. There was a peregrine falcon, a turkey vulture, and a great-horned owl. We could have reached out and touched any one of these magnificent creatures, that’s how close we were. I had to avert my gaze, but Summer captured a video of the peregrine falcon lunching on a rabbit leg. With all the appropriate falcon crunching sounds. Ugh. If you have the stomach for it, check out the video on her page. Bon appetit.
Bighorn, we shall never speak of it again
We left Sheridan, WY heading toward Cody, WY and got some “advice” on the best route to take. Our advice: don’t take advice from someone who doesn’t drive a motorhome, especially someone not driving a motorhome while towing a car.
Luckily, as we were approaching the scary drive, Peter asked if we should unhook the car. As much as I didn’t like the prospect of driving up these crazy mountains, I was more terrified of passengering. I basically stopped the car, pried my white knuckles from the steering wheel & captured what I was sure would be the last photos of my family on my cell phone. Sorry for the dirty windshield.
Click on the pictures below. They are much worse enlarged.
Motorhome going through Bighorn
Scary sheer drop
25ph hairpin turn. I drove about 8mph.
“Scenic” drive, if you can peel your eyes from the road.
Sign: Watch for falling rocks. As if there wasn’t enough to worry about.
Oh yeah, then it started to snow.
Finally, toward the bottom of Bighorn, pretty rocks to look at.
Chimney Rock at Bighorn. Aptly named.
Snowing again on the way into Cody, WY. Visibility was excellent. Not.
Devil’s Tower
Another National Park – CLOSED! Again, that didn’t stop us from looking.
Wow, you can see the clawmarks
This kid is tall
- Us at Devil’s Tower
FindTheFords 