June 24, 2016
Buffalo Bill's Center of the West
Cody, WY

Today we took a tour of the Buffalo Bill Ceneter of the West Museum.

The Center consists of 5 different museums. It has a beautiful look and feel and is a very new and modern facility. We were very impressed. They have a nice restaurant, a snack bar, and an extensive gift shop with art, books, clothing, and our favorite, "fridge magnets" ;>) (Hey we live in an RV, we have no space ;>) )


 The Buffalo Bill Cody Museum...

The Cody Firearms Museum...An incredible collection of firearms from all periods of time....

We took a break from the museum and took a one hour Cody Trolley Tour. We learned a lot about the area. For instance, there are 584,000 residents of Wyoming, 9,500 residents of Cody and approx. 500,000 tourists visit Cody each year.... We saw a lot of the original homes, buildings, and businesses, and learned a lot about the history of Cody, Buffalo Bill, and this area.

The Plains Indians Museum....

Natural History Museum...

And an American Indian Art Museum with some amazing art......

We really enjoyed spending the day here and we could have spent two. The tickets are good for two days and you purchase and pick up the trolley right here also, very convenient. A trip to Cody wouldn't be complete without a visit to this fantastic facility.

June 22, 2016
Absaroka Bay RV Park
Cody, WY

We had to wait our turn to pull out of our RV site since all the RVs were packed in like a jigsaw puzzle. We very carefully pulled out and made several close turns around trees....but we had no problems. Leaving Thermopolis, we headed northwest on Wyoming SR 120. It was a 1 1/2 hour drive covering 84 miles. The road was pretty good and the 70 mph speed limit helped speed the trip along.
We pulled into Absaroka Bay RV park right at the noon check in.

 This is a very nice park with paved streets and gravel pull through sites. The sites are a little short which requires us to park the truck in the over flow parking area. Not a problem since our site is right next to it. They have nice grassy areas with picnic tables making for a comfortable setting.

You can see our truck parked in the background.....

Cody is a beautiful town with lots of restaurants and shopping. The buildings are old west style or log cabin making for a great old west feel. They have obviously prospered from having Yellowstone next door but even though this is a tourist town it still has a lot of regular old west town feel.

Here is a shot down the main drag....

Of course everything is named after Buffalo Bill, and we can't wait to check out the museum and other attractions (rodeos every night at 8pm)... We'll be here for 9 days before heading into Yellowstone so we should get a good look at everything in Cody.

June 21, 2016
Eagle RV Park
Thermopolis, WY

After a week of site seeing, boating, 4 wheeling, and cookouts Julie and her family packed up and headed back to Denver. We stayed in Glendo another day and got the rig ready for the road. Today we headed north and west on I-25 to Casper and then took US 20 west to Shoshoni and then north to Thermopolis. Marilyn took a shot of the back of the RV as we were heading north from Shoshoni. The terrain changed from flatlands to rolling mountains and bluffs.

At Shoshoni there is a state park (Boysen State Park) and a large reservoir with 2 or 3 campgrounds. Originally we were going o spend the night there but I found out they don't have any electric so that wasn't going to work for us. We decided to go further down the road to Thermopolis. The total trip from Glendo to Thermopolis was 207 miles and it took us around 3 1/2 hrs. We stopped in Casper to top off the tank and empty bladders since there is nothing between Casper and Shoshoni.

Eagle RV Park is a very small (approx. 35 sites) family owned and operated park. They are very friendly and helpful but the sites are gravel and very tight. We had to inch the RV into our site to avoid a large tree and getting out tomorrow looks to be exciting ;>)

Since we are only staying the one night we left the RV hooked up to the truck and just did an eyeball leveling..... So far the trees are blocking our satellite dish from locking in so it will be a quiet night of reading. Tomorrow we head further north to Cody, WY where we'll stay for 9 days prepping for the 3 weeks in Yellowstone and 2 weeks in the Tetons.

June 13-15, 2016
Mt Rushmore Lodge
Keystone, SD

Today we packed up Julie's Grand Jeep Cherokee and drove 3 hours to Keystone, SD. We chose the Mt Rushmore Lodge for it's close proximity to both Crazy Horse and Mt Rushmore.

The Lodge is nice but not a 5 star hotel by any stretch. It provides a decent room and breakfast and is located just up the hill from the town of Keystone.

On our way in, as we crossed into the Black Hills National Forest  you notice the landscape change from a flat, fairly desolate view to rolling hills and mountains that are covered in pine trees with outcroppings of beautiful granite. This is some of the most beautiful country we have seen in our travels. The roads gently wind through the hills adding to the experience and there are beautiful little quaint towns along the way such as Hill City and Keystone that you just have to stop in and shop or eat.

We stopped first at the Crazy Horse Memorial. The memorial is completely self funded and the cost per carload was $28.

This is how it looks today.

Here is the final sculpture.

 Here is the current mountain with the final drawing superimposed on it......

They have been working on this since 1968 and clearly they still have a lot to go.

We toured the museum and watched a movie about the meaning behind the memorial and its history. There is a restaurant and a gift shop and the Rangers do a presentation describing the history and digging process.

We spent the evening walking through the shops in Hill City which is about 10 miles from the Hotel and we stayed there for dinner.

The next day we headed over to Mt Rushmore. It was just a 2 mile drive going through Keystone and up to the top of the mountain. As you pull into the entrance you are immediately hit with the spectacular view.

There is no charge for entrance but they charge $11 for parking.

Here are a few of the pictures we took....

 We walked the outdoor trail that takes you right below the mountain...

Here the view up George's nostrils :>)

This is the sculpture used as a model for the mountain....

Since this was Flag Day we thought the crowds would be heavy but really it didn't seem overly crowed. The facilities are laid out well so you don't feel cramped. They have a museum and a restaurant/grill/snack bar which has both a large indoor and outdoor area.

Since Marilyn had been here before she had us spend a few hours here during the day and then we came back around 7:30 pm for the evening presentation and  lighting ceremony. That started at 9:00 pm and ran until 10:00 pm. They have a nice amphitheater for the show.

 Before the presentation they play patriotic music for about 30 minutes, then a Ranger comes out and provides a description of the history of Rushmore and details on each of the 4 Presidents. Then they show a movie that provides a lot more details....

 After the presentation they light the mountain.....

After the lighting they have all current and former military come on stage for the lowering of the flag. After the lowering they have each person introduce themselves and their branch of service. The whole experience is very moving and quite patriotic.....it was an experience we will never forget.

As I said earlier, the Back Hills, Rushmore, Crazy Horse, and all the unique towns are some of the most beautiful places we've visited and it will always hold a special place in our hearts.