Traveling Across America Day 4: Rediscovering the True Wild and the Old West

The old west

Having spent the last couple days in Wyoming I’ve come to realize the old west still exists, and the heart of it may be in Cody, Wyoming.

We woke up late after a long day in Grand Teton and Yellowstone yesterday, and our first stop was the Buffalo Bill Center of the West. I didn’t know much about Buffalo Bill, other than the iconic paintings and pictures that I occasionally saw. So, I was concerned the museum was going to be a bit hokey.

I was dead wrong.

The museum was split up into six separate wings:

1. Buffalo Bill Museum
2. Draper Natural History Museum
3. Whitney Western Art Museum
4. Plains Indian Museum
5. Cody Firearms Museum
6. McCracken Research Library

We started with the Draper, which was broken into five more sections, each representing a specific wildlife segment in Wyoming. If you love wildlife, this is definitely your type of place.

It wasn’t until two hours later that we walked out of the first section of the museum and realized (mainly because the dogs were in the car) that we had about thirty minutes to speed walk through the other five sections.

Truly wild

After leaving the museum we set off on the real reason we stopped at Cody: Wild Mustangs.

We had read online about a place called McCullough Peak where the horses can often be spotted.

What we didn’t read is that the path up the mountain is not paved, and in some parts is probably 20-25% grades. If that doesn’t mean anything to you then just imagine driving up side of a mountain on a lose, gravelly path with no guardrails.

It was sketchy to say the least. But it was also pretty badass.

And here’s what it looked like on top of the mountain…

We saw some pretty huge Angus cattle…

And some pronghorn deer in the distance…

But no wild mustangs.

It was a 22 mile drive over and around the mountain before we were back out on Interstate 14, and even though we didn’t spot any horses it was still worth the trip.

Had enough winding roads for a while

Shortly after leaving Cody we drove through Bighorn National Forest, which reminded me a lot of Sequoia and Yosemite National Parks, minus the giant trees.

It was about 45 miles of winding roads through the mountain, and while the views were gorgeous, I’ve had my fill of winding roads for the year.

Overall it was a pretty low key day, but sometimes that’s best. Especially with Mount Rushmore and the Badlands on the agenda for tomorrow.

Other posts in the Traveling America series:

• Day 0: I’m Traveling Across America (And One Day You Should Too!)
• Day 1: Discovering Snake River and Eating Chick-fil-a
• Day 2: Someone Turned Down the Shoshone Falls
• Day 3: Face to Face With a Grizzly Bear
• Day 4: Rediscovering the True Wild and the Old West
• Day 5: Bad Weather and Beautiful Colors
• Day 6: Every City Needs Waterfalls
• Days 7 and 8: The Windy City is…Really Windy
• Day 10: The Most Beautiful Scenery and the Most Disgusting Hotel
• Days 11 and 12: New York Countryside and Massachusetts Coast
• Day 13: New Haven and Old Friends
• Day 14: The Land of the Free and Chocolatey
• Day 15: Science, God, and Disappointment
• Days 16, 17, and 18: The Blue Ridge Parkway (Still Amazing)