Shopping first!
The day started with a visit to the shops. Something which enthralled Chris – not! – apart from the discovery of Levi’s at $42 a pair for 501s and a quick visit to a local liquor store where he purchased a number of local craft beers.
Buffalo Bill Museum
Enough of the shopping, we visited Cody’s best known attraction, the Buffalo Bill museum.
Some interesting memorabilia included: guns, saddles, clothing all from this famous man and his contemporaries. After learning more about William Cody and his amazing life, we headed out of town.
Big Horn National Forest
Heading for the hills in the Big Horn National Forest. We passed through Lovell where a man made lake captures water for hydroelectricity. Once again we were faced with hardly any traffic to spoil the spectacular views. We could see snow capped mountains in the distance, and were reminded that ‘winter is coming’. Although the locals had given us warning that the weather was about to turn.
Knowing we had a 4×4 well equipped for the early fluttering of snow we were not worried. The route we were taking closes in mid October, so if it was bad they would have closed the road early.
We drove up past miles of forest and climbed up to over 7,000 feet. At this point once again the scenery was stunning. We could see the lake and plains in the far distance, yet hovering above us were more mountains.
We climbed to 9,500 ft at the top of the Big Horn mountain and were properly up in the snow covered ground whilst temperatures dropped to -2C – yes ‘winter is coming’ in these parts!
After the summit road we came down into Dayton town and made our way out towards Sheridan and Buffalo.
Buffalo
I am writing this blog sat in the original 1880 Occidental Saloon, located near the Bozeman Trail and visited by Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. Other well known visitors included Teddy Roosevelt, Buffalo Bill and Calamity Jane.
The bar takes you straight back to the Western Days. The saloon is kitted out with various stuffed animals all looking down on the large wooden bar and traditional tiled floor.
We will leave Buffalo shortly to make our way to Gillette for the night and no doubt for Chris a close shave!
Bye for now
Ax
A quick update, the road I90 from Buffalo to Gillette, a total of 67, miles is a complete nothingness! There was not one town, hardly a car on the road, no service stations or proper housing. It was just miles of cattle grazing or wild elk and the occasional wooden shack. Amazing landscape views in their own right, but it just puts this country into perspective, when you can drive so far and see so little human life!