- Museum visit to the beautiful Buffalo Bill Center of the West in Cody
- Exhibits on Western Art, Natural History Exhibits, Firearms, the Life of Buffalo Bill and the Plains Indians
- Drive back to Yellowstone and on to Grand Teton National Park
- Detour to the Hayden Valley and short hike at Mud Vulcano
After the small breakfast buffet at the Super8 motel, we drive to the Buffalo Bill Center. The rainy and cold day again invites you to visit the museum. The Buffalo Bill Center of the West is divided into five thematically different areas. We start counterclockwise at the Cody Firearms Museum. In addition to all the ornate revolvers, rifles and other firearms, some record trophies from various animal species are on display here. The huge elk, elk, bighorn, dall and caribou heads are particularly impressive. There is even a place for a walrus head. Right in front of it, two enormous grizzlies and a polar bear are presented.
Next door is the Whitney Western Art Museum, where the art of the Wild West is presented like hardly anywhere else. The subjects are mostly Indians, cowboys, cavalry, animal world or western landscape. Among them are some really worth seeing works.
In the Plains Indian Museum extension, the visitor immerses himself in the unfortunately largely submerged culture of the Plains Indians. Weapons, clothes, jewelry, tipis, history and many other aspects of the different tribes are shown. Everything revolves around the bison, to which the tribes subordinated their entire life.
The heart of the museum is then the Buffalo Bill Museum, which thematizes the life of the western icon William F. Cody. From his beginnings as a scout in the cavalry, hunter to the great world-famous superstar. He even toured Europe with his show and met the Pope and the Queen.
Last but not least, there is the natural history part with further animal exhibits, some dinosaur skeletons and bones, a saber-toothed tiger and explanations about the vegetation and geology of the region.
At around 3 p.m. we set off in icy conditions. Back towards the east entrance of Yellowstone National Park. The route worth seeing with many spectacular rock formations along the Shoshone River is unfortunately heavily overcast even today. In keeping with this, the highlights remain rare in the park. During the detour to the Hayden Valley we see a large herd of bison and then look at the bubbling and sulfur-smelling Mud Vucano. When driving along the lake, it starts to rain heavily. Along the way we see some grazing elk before we definitely leave Yellowstone National Park.
We reach the neighboring Teton National Park via the Rockefeller Memorial Parkway. It is already getting dark when we arrive at Signal Mountain Campground. Despite the cold and wet weather we decide to camp, but we treat ourselves to a meal in the warm restaurant and a nightcap. Here we are still planning the further course of the journey and I am writing a diary.
