Part 3 - We made it to Cody, WY

When we made our summer trip plans we kept in mind that we needed to be in Cody, Wyoming to meet up with our Western Slope 4-Wheelers club friends in mid-August to participate in some off-road adventures in our Jeep. So we slowly made our way to the upper western area of Wyoming.  Since we had never been to this part of Wyoming before we were anxious to do some sightseeing.  We settled into our RV Park for a week to enjoy the area, do some group four wheeling adventures and take in the sights of Cody.

Cody, Wyoming is known as a western town filled with old west shows, rodeos and western history. Colonel William Frederick Cody or as he is more commonly known as, Buffalo Bill, helped found the town in 1896.  It is noted that he loved the area and owned ranch property nearby and built a hotel in town and named it after his daughter.

We began our Western Slope 4-Wheelers adventure by driving the Sunlight Basin Trail, then parts of the famous Morrison Trail and wrapped up with visiting Kirwin Ghost Town. We saw so much beautiful country plus learned about the area history. 

Sunlight Basin Trail:  

From Cody we drove northwest to the Chief Joseph Scenic Byway where we entered into the Shoshone National Forest and followed the Clarks Fork River upstream to beautiful meadows, water crossings and the towering Absaroka Mountains. 

 

Morrison Trail:  Upper access:

The history of the trail dates back to 1877 when Chief Joseph and the Nez Perce Indians used this route to escape from the US Army. Today it is known as a challenging four wheeling trail because of its' tough rocky terrain and 27 tight switchbacks on a narrow and steep shelf road. Along with that you also experience breathtaking mountain and valley views, numerous high elevation lakes, wildlife, forest and canyons.  During our visit we would not be able to drive the entire trail, more specifically, the 27 switchbacks on the steep edge due to landslides from two years of heavy storms that have not been repaired yet.  So our adventure would start from along the Beartooth Plateau Scenic Highway going in 9 miles to near the top of the switchbacks and then back the same route.  On another day we explored  the bottom along the waters edge of the Clarks Fork River Canyon to the bottom of the switchbacks.  The Forest Service says they have received funding to repair the switchback next year... a good excuse to come back and experience the entire trail when it does reopen.

Sawtooth Mountain

Views to the South of the Absaroka Mtn. range from 10,000 ft elev.

More views for miles of the Absaroka range to the NW.

Western Slope 4-Wheelers group

Great lunch spot !

Morrison Trail:  Lower access:

The following photos were taken from our drive to the lower entrance of the Morrison Trail along the Clarks Fork River Canyon looking up at closed switchback area.

The closed switchbacks are in the background. Barely noticeable in the photo.

Clarks Fork River Canyon

Bridal Veil Waterfall in Clarks Fork River Canyon

Kirwin Ghost Town:  

Located in the southern Absaroka Mountains along a fork of the Wood River sits the building remains of what was once a booming mining town.  From the late 1800s to 1907 several hundred residents called Kirwin home.  The mining brought in more businesses including a sawmill, general stores, a boarding house and a hotel.  Unfortunately the amazing close backdrop of the mountains also came with avalanche hazards and ultimately an avalanche was the towns demise.  A huge storm passed through town in February of 1907 and an avalanche roared through town killing 3 people and destroying several buildings. With all things considered once the storm cleared most of the people packed up and left to never return.  The town is managed by the Forest Service and volunteer groups help to preserve the buildings.

Kirwin as seen during our visit - August, 2023.

The old boarding house and other Kirwin buildings.

One of the main mines right in town with its vertical shaft enclosed head frame.

Vertical shaft winch still in place.

After enjoying four days of 4-wheeling with our friends we were able to stay a couple more days and explore some more places around Cody.  According to the Trip Advisor one of the top 5 things to do was visit the Buffalo Bill Center of the West and we can second that. We've never been to a more impressive museum.  It actually houses 5 museums: The Buffalo Bill Museum: The Plains Indian Museum; Whitney Western Art Museum: Draper Natural History Museum and the Cody Firearms Museum. It is so big that admission is for 2 days, if needed, and we did!

Buffalo Bill Museum:  

This museum depicts Cody's life and many family artifacts are on display.  In his early life Cody gained notoriety as a scout and guide. During this period he also picked up his nickname of "Buffalo Bill" after the American Civil War when he had a contract to supply Kansas Pacific Railroad workers with buffalo meat.

The Plains Indian Museum: 

This wing of the museum displays the history, art and culture of the Plains Indian peoples. We were very impressed with the headdresses and bead work.

Beautiful bead work

Whitney Western Art Museum:

We were in awe as we walked among many different styles and types of paintings and sculptures mostly depicting the West.

This is a painting and not a photo...unbelievable detail !

Cody himself

Lower Yellowstone Falls by Albert Burstadt

Draper Natural History Museum:

We describe this museum wing like a walk in nature. It deals with so much of the wildlife found in the Wyoming and Yellowstone area.  The design and layout of the displays are very well done. The wildlife and natural land features were grouped in different 'zones' beginning at the bottom floor  (which dealt with elevations below 5000 feet) and worked its' way upward until you were examining natural features and animals which occur above 10,000 feet.

A good graphic comparison on the two types of bears... showing why a grizzly is so much more dangerous with just a swipe of its paw. 

Cody Firearms Museum:

Even if you are not a gun enthusiast this museum does have very informative history displays and leads you through time with relationship to the type of firearms used. They had many hands-on displays and the most comprehensive variety of firearms that we have experienced.  This place holds everything from the entire Winchester Collection (basis of the collection) to machine guns, to BB guns and everything in between.  Beautifully hand crafted guns to ones that were used in movies and TV series.  We thoroughly enjoyed this wing of the museum and spent the most time here. There is sooooo much to see.

Racks and racks and racks of nicely displayed guns.

Love the rose handle.

Art work meets function 

The gun used by the Lone Ranger (John Hart) for one season of the
television series.  This embellished firearm belongs to him.
It's a Colt Single Action Army Revolver

Beartooth Highway and Chief Joseph Scenic Loop.  

The Beartooth Highway is the section of U.S. Highway 212 between Red Lodge, Montana along the southern border of Montana and winds in and out of Wyoming going to Cooke City Montana and the north entrance of Yellowstone. It traces a series of steep zigzags and switchbacks along the Montana-Wyoming border to Beartooth Pass.  This road is considered a National Scenic Byway All-American Road and as the most beautiful highway in America and we knew we wanted to drive it. 

The Chief Joseph Scenic Byway, as mentioned earlier, was the trail used by natives over the Beartooth Mtn. from the Cody area which ties into part of the Beartooth Highway.  So since we were on these roads to access some of our Jeeping trails, it was a 'no brainer' to drive the entire scenic loop.  Along the route we experienced sparkling alpine lakes, lush valleys, wildflowers, steep switchback roads and snow dotted mountains. Beartooth Pass is the highest motor crossing in Wyoming at 10,947 ft elev.

Finishing our Beartooth Highway road trip we stopped at Red Lodge, Montana for a bite to eat before heading back to Cody for the night.  Red Lodge was historically a mining town but now the draw seems to be travelers heading to Yellowstone via the Beartooth Highway. It is a great rest stop with numerous 'home-town' restaurants and shops after we 'white-knuckling' it over the Beartooth roads!

Main Street of Red Lodge, Montana

After Cody it was time to start to head back South toward home. We checked the Arizona weather and it was still in the 100s so we made a detour to Montrose, Colorado to stay a couple of weeks in the cooler mountains. While there we enjoyed group four wheeling, sightseeing and lots of fun times with friends.

Up to this point we had found the oldest geocaches in Utah and Wyoming so why not Colorado. That's exactly what we did.  WooHoo!!!!

 

Found the oldest Colorado geocache. 

Once we settled into our RV park we were lucky enough to do some more Jeeping trips with our friends with the Western Slope 4-Wheelers from Montrose. One trip we drove in to the Grand Mesa area, which took us up to 10,250 ft elev. to the beautiful Leon lake for lunch.  On another trip we drove to the Silverton, CO area and explored the Eureka Gulch trail and the Minnie Gulch trail, which both got us into old 1880's mining areas.

Heading to Leon lake in the thick aspen forest

A lot of deep water crossings kept the Jeep bottom clean!

This would be a great fall color trail !

Another beautiful lake/pond in the area.

The group at the top of Eureka Gulch

Looking down Eureka Gulch from 12,200 ft. elev... Perched on the edge is an old cable tram house from the 1900's used to cable ore down the mountain.

Great photo of the SW Colorado Mtn. range with the high mineral colorization. 

Well... all good things must end and the Arizona summer heat is starting to cut back touching less than the dreaded triple digits, plus we have some appointments scheduled for the end of the month... time to head home.

*** Time flies by when you are having fun. We enjoyed visiting so many places and experiencing the beauty this Country has to offer. Thanks for stopping by to read about our summer travels.  Until next time - Happy Travels. ***

Part 2 - Summer Vacation

Moving on down the road...

The vacation continued with more touring of the desert and high country of Utah. Plus traveling to more cooler temperatures and rainy weather in Wyoming and exploring the Grand Teton National Park on our way toward Cody, Wyoming.

Vernal, Utah

As we continued our way north from the Duck Creek/Cedar City area we stopped at an RV Park in Vernal, Utah for a couple of days to stock up on supplies for our next mountain camping in the Ashley National Forest near the Flaming Gorge Reservoir.

Vernal, Utah is dinosaur country! As aliens are to Roswell, NM - the dinosaurs are to Vernal. They can be found almost on every corner.  The popular nearby attraction is the Dinosaur National Monument.

The Welcoming Dinosaur 

Scary dinosaurs 

Unusual dinosaur

Colorful dinosaur 

However, we decided on a more low key adventure by Geocaching around the area. Driving up a canyon a few miles out of town on our way to a cache... we spotted the McConkie Ranch Petroglyphs, Utah Historic Site, found on private land where the owner graciously welcomes visitors on a donation basis to view the site.  Again, Geocaching brought us to another unique location that we wouldn't have found or known about. The rock imagery panels are noted as some of the best preserved and most iconic expressions of the Fremont culture in the region. It sure made us say 'Wow'. 

Another Geocache site we went to was in the old historic downtown Vernal to see the old bank building built in 1916 in a very unusual way.... 

History of the Vernal Bank known as the 'Parcel Post Bank'.  Currently is the Zions Bank.

In the summer of 1916, William Horace Coltharp, one of the directors of the Bank of Vernal, wanted pressed bricks to help build a new two-story home for the bank and other local businesses. Although he planned to use cheaper, locally-fired bricks for most of the building, he wanted pressed bricks for its facade. 

At the time it was built, there was a dispute of some kind with the freighting companies in the area and shipping the bricks from Salt Lake City via the freight companies would cost too much.  To get around this issue, someone discovered that the post office would not charge nearly so much as the freighters for the same package, so all the bricks for the building were MAILED via U.S. Postal Service to Vernal.   The bricks were individually wrapped in paper and packed ten to a wooden crate to meet the maximum allowable 50-pound limit for packages. In total, the bricks filled 1,500 crates and weighed about 37 ½ tons.  It was too late for the U.S.P.S. to do anything about it once it caught on, but after this building was built, they did make a regulation that one person cannot send over 50 pounds of mail in one day.  The brickwork on the bank building was completed by November 1916.

Again, Geocaching for the unique history or location!

Parcel Post Bank - Google photo from back in the day

Current day Zions Bank

Ashley National Forest 

Once we had toured Vernal and found some more highly favored geocaches we were ready to leave this dinosaur infested town and head to a higher elevation.  Our destination was Ashley National Forest (ANF) which includes the popular Flaming Gorge Reservoir area. The ANF encompasses about 1.4 million acres in northeastern Utah and southwestern Wyoming.  Elevations range from 5,500 feet on the Green River at it's northern/eastern border to 13,528 feet at the summit of King's Peak (the highest point in Utah). This is largest east-west trending mountain range in the lower 48 states.

Flaming Gorge Reservoir

John Wesley Powell was not the first to navigate the Green River corridor but he was the first to explore and document his findings along the way.  In May of 1869 Powell disembarked on one of his famous boat trips down a wild river, the Green River, he entered the canyon at the base of the surroundings mountains and once his eyes view the brilliant red gorge below he named it "Flaming Gorge".  Today it is known for great fishing and beautiful views along with the surrounding mountains that offer camping among the pine trees, wildlife, etc.

Since cell service was non-existent at our campsite, so every couple of days, we would make a sunset run a few miles down the road to the Sheep Creek Outlook to check our texts, emails, etc.  The view was breathtaking and we enjoyed watching the clouds go by or boaters far, far away.

 

From Sheep Creek Lookout

Our Campsite in the Ashley N.F. above Flaming Gorge reservoir

Sunset from our campsite

We were so excited to find a Moose on one of our geocaching trips deep in the woods.

Another day another beautiful sunset. 
You can never have too many beautiful sunsets. 

We always say that Geocaching takes us to places we might not otherwise explore. Here are a few more examples of great geocaching finds:

 Moose Pond

1937 Historical Fire Tower which we got to go up
 and see the view and learn the history of  'the day and life of a fire watch'

Cache in a natural limestone cave

Tower Rock

As we continue on our journey the next stopover for a couple of nights was Kemmerer, WY.  Kemmerer is a small town with limited facilities and attractions but not far from there we were able to explore the mountains where we found the oldest Wyoming geocache, cooler mountain temperatures, flowers and unique waterfalls.

The 'Big Spring' geocache brought us to this great waterfall 

This huge spring just bubbles up out of the ground from under the rock face.

The flowers were blooming and the moss layered thickly on the rocks in the stream.

After some scenic Jeeping and a short hike, we found Wyoming's oldest
geocache - Bridger-Teton

Our next destination was the very popular Jackson Hole and the Grand Teton National Park. As Jackson is a crowded tourist town with packed RV parks we were lucky enough to score the perfect RV site about 45 minutes from town at Rim Station RV park. Mountains, green valleys  and animals were viewed from our site.  It was very relaxing.

RV site at Rim Station RV Park.

Our first trip into Jackson Hole was a rainy day and we knew the Grand Tetons would be enveloped in clouds so we did some walking around downtown, shopping and, of course, geocaching.

The famous antler arch in downtown Jackson, WY

Jack having a conversation with ole' Slim hanging
out in downtown Jackson. I think he told Jack
where the geocache was.

Taxi anyone....

A geocache tour took us to many places in the downtown area and one was the oldest building in Jackson which has quite an interesting history. It was built in 1915 as a livery and in 1918 ts was converted into the Yellowstone stage coach company, taking visitors to and from nearby Yellowstone Park.  Then in 1930 it became a Model T Dealership.  As the 1930s rolled along it became a bowling alley, mercantile and the local post office (some of the original PO boxes are onsite). In 1948 a gal by the name of  Vera Cheney brought her first piano player from New York City and transformed the building into a theater.  Today, The Playhouse, houses a very fun, lively western musical complete with comedy, shootouts, good food and lots of entertainment. 

It's a bear !!!!!

The Million Dollar Cowboy Bar was established in 1937. Known for it's
country western dancing and big name live entertainers.
A very popular place.

Due to the rain...We extended our stay at the RV park in hopes the weather would clear up enough in a day or so that we could sneak a peak at the Grand Tetons. As luck would have it on our last day it was the clearest day we had our entire stay and we could see most of the grand rock mountains with some lingering clouds.  As we drove the Teton Park Road we were in awe at the breathtaking heights of these rocky mountains and enjoyed many stops along the way to soak up all the beauty.

Grand Teton National Park took decades to establish.  The original part of the park was created in 1929 to protect the Teton Range and several lakes at the foot of these grand rugged mountains.  In 1943, Franklin D. Roosevelt had visited the area and in 1943 declared additional land in the valley to be Jackson Hole National Monument.  Then in 1949, John D. Rockefeller, Jr. donated the land he purchased to the government to be included in the national park.  Finally in 1950 Congress combined the original park, the national monument and the Rockfeller lands to establish present day Grand Teton National Park.

Chapel of the Transfiguration. This small log chapel, built in 1925, offers spectacular views of the Teton Mountain Range and a majestic place to pray.

Thankful for the beauty.

Peeking through the clouds.

The Grand Tetons

We turned onto a dirt road from the crowded main park road to find the secluded
Spalding Bay on Jackson Lake

Note the glaciers

Next stop - Cody, Wyoming.......four wheeling, Buffalo Bill Center of the West tour and more.......

Until next time - Be Happy!