Cody WY and Yellowstone Part 1

Cody WY and Yellowstone

We stayed a couple of nights in Cody waiting for our reservation date in Yellowstone. 

Last year, constant readers know, we had a flat tire on the way to Durango CO.  Well, the tire bought to replace the flat went bad on us.  We ordered a new tire on Walmart online and needed to pick it up at the Walmart in Cody. 

What an experience.  One never knows when one pulls into the Walmart parking lot what one will find.  This one had the sculpture below.  A mere $75K, in case you are looking for a new yard ornament. 

When we inquired about the tire, no one at Walmart knew anything about it.  They recommended I check the website to see where it was.  Well, two days later, we discovered the tire in the Walmart store in Cody WY and it had been there the whole time.  Hhhhmmmm.   But we got the tire on the truck and we are back with four good tires now. 

Cody is an interesting little town, full of Buffalo Bill sites and history.  The Irma Hotel was built for Bill’s girlfriend, Irma.  

Without its close proximity to Yellowstone, Cody would be a much different place.  I doubt that the Buffalo Bill association would be enough to draw thousands of tourists through there every year. 

As we started up the highway to Yellowstone, we stopped at a memorial to firefighters killed in a wildfire in 1937.  At the time I write this, there are five wildfires in Yellowstone. Incredibly 

dangerous work for anyone brave enough to attempt it.  

There are wildfires all over the West and probably not nearly enough fire crews to work them.  I overheard two ladies’ conversation in the grocery store in Cody.  One asked the other, “Did  you get burned out?”  Obviously, the second lady had a home in the fire area.  Fortunately, the answer was “No.”  As we left Yellowstone through the south entrance, we encountered smoke from the fires burning around Jackson.

There are signs and posters EVERYWHERE warning of the danger of the Yellowstone bears.  (Note:  We saw NO BEARS in Yellowstone.)  Curiously, there is no information about mountain lions, and I was sure there must be cougars somewhere in the park, with the large deer and elk populations.  I asked at one of the visitor centers and was told the cougars are in the far north of the park and are rarely seen in the visitor-heavy area.  Good thing.

It is an unsettling feeling to look across the landscape here and see the plumes of steam from the vents.  You get the sense you are standing on top of an unimaginable power source which could blow at any time.  Yellowstone (as you all know) is a super volcano which hasn’t erupted in 600,000 years.  I am sure there are monitors all over the park but since Mt. St. Helens blew up without warning, so much for monitoring.