Yellowstone Lake in the morning
We camped at Buffalo Bill State Park where the Shoshone River empties into the Buffalo Bill Reservoir.
Only a few reservable sites have hookups and we weren't lucky enough to get one of those. We have discovered that as long as we can run the generator for about an hour each in the morning and the evening we can make do pretty well.
It's a pretty and quiet park and I would stay there again.
A couple of views of the pronghorn who live on the other side of the river.
We were treated to stunning sunsets.
My birthday came while we were in Cody. Tom asked what I wanted to do and I answered "Go site-seeing in the jeep." Naturally. We started out by crossing the bridge over the river and headed up the back side of the reservoir.
The local pronghorn herd seen from the other side of the river.
Range horses.
"I should move why?"
That didn't take long, so we decided to take highway out of Cody and then up the Chief Joseph Scenic Byway as far as Dead Indian Pass.
The scenery is stunning as you wind higher.
At the pass. Tom made a the panorama below.
We had originally planned to go to a cowboy-music all-you-can-eat buffet for dinner but truthfully that's not really "my thing". I pulled birthday rank and we instead visited the Pat O'Hara Brewing Co. in Cody. Good meal, good beer.
Other places visited in Cody:
The Proud Cut Saloon: We ate lunch there on the back patio and had to fight off yellow-jackets. That may have jaded my opinion. We had hamburgers and they were ok, but nothing to rave about.
We wanted to go to Zapata's for "New Mexican food" but they don't keep "linner" hours. They close after lunch and don't reopen until 5 p.m. Instead we went to La Comida. Good atmosphere, average Mexican food, marginal service.
Recommendation: The Yellowstone Gift Shop. Yes, it's half average tourist store selling the usual t-shirts, hat's, etc. But on the other side there is a true collection of Southwestern/Native American pottery and jewelry with much better prices than you find in the Southwest.
I talked Tom into a beautiful pair of turquoise earings for my birthday.
