Yellowstone Day 3 - Day of the Buffalo

Despite our getting to bed late last night, we got up bright and early this morning because everyone said that if you want to see wild animals you have to be out early while it is still cool.  And we really wanted to see some wildlife - particularly buffalo, so we hit the road early to explore the east side of Yellowstone on our way to our day trip to Cody, Wyoming.   The boys have been talking about seeing buffalo since we started planning our trip to Yellowstone months ago, and were getting pretty anxious that there really were no buffalo here.  In our prayers, the boys have even been praying that we would see some buffalo.  The Lord must have heard our prayers because as we were driving through the forest there was a clearing and right in front of us we saw this...

OK, yah, it was only a deer, but then we passed another clearing and saw this...

Isn't he COOL?  He was munching on grass just at the edge of the forest and he was HUGE!  We slammed our car to a stop (Yellowstone has LOTS of turnouts for just such a thing), and all jumped out to watch this guy eat his breakfast.  We were all SO excited!  He was just so big and powerful looking, nibbling on tiny wildflowers.  They must eat a lot of grass to get that big.  

Isn't this the coolest picture?  I used my telephoto on him.

It was so funny, because we were so excited to see this huge buffalo right by the roadside, but all the cars coming from the opposite direction didn't even seem to notice or care, even when Dennis was trying to point it out to them.  When we climbed back in the car and drove around the corner we figured out why the lack of enthusiasm.  This is what we saw... 

 There were buffalo everywhere, spotting the hillsides and congregated in the valleys.  No wonder people coming from that direction weren't so impressed by our buffalo.  Hallelujah!  Our prayers had been answered!

After a few more minutes the traffic came to a dead stop and this is why...
...a Wyoming traffic jam.  We saw this several times today, sometimes one and sometimes a herd of buffalo would decide to mozy across the road, and sometimes stop right in the middle of the road.  We definitely had the feeling that they owned the place.  Everyone patiently waits as the buffalo makes his way slowly in front of the car, and sometimes, just as he is about to get across, he'd change his mind, and turn around and slowly walk back across.  It was hilarious.  Nobody would honk, who would dare?  And how do you make a one ton buffalo move?  You don't.  You just wait.  And watch, and snap pictures.  It took is over an hour to go just a few miles due to morning "traffic."
I thought this guy was cool standing in the mist and the purple wildflowers with the river in the background.

We saw these two bison engaged in a fight.  We saw a lot of this - grunting, snorting, and smashing their heads together to assert their male dominance - and that was just our boys.   The buffalo did it to.  Males!

We liked these two birds hitching a ride on the back of this bison.

Driving along we suddenly smelled something nasty.  Not a skunk, but Sulfur Spring, a yellow hot spring full of odorous sulfur.  Nate forces a smile.  Not Luke.

Despite all the buffalo traffic, we eventually made it our of the park to Cody, Wyoming, a city founded by the famous icon of the West, Buffalo Bill Cody (thus contributing further to our "day of the buffalo".)

Our first stop was the LDS visitor center there, where we learned about the early pioneers who settled the basin, and saw a great round mural of events in church history.  The missionary couple there gave us some great information about the area, and advice on a nice picnic area by a lunch where we had lunch.  As we drove to the picnic area we saw many deer just standing in people's yards, and chomping on their carefully planted flowers.  I have heard about people in other places complaining about deer destroying their gardens.  I couldn't relate.  Now I get why.  That could be really frustrating.

After lunch we were attacked by ferocious Indians on the warpath.  Not.

After lunch we went to the Buffalo Bill Historical Center.  I had heard a lot of good things about this place.  It is called the Smithsonian of the West, and it didn't take long to see why.  It was absolutely impressive!  I've never seen such a beautiful museum.  It is actually 5 great museums in one - a firearms museum - the largest and most impressive collection of firearms in the world, a Western Art museum, an Indian museum, a Natural History museum, and of course, a museum about Buffalo Bill Cody and the West.  The family rate was $40 for two days, and you could easily spend 2 days there, but we only had one.  It was a lovely, quality museum, but also very kid friendly.  We were all happy.

  We met an 19th century physician who showed us all of his medical instruments, and gave the boys a quick "check up."  He asked to see the boys' teeth.  When they showed him, he seemed unhappy.  "Do you brush your teeth?" he asked.  

"Yes," they lied.  

"Everyday?" he asked.  

"Yes," they lied. 

 "Well, there's your problem.  Your teeth are too white," he scolded.  Then he looked at me and frowned.  "Your mother should have taught you better.  Healthy teeth should be a nice yellow color.  That plaque protects the enamel on the teeth.  You should brush with a nice soft boar hair brush, and only once a week, or else you might scrub the enamel right off your teeth."

Oh my!

Then he asked if they ever get in the water.  They said yes the play water polo, and he seemed to not know what that was.  He warned them that they shouldn't get in the water very often, and then not for very long, because if your in long enough for your skin to start to wrinkle, you've destroyed your skin permanently.  That is very bad.  He suggested bathing once a month, whether they need it or not, and then only to be in the water for a few minutes.

Can you believe that people used to believe that?  No wonder they had much shorter life expectancy 150 years ago.  

I'm proud to report that the boys have been following the doctors orders as prescribed.  And if you can't tell by smelling, then take a look at their healthy yellow teeth.

That is one Big gun, Nate.

Dylan peeks into a gunsmith's window.

In the Western Art museum, they had a booth where kids could make their own masterpieces of the West with mini stencils of bison, tee pees, and the like.

The Natural History Museum was all about the animals, plants, and geology of the American West.  It was a lovely, visually stunning museum with a great blend of great information for grown ups, and interactive displays for kids.  They had little free passports that the kids could stamp at stations throughout the museum.  Here is Caleb marking his.

 

A life size sculpture of three bison falling off a cliff, almost landing on Caleb, Alex, and Derek.  That was close.

There was a huge tile mosaic of Wyoming that the kids had fun playing on.

We heard Yellowstone was huge, but funny, it doesn't really seem that big.  Even Yellowstone isn't big enough for my kids, the way they keep growing!

The Buffalo Bill Museum was great.  It really gave a great picture of the phenomenon in the 1800's that was the Wild West.

Dylan and Nate peering through some stereoscopes - the Nintendo of the 19th century.

Inside the Indian Museum, Dylan and Caleb stoke a fake fire in a roundhouse/theater.

The twins loved this sculpture in the Art museam of a cowboy getting water from a spring for his horse with his cowboy hat.  It was a fountain so the water was real.  notice the statue of Buffalo Bill Cody on his horse out the window...
This is the same statue.  The boys were dying to climb up there.

After the museam, we went to downtown Cody.

We happened upon a gunfight on the main street in front of Buffalo Bills' own establishment, the legendary Irma Hotel.  Luckily, none of us got hurt in the exchange of gunfire, but these three nasty characters took a licking from Wild Bill Hicock, and Buffalo Bill himself, as they rescued some damsels in distress.
Derek collects some of his coveted pressed pennies downtown.
There's the Irma Hotel across the street.

Check out that big ol' gun on the top of that store.  The boys begged me to take a picture.

Sunset over Cody.

We ate dinner at Wendy's.  Frostys for everyone!
We had a great time in Cody!  We did so much in one day, and we drove home exhausted.  We had a close call on the way home.  We came around a corner in the dark and there was a huge buffalo standing in the road.  Dennis saw it and swerved out of the way just in time.  It was so scary.  I can't imagine it would be good to hit a buffalo head on.

Back at camp, even though it was very late, Dennis made us a great steak dinner and peach cobbler in the dutch oven.  It was worth staying up for.