Cross-Country Vacation
Day 11: Wyoming
Wednesday, September 13, 2006
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We had stopped in Cody, Wyoming to take in the Buffalo Bill Historical Center. It is actually five museums in one. There is a Buffalo Bill Museum that contains many of his personal artifacts and items from his touring wild west show. Then there was a Gallery of Western Art, a Firearms Museum, a Plains Indian Museum, and a Museum of Natural History. They were all very interesting, except for the Firearms Museum. After you have seen a few dozen rifles and pistols they all start to look the same, and there were thousands of them on display.
From Cody we headed east on US-14. There were lots of cattle along the way, of course, including some open range areas where the cows were right up along side the road or in the road at times.
About halfway across the state you go up and over the Bighorn Mountains and through Bighorn National Forest. Along the highway exposed rock layers of the various geologic ages will be labeled along with their ages going back hundreds of millions of years. Neat stuff as long as you believe the Earth is a few billion years old. We had some skeptics in the car. We made a pit stop at a place where there was a nice waterfall overlook.
We descended down the Bighorn Mountains and hooked up with Interstate 90 just before Sheridan.
Rather than waiting to reach our final destination and eating just before bedtime we stopped in Gillete, WY and had an early dinner for a change. We got back on I-90 east, but we would be lucky to see any more sights before nightfall. But we took a chance and got off the freeway and sped across 2-lane US-14A and Wyoming state highway 24 to just get a glimpse of Devil's Tower. You will recognize it if you have ever seen the Steven Spielberg film Close Encounters of the Third Kind.
That is as close as bothered to get to Devil's Tower, though. The Visitor Center had closed at 5 so we did not go into the park. We doubled back a little and then continued on another half hour to Sundance, WY, where we spent the night.
Buffalo Bill Historical Center: Website
Devil's Tower National Monument: Website, Map
Day 11 Summary:
Start: Cody, WY
End: Sundance, WY
By Way Of: Devil's Tower, WY
Route: US-14, I-90 WY-24, US-14A
Approximate Driving Distance:
This Day: 340 miles
Total: 2715 miles
Next: Day 12: Black Hills