Today we headed for Yellowstone by way of the Buffalo Bill Cody Scenic Byway. It was well named because it was truly scenic. Our first stop was at the Buffalo Bill dam. Buffalo Bill Dam is a concrete arch-gravity dam on the Shoshone River. The dam is named after the famous old West figure William "Buffalo Bill" Cody who founded the nearby town of Cody and who owned much of the land now covered by the reservoir formed by the dam. The dam was part of the Shoshone Project, one of the first projects overseen by the Bureau of Reclamation and was built from 1905 and 1910. At the time of its completion, it was the tallest dam in the world at 325 feet. The land around the reservoir is maintained as Buffalo Bill State Park. ... read more

Cody and the surrounding area needs more than just a one night stop so we are here for three days. This morning, before we started out on one of our scenic route trips, we visited the "Historic Trail Town". It is a collection of buildings and relics of the Wyoming frontier. Local archaeologist Bob Edgar created Trail Town by moving 26 buildings built between 1879 and 1901 to the location that was once the site of original Old Cody City. Among the buildings are an old saloon, livery barn, blacksmith shop, general stores, post office and schools. Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid's "Hole-in-the-Wall" cabin is also located there. There are over 100 horse drawn vehicles and the original wagon trail. There are also Plains Indians materials, guns of the frontier, carriages, clothing and many other ... read more

After a four day stay in Hill City and having seen the gorgeous Black Hills and Badlands National Park we departed and headed for Wyoming. The day began with the usual activities. Pack up the car, fill it with gas, clean the previous days bugs from the windshield, make note of our mileage for the previous day, get out Jeeves (the GPS), put the maps and the log book in the passenger side door slot, clean the camera lens and make sure the camera is on the appropriate settings. We were in North Dakota but close to the Wyoming border. Our route out of South Dakota was to be once again the most scenic available. Frank had done his research and had marked all the scenic routes on the maps for each state. We prefer to ... read more

Our first stop today was Mount Rushmore. It's located near Keystone in South Dakota and is a monumental granite sculpture by Gutzon Borglum (1867-1941), located within the United States Presidential Memorial that represents the first 150 years of the history of the United States of America with 60-foot sculptures of the heads of former United States presidents George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt, and Abraham Lincoln. The entire memorial covers 1,278.45 acres and is 5,725 feet above sea level. Frank did not go in with me because he had seen it before so he headed of to explore the surrounding area a little and to get the car washed. It had the dust and dirt plus dried crusty bugs from the 10 states that we have been through so far. There is a lot to see ... read more

This was our last day in Nebraska. We had traveled back and forth on many of it's scenic trails during the past few days. We returned to Scott's Bluff National Monument this morning to take the road to the top. It had been closed when we were there last evening. Today's starting temp was 70 F and the skies were absolutely clear blue so the view from the top of the monument was spectacular. I took many photos from the top and at the base of the bluff. As I looked out across the plains and the site of the original Oregon trail below the bluffs I couldn't help but think that the pioneers must have been incredibly tough people. By noon the temp was up to 82 with a gorgeous breeze. We had lunch in ... read more