The wild, wild west: Cody, Deadwood and the Badlands

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Following the resplendent magnificence that was Yellowstone National Park, our next stop was Cody, Wyoming - famed home of Buffalo Bill Cody - about 1 hour outside the east entrance of YNP. It's a small place, but you have your choice of a number of things to see/do dependin' on which way your travel inclinations lean. We opted for the very compact and excellent Old Trail Town. OTT has collected a number of small buildings from the town's environs and lovingly restored them. The stories about those interred in the small cemetery were fascinating and their (teeny, tiny) museum was equally interesting. Lots of old photos which we poured over. The long, sweeping moustache sure was popular back then.

In Cody along the main drag, just outside Buffalo Bill's historic Irma Hotel, there is an old west shootout skit performed every day except Sunday. Guess what day we were there? Yup. Sunday night. Sheesh.

After an all too short overnight in Cody, we had another day of driving to get to the next outpost: Deadwood, South Dakota. We took Hwy 14 (via Greybull) before switching to the I90 about halfway, another gorgeous drive. Shout out to the visitor information centre in Ranchester, Wy. Wonderfully helpful staff and great (although little) facility. It was an easy 5+ hour drive and we saw a slew of Pronghorns on the way...nothing quite so pleasin' as a new critter. Of course we didn't know what they were at first (thank you Badlands National Park information pamphlet) so there was just a lot of pointing and "Ooooo, gar la! Un autre..."

Like Cody, Deadwood isn't a big place but what it lacks in size it makes up for in sheer concentration of wild west lore. This is where Wild Bill Hickok was gunned down in Saloon No. 10, and where he is buried (next to Calamity Jane!). Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid sat for a spell in the Deadwood jail before breaking free. Tales (some tall) abound in Deadwood. While there, besides the usual self-splorin' and wandering aboot we usually do, we took an absolutely excellent 1 hour tour (the company was Boot Hill Tours) of the town and got tons of great historical info. Do this. It was perfect.

Deadwood's main drag has its - "charm" isn't the right word - but if there was a word for something like naughty-charming, that oughta fit the bill. Main Street has that old timey western feel we were hoping it would have and the effort that has gone into preserving the town's history and buildings is evident. It's just that the main floor of every hotel and bar on Main Street has a casino. Every. Single. One. So if you think Atlantic City is charming...it's kinda like that.

All the tales of the Wild West piqued our interest, so pre-bedtime was spent testing the capacity of the hotel's wifi. I got trapped in one of those huge internet black holes - the kind that starts with a quick 5-minute search about Annie Oakley and ends two hours later deep into the history of Wounded Knee. At least it's all within the same general era. Usually my internet black holes start off with the 5-minute search and end up two hours later with me on Youtube watching videos of English Bulldog puppies. You do it, too, admit it.

From Cody, we headed for a scenic drive through the Badlands National Park. You can hike here and there are a handful of trails, but we opted for the pull-over-at-the-information-markers/viewpoints experience. After we left YNP, we were back in 80+F weather and the Badlands at mid-day with no tree cover is like a frying pan. On our drive we were able to add a new critter to our roster: the prairie dog. They look like smaller, paler versions of an Ontario groundhog. Adorbs. I would have loved to have snuck a quick pat-pat when one had its back to me, but T told me not to because they could have the plague. Plus you aren't supposed to pet wild animals. If that was permitted I would have been belly scratching Buffalo all through YNP.

We had intended on this trip to have a more leisurely pace, but, neh...couldn't do it. We just kept checkin' stuff out instead. The result was that after Badlands we ended up being ahead of our (admittedly very loose) schedule. I would like to credit our ruthless travel efficiency (chuckle amongst yourselves), but really it was more a result of our inability to not be doing something in a new place. Hard to resist when it's just there.

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