Ockey Family Adventures: Yellowstone 2015 Day 4 (Cody)

The main attraction in Cody is the Buffalo Bill Museum, which is really 5 museums in one. We decided to start with the most boring one first-- the museum of guns. There were thousands of guns of every type, but we zipped through this section pretty quickly. The one part that was pretty cool took you through all the wars in American history and showed the guns used starting with the Revolution. The boys also found one really tiny gun that kept them laughing for about 10 minutes.

The boys were excited to try shooting the moving animals.

Dax was very focused.

Seth wanted to be just like his brothers.

I love this picture....they were laughing so hard.

We also did the second wing of the museum, which is the nature section. This was our favorite of all the parts of the museum, and it was the largest part, too. There were tons of animal displays including beavers, wolves, elk, and bears. Even Seth loved this section. One thing that boys really liked was the little passports they were issued. As they walked through this section, they got stamps at different stations as they learned about different things in nature. We spent much of the morning in this part of the museum.

We saw some cute little bunnies outside the museum.

This is Buffalo Bill's boyhood home.

The boys loved stamping these passports. They ran from place to place.

We went to the next part of the museum which focused on Buffalo Bill's life. This section was really small, but there were some pretty cool displays. Our boys loved the stagecoach and there were a few interactive games to play. What they liked best, though, was a movie of Buffalo Bill's original Old West show done in shaky black-and-white. There were some soldiers drill marching that they thought were hilarious. This part of the museum was pretty fun.

Wow, Seth is not happy about this stagecoach.

Everyone was happy to sit down and they watched this show through twice.

Next, we went outside for a bird show. They brought out several live birds including a peregrine falcon (which Dax loved), a turkey vulture, a great horned owl, an American kestrel, red-tailed hawk, and a Golden Eagle (which thrilled Mark). It was really cool to see the birds up close, and the boys really liked it.

After the bird show, we checked out the art museum briefly. It was all cowboy art, and the neat thing about it was that they had bingo boards for the boys. As they walked through and looked at the pictures, they could mark things that they'd seen on their bingo boards. Still, we'd been in the museum a long time, so we didn't spend too much time looking at the art.

We needed a break from the museum, so we decided to go check out a drive called South Fork Road which was supposed to be a great place to see birds and animals. We weren't disappointed, though we were surprised. South Fork winds out through a wide valley where it turns in to a chunky gravel road and eventually peters out in to mud and puddles. Along the way, we saw some really cool animals including pronghorn and hundreds of elk. We even saw a new one for all of us-- a white-tailed deer. There were a few of them including one fawn that was hiding in the trees.

Our first white-tailed deer.

The baby was precious, but it did not want its picture taken.

These three love to see everything.

It really was a beautiful area.

This elk ran across the road in front of us.

We scanned the rocky slopes for mountain goats or big-horned sheep, which you can supposedly see if you're there at the right time. We saw a lot of beautiful waterfalls, but we couldn't see any goats or sheep. We also came up empty on the moose, but it was an incredible drive, and we'd gladly do it again.

We saw this waterfall on the mountain.

After the drive, we just had time to hurry over to the Cody Mural before the dinner show. The mural is a Mormon history site that is basically a working chapel. There is a small museum that tells the history of Mormons in Cody and a huge mural that wraps around the top of the dome. The mural depicts scenes from Mormon history starting at the First Vision and ending with the Pioneers arriving in the valley. The mural was definitely worth the stop, and we were glad to squeeze it in.

Next we went to a dinner show at the Cody Cattle Company. We love the Bar J Wranglers, and last time we were in Jackson we tried a different chuck wagon show, so this has become a bit of a tradition for us. The Cody Cattle Company was pretty good. The food was your basic chuckwagon fare, including apple sauce, baked potatoes, baked beans, and beef brisket. The music was pretty cool, though. The lead singer/guitarist was one of the best any of us had every seen. They played tons of great music, including a bunch of classic country like The Devil Went Down to Georgia mixed with more modern rock like Back in Black and even some classic stuff like La Bamba. We really liked the Cody Cattle Company, and we will continue to look for these kinds of dinner shows.