Larry A. Smail's Blog

  Leaving Yellowstone came about much too quickly, but there would be more beautiful and scenic observations to witness. We were heading east again. We traveled south of the Montana border and stopped in Cody, Wyoming. I have heard of Cody before.                                                                   

We saw spectacular high peaks and diversified terrain prior to reaching Cody. These hill consisted of rocky terrains in some places and very steep and others heavily forested slopes. Breathtaking is a word that comes to mind, but believe me no words can describe these sites. Photos can not capture the depths these sites either.       

The travel east continued and that “western feel” began to be felt again. We were entering cowboy country. Cattle and horse farms began to be viewed along the travels.                                             

   We stopped at the “Buffalo Bill Center of the West” in Cody, Wyoming.  This building proved to be a great museum. The time we had to search through this museum was not enough for  someone like myself. With my many interests a full day would have been required to explore all it had to offer.

The museum is divided into various points of interests. Of course, since I do art, I enjoyed the “Whitney Western Art” exhibit. Another great interest was the “Cody Firearm” exhibit. Thousands of firearms were visible here. There were firearms from pre-revolutionary War era to modern times. They had firearms and holsters from many of the old western television series such as: Bonanza and have Gun Will Travel…. 

There is the “Draper Natural History” section located at this museum as well. I saw many mounted species of wildlife along with natural looking habitat.

   The same evening we attended the “Cody Stampede”. This is definitely a western rodeo. The rodeo featured bucking broncos; bucking bulls; calf roping events… They featured a kid event where any children from the audience were supposed to try to obtain a ribbon from a calf’s tail. There must have been close to 45-50 kids in the ring. One little guy was thrown into the air and no law suits.                 

The people here are NOT willing to play the political correct madness that has become thoroughly engrained within much of America. I really appreciated that! The announcers said much about maintaining their heritage.

   They had a “see who does the best being shot” event. Young kids playing cowboy and    would demonstrate their being shot acts. This was something I did often in my youth playing cowboys and Indians; Civil war; World war ll and so forth.   

We would be heading towards the Black Hills soon! Sioux territory!!

Mexican hat

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  The vast prairie lands are visible in a 360 degree field of view. All directions are covered with the pale-blue sage brush and white-colored rocks and ground. The sight is magnificent to behold to a couple of easterners. The sage sends down deep tap roots and then lesser roots parallel to the surface. Some of these plants may be over a hundred years old.

Close-up of a sage specie

The trail is now headin’ north as we approach the area known as Jackson Hole. The unbelievable mileage of flat sage-covered land is mind-boggling.   We did see a couple of Prairie Falcons and more antelopes.

Wild horses in a corral.

Wild Horses

In this area of Wyoming are living wild horses. The location is north of the community of Rock Springs, The buttes and vistas are home for approximately 2500 wild horses. A thriving population is surviving on these barren lands. Those in the know make claims the horses grow by 20% and up to 40 % annually. Reproduction is, apparently, going well for the horses.

Prickly Pear Cactus (Note insects)

With that in mind a number of wild horses are taken into corrals periodically in an effort to maintain a stable herd number. We stopped at one such corral.

The horses are placed up for adoption while in captivity.                                                                             

  Eventually, as we continued north, we began to see higher terrain again and some steep and grandeur mountains were present prior to our descending into Jackson Hole. The hollow featured clear mountain waters flowing towards the Snake River. I was blessed to briefly see a Bighorn Sheep ram. The ram was a younger one since he lacked the full-curl horns.    

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