Birds, Irma Hotel, Downtown Cody & Buffalo Bill Center of the West – Day 2

August 8

We started the day by checking out some lakes & ponds close to Cody in search of birds.

 Beck and Alkali Lakes

 Lesser Yellowlegs

 Wilson's Phalarope

 Wilson's Phalarope

 Lesser Yellowlegs

 Greater Yellowlegs

 Greater Yellowlegs in back and Lesser Yellowlegs in front

 Lesser & Greater Yellowlegs

 Lesser & Greater Yellowlegs

 Lesser Yellowlegs

 Baird's Sandpiper

 Baird's Sandpiper

Killdeer

We then went to have lunch at Irma's. Built by Bill Cody himself in 1902 and named after his daughter, the Irma Hotel might be one of the most iconic hotels of the west. More than one famous gunslinger has spent the night here including Annie Oakley, Frederic Remington, and Calamity Jane.

 Irma's

 

 tables on the patio

 the room we ate in

 BBQ Western Bacon Burger with Irma Fries

 Chipotle Burger & Sweet Potato Fries

It has a cherry wood bar that was given to Bill by Queen Victoria.

 Cherry wood bar

The food was very good and what a neat old building.

We did a short walk about the historic town of Cody. Many "tourist" stores where of course I found my token magnet.

We went back and finished the museum. We finished the art gallery and then toured the Plains Indian Museum. It did a great job of showing the old ways and the new.

 sculpture garden

 injured Bald Eagle that they care for

 Crazy Horse

 Sacagawea

 Bill's Boyhood home

 Plains Indian Museum 

Some final thoughts on Yellowstone:

We knew that staying in Cody wasn’t ideal for getting to and from the Park and I would recommend staying at one of the hotels in the park (or camp if you are up to that) so you have more time to get out and see the animals in the early morning and in the evening right before it gets dark. We still would have gotten up as early, but would have had the early and late hours for animal viewing. I would say 4 days is the minimum you would want to stay, unless you don’t hike or do all of the scenic drives. We only toured one of the Visitor’s Centers and seeing the rest would have added more time as well. We do recommend doing the scenic drives and spending a couple of days in Cody as well.

Many people also stay at more than one hotel while they are there to maximize their time in a particular area. Normally, Mammoth Hot Springs & Old Faithful Villages.

We feel we saw a lot and drove almost every road there. We didn’t go south towards the Tetons as we plan to visit those on a return trip. We also didn’t go to the West Entrance, but it didn’t look like there was a lot there, so we concentrated on the other 4 major areas of the park. We had hoped to see moose and wolves, but they eluded us.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/ZdpXXEeS9J3Hbur47

Tomorrow we leave for Buffalo, Wyoming for the Big Horn Mountain area.