Cheered by the prospect of summer visitors from the East, I started researching the options.
When we visited our friends in Massachusetts, they provided the Perfect New England Summer Vacation: shore birds, boat rides, sandy beaches, tricorn hats, fried clams, many trees, Red Sox baseball and a decadent lobster supper on their back deck.
So we must reciprocate with the Perfect Wild West Summer Vacation, which would include many, if not all, of the following: cowboys, Indians, big skies, rodeo, impressive wildlife such as bears, tacky souvenirs, chicken-fried steak, mountain scenery, hot springs, horses, whitewater, outlaws, Manifest Destiny and freshly caught pan-fried trout.
Reasonably priced
Cody, Wyo., 50 miles east of Yellowstone National Park, boasts many of the items on the list. From Colorado, most visitors approach Yellowstone through either Cody or Jackson, about the same distance south of the park.
Jackson is a ski town, beautiful and posh. Cody is laid-back, reasonably priced and there’s no risk of running into Dick Cheney.
In a town built by history’s most famous Wild West showman, you would expect a little tourist cheese, and Cody has its share of souvenir stores, the Dan Miller Cowboy Music Revue and plenty of rodeos.
For example, “Gunfights Nightly, June Through September” is not a phrase you hear often to advertise a hotel. And yet, there it is on the Irma Hotel’s website.
The gunfights happen at 6 p.m., Monday through Saturday (even outlaws take Sundays off) in front of the hotel, which Buffalo Bill Cody built in 1902 and named for his youngest daughter.
But Cody also boasts a world-class museum, the Buffalo Bill Historical Center. One of the nation’s best repositories of Western artifacts, culture and lore, the center has five museums: the Buffalo Bill Museum, the Whitney Gallery of Western Art, the Plains Indian Museum, the Cody Firearms Museum and the Draper Museum of Natural History.
The Plains Indian Center’s annual powwow and dance competition is June 16-17, and there are workshops, concerts, seminars and the Buffalo Bill Invitational Shootout in August.
Mother’s Day weekend (May 11-13) brings Cody Wild West Days, which consists of a two-day barrel racing competition and Buffalo Bill’s Top Notch Horse Sale.
Dollars and horse sense
The catalog entries for the horse sale are perfect little slices of Western life. Here’s Badger, a 2-year-old palomino gelding: “His pedigree has ‘cow’ written all over him. Cutting, reining, working cow, team roping, and more should all be possible for this guy.” Or “Dunny has been roped off of and ranched on … He’s the first to meet you at the gate and he’ll follow you around just to be your buddy.” Or “Everybody under the sun has rode ‘Sister’and has got along great with her. If you need a horse for any job in the world, she would be the one to do it. This horse has changed every opinion I ever had about a mare for the good.”
Show up May 12 for a real Western experience. But keep your hands in your pockets or you just might buy a horse.
Lisa Everitt is a freelance writer who lives in Arvada. Contact her at lisaeveritt@comcast.net.
