Buffalo Bill's Blog

Well planned business retreats can be productive, fun and exciting. They can also be mundane and boring, it all depends on the venue.  Bet you never thought about hanging out in a cool western town outside of Yellowstone for a business retreat!  The natural splendor of the area makes it an ideal spot for a unique and affordable business retreat, especially for team building and morale boosting. Cody/Yellowstone Country is a great destination for renewing, refreshing and reconnecting. What better setting than the mountains to renew your passion for life and work.

Cody has several options for retreats depending upon the size of the group. Area dude and guest ranches are perfect for smaller groups. Ranches typically offer all-inclusive packages for groups so it is easy for the group planner. Most have wonderful lodges that provide unique backdrops for the nitty-gritty meeting times. Ranches also provide a range of activities and relaxation opportunities ensuring that everyone in the group has something to look forward to. Most provide horseback riding, fly-fishing, hiking and spa services. Evening activities such as campfires, cowboy singers and poets,  or wagon rides allow for a casual atmosphere to get to know each other. Fresh air and a change of scenery can do wonders for the creative process. You would be surprised at the ideas people come up with when taken out of the confines of their normal routine!

For groups with up to 75, The Cody is a great choice.  This boutique hotel is quaint yet luxurious. Beautifully appointed guest rooms are comfortable and have all the modern conveniences including iPod docking stations and high speed internet.  The meeting space is beautifully decorated and relaxing. Hopefully you will spend more time outside than inside! The Cody’s location is perfect for setting out on the adventure portion of your retreat.  Each evening refreshments are available for your group to enjoy in the comfortable lobby or on the patio outside. Snack, relax and visit before heading out to one of Cody’s great restaurants. Want to make your employees feel pampered and special, have your retreat at The Cody. 

For large groups, I suggest the Holiday Inn. They know how to handle large groups and they do it well!  They have great meeting space and banquet facilities for groups up to 350. State of the art equipment is available to meet all of your groups technology needs. As the only full service convention property in Cody, the Holiday Inn has a nice restaurant and lounge. Evening banquet dinners are available with western themes to enhance your “western” retreat. The hotel is conveniently located to the downtown area which is great for taking an evening stroll to a restaurant or to check out shops. 

Team building is such an important part of retreats and the Cody/Yellowstone area has so many options. For the adventurous group, I would suggest horseback riding, learning to fly fish, hiking, and river rafting. Take advantage of Sunlight Sports Outdoor Concierge for coordinating activities. For those looking for more relaxed options, I would suggest golf, exploring the Buffalo Bill Historical Center, a sightseeing trip into Yellowstone, a historical visit to the Heart Mountain Interpretive Learning Center or a trip to view the wild horses of the McCullough Peaks. Combining some adventure and sightseeing might be ideal for your group. It is not hard to schedule plenty to do for your group.

So “think outside the box” and plan your company’s next retreat in Cody/Yellowstone Country!

So what are the “Must Dos” in Cody/Yellowstone Country?

The Buffalo Bill Historical Center in Cody is a necessity when visiting the Cody area. The Center is often referred to as the “Smithsonian of the West.”  My family never tires of the Center. You can learn about Buffalo Bill, the Plains Indians, western art and Yellowstone. The Center also boasts the largest collection of firearms in the world-a favorite of the males in my family! Don’t forget to check out the gift shop for great souvenirs. You can bundle your museum trip with the Cody Trolley Tour at a discounted rate. The Trolley will pick you up at the front door of the museum and take you on an hour long tour.  This 22-mile tour in a classic trolley explores places, people and lore of the area.

Step back in time as you stroll through the original town site of Cody located at Old Trail Town. Historic buildings of the area have been carefully moved to the site in addition to authentic artifacts. My favorite building is the saloon. It is a quaint building with great character. This saloon could probably hold about 20 people. We forget that Hollywood has depicted saloons as sprawling buildings when in fact they were small. That is why western boom towns had so many saloons!

Buffalo Bill had many dreams for Cody and the Buffalo Bill Dam was one that was achieved. When it was completed in 1910, it was the tallest concrete dam in the world.  The dam visitor center is a great spot to enjoy tranquil waters of the reservoir and take the audio tour to learn about the dams construction and the area wildlife. The dam is also a great spot for a picnic lunch.

One of Cody’s best kept secrets is Tecumseh’s Trading Post out by the Rodeo grounds. Tecumseh’s is an old west museum and old west miniature village. My kids can’t get enough of the 7000 sq. ft. miniature village that depicts the historical events in Wyoming and Montana from the 1600’s to the 1800’s. The miniature train that can be controlled by visitors is a favorite for kids of all ages. The western artifacts rival most museums. This family owned and operated collection is truly special. They graciously share their collection with the public at no charge!

Meeteetse also has a wonderful treasure in the Meeteetse Chocolatier! Sample gourmet confections made by owner Tim Kellogg who is also a bronc rider and working cowboy. These chocolate delights are made by using only the finest ingredients and are meant to be enjoyed in the “here and now.” Don’t miss this unique shop with amazing treats located on the quaint boardwalk in Meeteetse!

Heart Mountain Interpretive Learning Center between Cody and Powell is an amazing learning opportunity for everyone in the family.  Ten thousand Japanese-Americans were interned at this facility during World War II. Learn about why and how the internees spent their time at the camp. The Center offers a self-guided tour in addition to the Learning Center.  You can pick up the Cody Trolley for a tour to the Center and through area farm land.

Cody has the longest running nightly rodeo in the country which has earned it the distinction of being the “Rodeo Capital of the World.” Rodeo season begins June 1st through August 31st. Enjoy this outdoor rodeo with plenty of excitement and mountain views.  Whether this is your first rodeo or you are a connoisseur, it is sure to be a great time!  

Dan Miller’s Cowboy Music Revue is a wonderful Branson/style music show that is a family favorite.  Enjoy classic cowboy favorites, poetry and much more. If you want to truly experience the West, you must take in the Dan Miller’s show!

These are just the highlights in Cody/Yellowstone Country. There are so many great things to do from the relaxing to the adventurous. Don’t forget to minimize the stress of planning by allowing everyone in the family a voice in the vacation!

Until next time, happy traveling in Cody Country!

Planning your summer vacation to Yellowstone and stumped on how to choose an itinerary that will please everybody in your family?  It may seem like a no win situation since your family cannot even agree on a TV show to watch together.   So many decisions to make – do you choose an all-inclusive destination, stay in Yellowstone, a hotel or B&B, do you fly or road trip it? I am lucky because my kids are great travelers and love the adventure of a road trip! Your kids may revolt at the thought of a road trip with the family! How do you make it work so everyone is happy?

It does not have to be overwhelming.  It can actually be fun! Start by requesting the Buffalo Bill’s Cody/Yellowstone Country 2012 Vacation Guide or go to www.yellowstonecountry.org . Both are full of great information on activities, lodging and events happening in the area. The website even offers sample itineraries. I love sitting down at the kitchen table with all the vacation planners, travel guides and web materials spread out.  Each member of our family gets a different color highlighter and goes through all the materials and highlights the attractions/activities with things that look fun to them. My ten year old tends to have twice as many picks as everyone else because everything looks exciting when you are ten!  Remember, this is round one.  In round two, everyone has to pick their top 3 choices. It is always great when multiple family members pick some of the same choices. Those become the “must-dos.”  In round three, everyone gets to defend their choices with a question and comment period from the family.  Some options are easily eliminated at this point as it is probably not appropriate for the three year old to learn to kayak on this trip!

Your family should finally have a list of activities and lodging options that work for everybody.  I love this process because every family member feels like they had a part in planning the trip and aren’t just along for the ride. We also set ground rules like no complaining about an activity that wasn’t your pick. Who knows, your 16 year old may really enjoy the horseback ride his 12 year old sister chose! 

On our trips, we allow our children to choose where we eat lunch each day. One rule is it has to be local fare, no chain fast food. We rotate through the kids so everyone has their day. Mom and Dad have exclusive rights to the dinner meal!  We have a lot of fun with this. Sometimes we are in a town that has a great ice cream shop so we allow the kids to choose ICE CREAM for lunch!  We instantly become the coolest parents ever! Because this precedent has been set, our kids get real creative and make some interesting choices.  This tradition makes for great leverage at the evening meal when the kids aren’t thrilled with our pick.  I just say, “Remember, you had a funnel cake for lunch.”  They just can’t argue with that! Cody/Yellowstone Country has great options for dining for the whole family. Be sure to request or pick up a dining guide from the Chamber of Commerce (www.codychamber.org) or ask your front desk staff at your hotel. And yes, Cody does have a great place to get ice cream for lunch!

 Check back next week for the “Must Dos” in Cody/Yellowstone Country!

 Until next time, happy traveling in Cody Country!

The number of animals in this region is just phenomenal.  Coming from the Midwest, I grew up watching deer and squirrels.  That’s about it.  But here in Buffalo Bill’s country, the different varieties of animals to view are just astounding!  So I decided to put together my Top 11 list of places to watch for many of these amazing creatures.

1.  Elk – the Sunlight Basin northwest of Cody is a popular place for herds of elk to gather.  Drive north of Cody on Highway 120, go about 16 miles, then turn west onto the Chief Joseph Scenic Byway.  The Sunlight Basin road will take you past some beautiful ranches and into the valley where the elk feed.  It’s a gorgeous drive, and the opportunity to view these animals in their natural habitat is worth going the distance!

2.  Bison – without a doubt, Yellowstone National Park is THE place to get your fill of these wild and wooly critters.  They literally own the roads in Yellowstone – anyone who’s been there recently will be able to tell you that the bison traffic jams rival any big city traffic snarls… but there’s a heck of a lot less road rage here!

3.  Big Horn Sheep – the highway that follows the South Fork of the Shoshone River leads to a beautiful mountain valley that is home to herds of big horn sheep.  In the fall, the sheep are feeding in the low country before the hard winter kicks in, and in the spring, the sheep babies can be found frolicking on the ranchland in the valley.

4.  Mountain Goats – Clark’s Fork Canyon just northwest of Cody on Highway 120 is one of the few places in this region where you can spot these elusive rock dwellers.  I haven’t figured out how they can actually climb from one precipitous rock face to another – they’re incredible!

5.  Moose – east of Cody across the Big Horn Basin are the awesome Big Horn Mountains, home to black bear, deer, and the massive moose!  Highway 14A, from Lovell across to Sheridan, is a great place to spot these enormous creatures.  They’ve also been frequently seen in the Wood River Valley southwest of Meeteetse.

6.  Wild Horses – two wild mustang herds call Buffalo Bill’s Cody/Yellowstone Country home: the McCullough Peaks area just east of Cody in the Big Horn Basin; and the Pryor Mountains northeast of the Big Horn Basin.  The Pryor Mountain Mustang Center is an educational center dedicated to preserving the legacy of these beautiful wild animals.

7.  Wolves – the Lamar Valley in Yellowstone National Park is prime viewing for all sorts of animals, but it’s one of the best bets for spotting wolves.  The wolf population is thriving in Yellowstone after the animal’s re-introduction in the 1990s. The Lamar Valley is in the northeast corner of Yellowstone Park, between Mammoth Hot Springs and Cooke City, Montana.

8.  Mule Deer – believe it or not, if you’re looking to get up close and personal with a mule deer, go no farther than downtown Cody!  Dozens of deer roam around the community – and it’s either a curse or a blessing, depending on who you talk to… they love to munch in residents’ gardens!

9.  Bears – as you travel closer to Yellowstone National Park on Highway 14-16-20, the odds of seeing a grizzly or black bear grow greater!  Bear are regularly seen on the stretch of highway from about ten miles outside Yellow stone until the entrance to the Park, so keep your camera at the ready, but don’t get too close!  Remember, bears are dangerous creatures that move faster than you think they can…

10.  Antelope – … although pronghorns are actually the fastest land animals in North America.  But here in Buffalo Bill’s Cody/Yellowstone Country, they’re pretty content to move a little slower and graze in the lush grass of the Wapiti Valley about 20 miles west of Cody on the Yellowstone Highway.

11.  Waterfowl – Beck Lake and Alkali Lake on the east side of Cody aren’t just beautiful City parks; they’re also prime waterfowl habitat.  There’s a viewing area that was constructed a few years back by a local service organization that provides a fantastic place to sit and watch the ducks, geese, loons and other birds that use these lakes as a resting point along their migration routes.

There you are – Corrie N. Cody’s Top 11 list of the best wildlife watching places in Buffalo Bill’s Cody/Yellowstone Country!  Next time you plan a trip this direction, take this list along to build your itinerary… and don’t forget your camera!

Until next time, I’ll be watching the wildlife in Buffalo Bill’s Country!

Corrie N. Cody

How long has it been since you’ve checked out the fall colors here in Buffalo Bill’s Cody/Yellowstone Country?  According to my friend at Yellowstone’s East Gate, Ranger Robin, the leaves are turning and the colors are stunning! 

If you missed my last blog on Robin, she’s been a ranger at the East Gate for the last three years, and enjoys every day that she gets to welcome folks to the country’s first National Park.  She lives in a mountain cabin halfway between Cody and Yellowstone, so she gets to see wildlife almost every day!  And the visitors love to see all the animals before they even get in the Park – just this week Robin heard two different reports of grizzly bears crossing the highway just 5 miles east of the gate, and others spotted a wolf just up from the pass that same day.  And something even more unusual – Robin said that visitors reported seeing a mountain lion in the Hayden Valley, along with a wolf and eagles, all in the same area! 

Robin says that visitors are REALLY enjoying the beautiful weather we’re having right now – in fact, some have jokingly asked if they have to pay more to enter the park because the weather is such a bonus!  She says that after the cold snap we had last week, the leaves started changing colors, and now the warm temps and sunny skies are just enhancing the natural beauty of the region. 

On a sad note, Robin reports that over the last weekend, there were two bison hit and killed on the highway in Yellowstone.  It’s a reminder to visitors, though, that watching for wildlife in Yellowstone actually needs to start once you get to Cody itself!  We’ve got dozens of deer that live right here in town, and they don’t necessarily follow traffic signals… the same goes for the bison, elk, moose, and bear that populate the North Fork valley on the highway to Yellowstone.  And we’re in peak wildlife-watching season – the fall months and late spring are the BEST times to catch a glimpse of the amazing creatures that we co-habitate with here in Yellowstone Country!

Robin says that there have been quite a few inquiries about the two fatal grizzly attacks that have occurred this summer – the first fatal attacks in 26 years in Yellowstone.  The rangers’ message to visitors who are planning to hike?  ALWAYS CARRY BEAR SPRAY.  Ranger Robin and her husband have hiked in these mountains for the last thirteen years and always carry bear spray.  She says they’ve thankfully never had to use it, but on many occasions they have seen fresh bear tracks on their hikes.  If hikers have questions about the proper use of bear spray, they can check out a “Bear Aware” video at the public library in Cody.  The video was produced by the Buffalo Bill Historical Center’s Draper Museum of Natural History just a couple of years ago, so the information is very current.  

I asked Robin about the visitors who are frequenting the park right now, and she said that there are a TON of foreign travelers here right now!  A large percentage are German, which she says is pretty easy, because most of the German visitors speak English.  Many of the Italian tourists have trouble with the language barriers, though, as do quite a few of the French.  Robin says that at the East Gate, there are rangers on duty who can speak enough German and Norwegian to help out visitors from those countries; and Robin herself can converse in sign language, which has come in very handy over the past three years that she’s worked there.   She says that deaf visitors are always so pleased to find out that she can sign, which is so important when it comes to communicating about lodging and other necessary information. Since lodging and campsites fill up almost every day during peak season, it’s important to be able to get that message across as soon as folks get in the gate.

Robin’s got such a great job!  Her season is winding down there – the Park will close up the first weekend in November to wheeled vehicles, and will remain closed to wheeled vehicles until next May, when the season comes ‘round again… and Ranger Robin hopes to be there to greet enthusiastic visitors to this amazing, unique place that is Buffalo Bill’s Cody/Yellowstone Country!

Until next time, I’ll be lovin’ life in Buffalo Bill’s Country!

Corrie N. Cody