Cody, Sheridan, and Northern Wyoming
We’ve compiled the best of the best in Cody, Sheridan, and Northern Wyoming - browse our top choices for the top things to see or do during your stay.
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1. Buffalo Bill Center of the West
This extraordinary "five-in-one" complex, an affiliate of the Smithsonian Institution, contains the Buffalo Bill Museum, the Whitney Western Art Museum, the Plains Indian Museum, the Cody Firearms Museum, and the Draper Natural History Museum. All are well organized and mount superb exhibitions in their respective subject areas. The flagship Buffalo Bill Museum puts into context the life, era, and activities of its (and its town's) namesake, William F. “Buffalo Bill” Cody (1846–1917), whose numerous careers included guide, scout, actor, and entrepreneur. If you want to understand how the myth of the American West developed, this is the place to come. The other four museums—there's also a research library—are equally absorbing. Plan to spend at least four hours here—and to discover that this isn't enough time to take it all in. Luckily, your admission ticket is good for two consecutive days.
View Tours and Activities720 Sheridan Ave., Cody, Wyoming, 82414, USA307-587–4771Sight Details
Rate Includes: $20, Closed Mon.–Wed. in Dec.–Feb., Mar., Apr. and Nov., daily 10–5; May–mid-Sept., daily 8–6; mid-Sept.–Oct., daily 8–5; Dec.–Feb., Thurs.–Sun. 10–5 -
2. By Western Hands
In a restored downtown hardware store, this nonprofit juried artisan guild and museum is devoted to preserving and showcasing Cody's profound influence on Western design as it applies to furniture and decorative arts. Inside the galleries you can view pieces by legendary Cody designers like Edward Bohlin who with his eventual Hollywood connections become known as the "saddle maker to the stars," and furniture craftsman Thomas Molesworth. Additionally, the showrooms are filled with ornately crafted works by the guild's members, who continue to further Cody's Western design legacy.
1007 12th St., Cody, Wyoming, 82414, USA307-586–1755Sight Details
Rate Includes: Closed Sun.–Wed. -
3. Chief Joseph Scenic Highway
In 1877 a few members of the Nez Perce tribe killed some white settlers in Idaho as retribution for earlier killings by whites. Fearing that the U.S. Army would punish the guilty and innocent alike, hundreds of Nez Perce fled on a five-month journey toward Canada along what came to be known as the Nez Perce Trail. On the way they passed through what is now Yellowstone National Park, across the Sunlight Basin area north of Cody, and along the Clarks Fork of the Shoshone River before turning north into Montana. To see the rugged mountain area they traveled through, follow Highway 120 north 17 miles to Highway 296, the Chief Joseph Scenic Highway. The highway twists and turns for 46 miles, ending at similarly stunning U.S. 212, the Beartooth Scenic Highway, which leads west to the pretty hamlet of Cooke City, Montana and then the Northeast Entrance of Yellowstone, or east to the small ski and hiking hub of Red Lodge. Along the way you'll see open meadows, pine forests, and a sweeping vista of the region from the top of Dead Indian Pass.
Cody, Wyoming, USA -
4. Cody Dug Up Gun Museum
The intriguing name of this museum fully states its unusual mission: to collect and exhibit firearms and other weapons that have been exhumed from the earth (or, in the case of an old musket, entombed inside a tree trunk). The knowledgeable husband-and-wife owners have amassed some 1,300 items, ranging from rusted-out mid-19th-century revolvers to rifles used by mobsters in the 1930s. Every artifact in this fascinating museum seems to tell a story that might otherwise have been lost to obscurity.
1020 12th St., Cody, Wyoming, 82414, USA307-587–3344Sight Details
Rate Includes: Closed Oct.–Apr. -
5. Cody Nite Rodeo
Begun in 1938 and billing itself the world's longest-running nightly rodeo, this festive, family-friendly summer spectacle at Stampede Park is less flashy and more endearingly intimate than bigger rodeos around the region, such as Cheyenne Frontier Days. Kicking off at 8 pm each evening from June through August, the Cody Nite Rodeo offers kids' competitions, such as goat roping and junior barrel racing, in addition to the regular adult events. Over early July's Independence Day weekend, the annual Cody Stampede features a full long weekend of events at the same venue.
519 W. Yellowstone Ave., Cody, Wyoming, 82414, USA307-587–5155Sight Details
Rate Includes: From $12, June–Aug., daily at 8 pm -
Recommended Fodor’s Video
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6. Devils Tower National Monument
As you drive east from Gillette, the highways begin to rise into the forested slopes of the Black Hills. A detour north will take you to Devils Tower. Geologists attribute the butte's strange existence to ancient volcanic activity. Rock climbers say it's one of the best crack-climbing areas on the continent. The tower was a tourist magnet long before a spaceship landed here in the movie Close Encounters of the Third Kind. Teddy Roosevelt made it the nation's first national monument in 1906, and it has attracted a steadily increasing throng of visitors ever since—up to nearly half a million people a year. When you visit, take some time to stop at the visitor center. Exhibits here explain the geology, history, and cultural significance of the monument, and a bookstore carries a wide selection of materials relating to the park. Park rangers can provide updated information on hiking and climbing conditions. A short and easy walking path circles the tower.
Devils Tower, Wyoming, 82714, USA307-467--5283Sight Details
Rate Includes: $25 for a vehicle pass, Butte daily 24 hrs; visitor center May–Nov., daily 9–5. -
7. Heart Mountain Interpretive Center
From 1942 through 1945, nearly 14,000 Japanese Americans were relocated to this hastily constructed incarceration center—one of 10 located throughout the country—at the foot of Heart Mountain, about 13 miles north of Cody. Evicted from their West Coast homes through an executive order issued by President Franklin D. Roosevelt shortly after the bombing of Pearl Harbor, the residents lived in small, tightly spaced barracks. In 2011, a poignant museum opened on the long-abandoned site. At the Heart Mountain Interpretive Center, you can learn about this shameful episode of U.S. history by watching an excellent short movie and touring both permanent and rotating exhibits that use photographs, letters, news clippings, and other artifacts to bring to life the powerful and often inspiring stories of Heart Mountain's inhabitants, who persevered in the face of anti-Asian prejudices and unjust conditions.
1539 Rd. 19, Powell, Wyoming, 82435, USA307-754–8000Sight Details
Rate Includes: $9, Closed Sun.–Wed. in Oct.–mid-May -
8. Hot Springs State Park
The land that became Wyoming's first state park in 1897 had always been sacred to Native Americans because of its healing natural hot springs. You can partake of these waters by soaking indoors or outside at the free 104°F mineral pools at the State Bath House, which is a central feature of this impressive 1,104-acre park that's also home to two waterparks (which charge admission fees) with more indoor and outdoor hot mineral pools, waterslides, and other amusements. You can also hike or bike on 6 miles of trails, view the park's sizable bison herd, traipse across a swinging suspension bridge that traverses the Big Horn River, offering views of the dramatic travertine mineral terraces.
538 Park St., Thermopolis, Wyoming, 82443, USA307-864–2176Sight Details
Rate Includes: $12 per vehicle ($7 for Wyoming residents), Park daily 24 hrs; state bathhouse Mon.–Sat. 8–5:30, Sun. noon–5:30; Star Plunge daily 9–9 -
9. Jim Gatchell Memorial Museum
The Jim Gatchell Memorial Museum is the kind of small-town museum that's worth stopping for if you're interested in the frontier history of the region, including the Johnson County Cattle War. It contains Native American, military, outlaw, and ranching artifacts collected by a local pharmacist who was a close friend of area Native Americans. The museum completed a $300,000 renovation project in 2011. Visitors will discover new exhibits and interpretive opportunities.
100 Fort St., Buffalo, Wyoming, 82834, USA307-684--9331Sight Details
Rate Includes: $7, Closed weekends, Memorial Day–Labor Day, Mon.–Sat. 9–6, Sun. noon–6; Sept., weekdays 9–5 -
10. Medicine Wheel/Medicine Mountain National Historic Landmark
A ring of rocks 75 feet in diameter, this ancient site is the best preserved of nearly 150 Native American stone wheels found in Wyoming, South Dakota, Montana, Alberta, and Saskatchewan. Evidence such as the 28 spokes (one for each day of the lunar cycle) leading from the edge of the wheel to a central cairn has persuaded some that the wheel was an ancient spiritual observatory much like England's Stonehenge may have been. To protect the area, access to the wheel is restricted to foot travel; it's a 1½-mile hike on a well-maintained unpaved road to the site from the parking lot (people with disabilities may drive to the site). Up in the Big Horn Mountains, at an elevation of 9,642 feet, the site affords views of the entire Big Horn Basin. Dress warmly, as it's cool up here, even in summer.
Forest Rd. 12, off U.S. 14A, Lovell, Wyoming, 82431, USA307-548–5406Sight Details
Rate Includes: Free, Road closed mid-Sept.–mid-June, Daily 24 hrs -
11. National Historic Trails Interpretive Center
Five major immigrant trails passed near or through Casper between 1843 and 1870. The best-known are the Oregon Trail and the Mormon Trail, both of which crossed the North Platte River in the vicinity of today's Casper. The National Historic Trails Interpretive Center examines the early history of the trails and the military's role in central Wyoming. Projected onto a series of screens 11 feet high and 55 feet wide, a film shows Wyoming trail sites and scenes of wagon travelers. You can climb into a wagon to see what it was like to cross the river, or learn about Mormon pioneers who traveled west with handcarts in 1856.
View Tours and Activities1501 N. Poplar St., Casper, Wyoming, 82601, USA307-265--8030Sight Details
Rate Includes: Free, Closed Sun. and Mon., Apr.–Oct., daily 8–7; Nov.–Mar., Tues.–Sat. 9–4:30 -
12. Sheridan Inn
Evidence of the area's old-world ties can be found at the Sheridan Inn, just a few blocks from downtown near the old railroad depot. Modeled after a hunting lodge in Scotland, the 1893 building sports 69 gables in a show of architectural splendor not often seen around these parts. On the National Register of Historic Places, the inn once lured the likes of Herbert Hoover, Will Rogers, and Ernest Hemingway, and Buffalo Bill auditioned performers here for his Wild West Show. The Inn underwent a $4.8 million restoration from 2006 to 2009, employing "green" technologies, and an additional $2.8 million was spent in 2010 to refurbish the 22 guest rooms. The original Buffalo Bill Bar, an oak-and-mahogany monstrosity on the main floor, is purported to be a gift sent from England by Queen Victoria.
856 Broadway St., Sheridan, Wyoming, 82801, USA307-655--7861Sight Details
Rate Includes: Mon.–Sat. 11–9. -
13. Tate Geological Museum
Casper College's Tate Geological Museum in the Tate Earth Science Center displays fossils, rocks, jade, and the fossilized remains of a brontosaurus, plus other dinosaur bones. The centerpiece for the Tate is Dee, an 11,600-year-old Columbian Mammoth. Dee is one of the largest complete Columbian Mammoths ever discovered.
125 College Dr., Casper, Wyoming, 82601, USA307-268--2100Sight Details
Rate Includes: Free, Closed Sun., Weekdays 9–5, Sat. 10–4 -
14. Wyoming Dinosaur Center
Among the nearly 60 dinosaur skeletons displayed at this nonprofit museum and research center is the winged "Thermopolis Specimen," the only Archaeopteryx exhibited outside of Europe, and "Stan," one of the most complete Tyrannosaurus rex skeletons in the world, measuring 35 feet long and weighing in at nearly 6 tons. Special full-day programs allow kids and adults to try their hand at paleontology by digging in one of the several active dinosaur sites nearby (some 10,000 dinosaur bones have been excavated in the vicinity since 1993). Tours of the dig site are also offered daily in summer.
110 Carter Ranch Rd., Thermopolis, Wyoming, 82443, USA307-864–2997Sight Details
Rate Includes: From $10, Summer, daily 8–6; winter, daily 10–5. Dig tours, summers, 9–4, weather permitting. -
15. Wyoming Whiskey
The complex small-batch whiskeys produced by this craft distiller have received high marks from top spirits critics around the world. Fans of premium, barrel-age bourbon now flock to tiny Kirby (population 92, 13 miles north of Thermopolis) to sample and buy these smooth sippers and tour the handsome silo-style building in which they're distilled.
100 S. Nelson St., Kirby, Wyoming, 82430, USA307-864–2116Sight Details
Rate Includes: Closed Sun. -
16. Ayres Natural Bridge
Overland immigrants sometimes visited a rock outcrop that spans LaPrele Creek. It's now a small but popular picnic area and campsite where you can wade in the creek or simply enjoy the quiet. No pets are allowed at the campsite.
Douglas, WY., Douglas, Wyoming, 82633., USA307-358--3532 -
17. Bighorn Canyon National Recreation Area
To learn about this 120,000-acre national park wilderness that was established in 1966 following the creation of Yellowtail Dam, visit the South District's Cal Taggart Visitor Center in Lovell, where you can view geological and historical exhibits on the area, as well as a film about the canyon. Two shorter movies, one on the Pryor Mountain wild horses and the other about Medicine Wheel National Historic Landmark (east of Lovell), are shown on request, and there's a small gift and bookshop. The park's South District is reached by heading north on Highway 37 east of Lovell and encompasses Horseshoe Bend Marina, Devil Canyon Overlook, 12 hiking trails (in both Wyoming and southern Montana), four historic ranches that you can tour on your own, and three campgrounds. The park's North District is 120 miles north, in Fort Smith, Montana. Note that part of the park near Lovell is adjacent to Yellowtail Wildlife Management Area at the southern end of Bighorn Lake. More than 155 species of birds—including white pelicans, pheasants, bald eagles, and great blue herons—inhabit the 19,424-acre refuge, as do numerous other animal species, including red fox, mule deer, and cottontail rabbits.
20 U.S. 14A, Lovell, Wyoming, 82431, USA307-548–5406Sight Details
Rate Includes: Free -
18. Bighorn National Forest
Big Horn is an access point to the 1.1-million-acre area, which has lush grasslands, alpine meadows, rugged mountaintops, canyons, and deserts. There are numerous hiking trails and camping spots for use in the summer, and it's a popular snowmobiling area in the winter.
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19. Bozeman Trail Museum
A hand-hewn-log blacksmith shop, built in 1879 to serve pioneers on their way to the goldfields of Montana, houses the Bozeman Trail Museum, the town's historical repository and interpretive center. The jewel of its collection is the Cloud Peak Boulder, a stone with names and dates apparently carved by military scouts just two days before the Battle of the Little Bighorn, which was fought less than 100 miles to the north in 1876. The staff is very friendly to children, and there are some old pipe organs that kids are encouraged to play.
335 Johnson St., Big Horn, Wyoming, 82833, USA307-674--6363Sight Details
Rate Includes: Free, Closed weekdays and Sept.--May, Memorial Day–Labor Day, weekends 11–6 -
20. Bridal Veil Falls Trail
The best hiking in the region tends to be west of Cody and includes this moderately strenuous 4-mile round-trip trek to a dramatic waterfall in Shoshone National Forest, northwest of town. The trail starts out on a wide road that parallels the Clarks Fork of the Yellowstone River before cutting up alongside Falls Creek—the steep final half-mile to the falls will get your blood flowing.
Cody, Wyoming, 82414, USA
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