After the lodge, you pick up the North Fork of the Shoshone River. As you descend through the forest, cliffs and narrow columns of bulbous rock carved by water begin to rise through the trees. These formations, including Chimney Rock, are the remains of ancient volcanic mudflows. Soon, the forest thins to a peppering of juniper scattered along the canyon cliffs. The Wapiti Ranger Station (+1 307 527 6921) here in the canyon was built in 1903 as headquarters for Shoshone National Forest.
Following the curves of the river beneath eroded red rock, you coast out of the canyon into a wide valley, where the road hugs the shore of Buffalo Bill Reservoir and Buffalo Bill State Park (+1 307 587 9227).
If you stop at the Buffalo Bill Dam Visitor Center (+1 307 527 6076), you can gaze down into Shoshone Canyon, an impressively deep gorge between Cedar and Rattlesnake Mountains. A roadside exhibit partway down the gorge explains the geology of Rattlesnake Mountain.
As the road emerges from the gorge onto the desert floor of the Big Horn Basin, you’ll see isolated Heart Mountain off to the northeast. It slid off the Beartooth Plateau and came to rest north of Cody.
Entering Cody from the west, look for Trail Town (+1 307 587 5302. Mid-May–mid-Sept.; Adm. fee). A combination of replicated and authentic frontier buildings, it offers shops, eateries, and period exhibits. Drive downtown to see Cody’s crown jewel: the Buffalo Bill Historical Center (720 Sheridan St. +1 307 587 4771. May-Nov.; Adm. fee). Perhaps the best Western museum in the northern Rockies, it houses one of the world’s finest collections of Western painting and sculpture, a Plains Indian museum, a world-renowned collection of firearms, and a treasure trove of Buffalo Bill memorabilia.
