Buffalo Bill Center of the West

Here I go again.

I'm all nerd again.

We are doing two posts on this, one about the Center itself (because we simply have to share), and one to highlight what touched us.

Buffalo Bill Center of the West is a must-see, must do, and can't miss item. 

I have to tell you these things first:

1.  We are too late in the season, so we could not see the rodeo show, which is supposed to be a big hit.

2.  We were at the Wild West Center for about 5 hours and did not do the whole thing.  We missed the Western Art section completely.

3.  I am not a gun person - guns just don't impress me the way they do some people, so we kind of glazed through the Firearms Museum.  But, this is the most comprehensive firearms museum in the USA.  10,000 artifacts.  If you are a gun person, this section alone is a day for you.

The museum, all sections, is laid out incredibly well.  It has a natural flow that leads you through the exhibits.

This is a 'Whole Family Museum'.  They have kid programs too.  There was a kid program in session while we were there.  I wanted to hang out and learn a little bit.  It was like an interactive classroom session.  All the kids were engaged.

The museum has interactive parts for adults in each section too.

The center also offers guided tours.  We did not do this. We read the signs and watched the videos.  I found myself enjoying the reading like I was reading a story in a book.  The information is concise.

Your ticket is a 2-day pass.  It would take 2 days to do this museum if you did the whole thing.

The museum is broken into 5 sections, plus they also have special exhibits.

1.  Firearms Museum
2.  Western Art Museum
3.  Buffalo Bill Museum
4.  Plains Indian Museum
5.  Natural History Museum

Our favorite section was the Natural History Museum.

My Lovely and I like to try to predict which if our activities will be our favorite or predict which place we will enjoy the most.

Last fall on our New England trip, I did a top 5 round up post at the end of the trip.  I did the post because, before the trip, I was really looking forward to Niagra Falls.  I was amazed that Niagra Falls didn't make my top 5 -- actually, the post was a top 5 plus 1, and it didn't make the list.  Not because Niagra disappointed, but because other things were just so outstanding.

So far, about halfway through our trip, we have done more than 20 activities.  And we have candidates for the top 5 already.  This museum - specifically the Natural History Museum within the Buffalo Bill Center of the West - is in that top 5 ... for now.

When we made our predictions as we were driving away from the house,  this was not even on the radar.  And it is awesome.

Part of the awesomeness was because of what we had already experienced.  We saw things while we hiked, rode our bikes or while were on the road, and asked each other questions.  Then we came here, and the answers to several of our questions were right there on display.

Part of it was because of the way the museum was laid out.  It walks you through in a natural progression that is easy and thoughtful.  The space you have is relative to the amount of information you are taking in.  But mostly, they did this great thing.  You start out on an upper level and work yourself down (no steps).  The upper level is all the information, formation, wildlife associated with the top of a mountian ( higher altitudes) As you descend, you encounter different animals, habitats, formations - different science just as you would on the mountain.  All the way to the meadows and rivers at the base .

Hey! I gave you the Nerd Alert!  What? You didn't believe me?

We geeked out on it.  We learned about both animal and forest conservation.  We answered at least a dozen questions we had asked ourselves.  And we saw several things that had not occurred to us.

There was not a moment that I felt we glossed over.

Last year, on the New England Trip, we were disappointed to not see any Moose.  I asked someone about it.  The answer was that the population had dropped dramatically due to disease - and a mention of ticks.  The museum here points out the same drop in population (lost 2/3s in the last 15 years), and it listed 5 top reasons, including the ticks¹ and the fungus.

I had read a few months ago about how the Department of the Interior was reintroducing the grey wolf back into Yellowstone after near extinction (human) because of outright attempts at extermination as well as messing with the ecology and the natural order of things.  The display highlighted the give and take of all the animals in the natural order.

I mentioned in the post about Mt Rushmore that I enjoyed it, I'm glad I did it, but now I've done it.  I am not likely to do Mt. Rushmore again.  That is not true here.   If I were back in the area again next year, I'd come do the museum again.  It is top-notch.  And I am sure I would enjoy it just as much a second time - even more because I'd make sure to catch the rodeo too.

On our camping trips, where we go, so goes our home - and our kitchen. We cook most of our own meals and eat out a little.

My Lovely had a hankering for pizza. We stopped in at Trailhead Bar - Wood Fired Pizza.

Research works. My lovely had found this recommendation while she was researching the trip.

It is so nice when a business does a food job and gets rewarded with good recommendations.

She hit it right. Clean place, fair price, good pizza. Not a tourist trap. Just a few blocks from Buffalo Bill's Center of the West.

Reminder Note:
We hope that people enjoy our posts, but we do this mostly for ourselves and our own enjoyment. 

We have 3 reasons we use post on Find Penguins:

1.  Amy is a scrapbooker.  Find Penguins is now her (our) scrapbook medium.  We do this so we can go back and relive our experiences.  We find it to be a good way to incorporate photos, maps, timeliness, videos, and stories all in one place.  At the end of the season, we will print a book of photos - a highlight of the highlights.  Pictures, stories, and QR codes for videos.

2.  We have a few friends and family that like to follow our travels.  They can drop in whenever they want to.  Amy posts a link on Facebook as a reminder, but a couple of people in the family set up for automatic notifications so they see everything as we post. 

3.  The Find Penguins app is a European based app that was originally created to help people find experiences based on locations.  This particular post is the perfect example.

If someone were going to Yellowstone as we are, what else in the area is worth doing?  Our posts are public.  Anyone in the world who is thinking of on a trip west can find any one of our posts and see what we did, what we liked, what path we took, and decide if they want to add any of the stops on their trip.  Likewise, when we want to do a trip, we can use Find Penguins to help us decide what to see and do.  Because this is a European app, there is more information (more posts) in Europe than in the USA.  Maybe, over time, that will change.Read more