The Wyoming Town Outside Yellowstone That Has Everything the Park Has — Minus the 4-Hour Wait

You begin to doubt the entire setup the first time you stand in a four-hour line at Yellowstone’s east entrance and observe a procession of rented RVs idling in the heat. There will still be geysers. Regardless of your itinerary, the bison will continue to stand in the road. However, it seems like a minor modern absurdity to have to wait that long for nature to start, and the people in the cars around you seem to agree. Engines are off. Windows are not working. There must be a better way, the group collectively sighs quietly.

There is, and the majority of drivers pass by it. Locals in Cody, Wyoming, about fifty-two miles from Yellowstone’s east gate, have been quietly recommending it to anyone who will listen for years. It is not undiscovered. The nightly rodeo has been held every summer since the 1930s, and Buffalo Bill founded the establishment in 1896. However, it has the unique quality of being well-known without being crowded, which feels almost suspicious in the current travel environment.

The main advantage Cody has is geography. The town is cut by the Shoshone River. Behind it, the Absaroka Range rises. Teddy Roosevelt once said that the North Fork Highway drive from Cody into Yellowstone was the most picturesque fifty miles in America. Although presidents say many things, this one is accurate. You see pronghorns standing still in fields, ranches with horses grazing in the late light, and canyons of red rock. You have already traveled by the time you get to the east entrance.

Since taking over as executive director of the Wyoming Office of Tourism last fall, Domenic Bravo has been candidly discussing this type of dispersal. He frames Yellowstone as the front door and wants guests to see the entire house—a metaphor that, if it weren’t effective, might sound like a commercial. Travelers who have concluded that being close to a national park does not equate to being inside one are paying more attention to towns like Cody, Thermopolis, and Sheridan. It’s better sometimes.

Speaking with business owners and outfitters in the Cody area gives me the impression that the gateway-town economy is more precarious than it appears. Gardiner and Cooke City were nearly completely destroyed by the 2022 floods that shut down Yellowstone’s north and northeast entrances. The cancellations continued for weeks after Richard Parks, the owner of the fly shop his father founded in 1953, saw the river swallow the boulders he had used as a gauge his entire life. Although Cody wasn’t struck in the same manner, the lesson was understood. One bad season can bring trouble to a town that is completely dependent on the gates of one park.

Cody has been subtly developing its own gravity in part because of this. With five museums combined into one structure, including a collection of firearms and a Plains Indian wing that doesn’t minimize its subject, the Buffalo Bill Center of the West is truly worth a full day. An hour and a half south is Thermopolis, which has hot springs. With the exception of the throng at Old Faithful’s boardwalk, hiking in the Shoshone National Forest is on par with that of Yellowstone.

It’s difficult to ignore the fact that the most enjoyable Yellowstone excursions these days appear to involve less time spent inside the park. Travelers stay in Cody, arrive early, depart by lunchtime, and return to a town where reservations for dinner are still available. It remains to be seen if Cody remains silent for much longer or if the rest of the nation takes notice.