Cody, Wyoming: A Local's Guide to the East Gate of Yellowstone

Cody is Buffalo Bill’s town, both literally and atmospherically. He and his partners set out in 1895 to irrigate this country, the town was laid out in 1896 and named for him, the railroad arrived in 1901, and he opened the Irma Hotel in 1902. The town has been doing the Western tourism business ever since, and the practice shows. The downtown is genuinely walkable, the museums are world-class, the rodeo runs every night in summer, and the country immediately west of town is some of the most dramatic in the lower forty-eight.

It is also a tourist town, with all the pricing that implies. Budget those two days deliberately: one for the Buffalo Bill Center (it genuinely eats four to six hours), one for the Stampede or a day trip up the South Fork. A third day earns you the Chief Joseph Highway and Heart Mountain, and if Yellowstone is part of the plan, add a full extra day on each end of the park visit. The trade-off is worth it because Cody has things you cannot get elsewhere: the Buffalo Bill Center, Heart Mountain, the South Fork country, and the East Gate of Yellowstone 53 miles away.

Here is what to actually do.

What to do

The Buffalo Bill Center of the West

The flagship. Five separate museums under one roof, including the Buffalo Bill Museum, the Whitney Western Art Museum, the Plains Indian Museum, the Draper Natural History Museum, and the Cody Firearms Museum. Genuinely needs four to six hours; many people go back for a second day. The Whitney holds Frederic Remington and Charles Russell originals; the Plains Indian Museum covers the material culture of the Plains nations. The Cody Firearms Museum, which the Center calls the most comprehensive firearms museum in the United States, has over 7,000 guns in its collection and about 4,000 on display.

General admission is good for two days, which is good because one day is not enough.

Cody Nite Rodeo and the Cody Stampede

The Cody Nite Rodeo runs every evening from June through August at 8 p.m., and has since it started in 1938. Bareback, saddle bronc, bull riding, roping, and barrel racing. It is exactly what you came to Wyoming for.

The Cody Stampede is the big one, the PRCA rodeo that runs over the Fourth of July (June 30 to July 4 in 2026). It dates to 1919. If you are visiting Cody in summer, plan around it.

Heart Mountain Internment Camp

Between Cody and Powell, about 15 to 20 minutes from town, the Heart Mountain Wyoming Foundation runs the interpretive center on the site of one of the ten camps where Japanese Americans were incarcerated during World War II. Nearly 14,000 people, most of them U.S. citizens, passed through here between 1942 and 1945. Admission is $14 for adults (2026), with reduced winter days. The interpretive center is small and serious. It sits in conversation with the Western mythology of the rest of the trip. Worth the detour.

The Chief Joseph Scenic Highway

Wyoming Route 296 leaves WY-120 about 17 miles north of Cody and runs 47 miles over Dead Indian Pass and down into Sunlight Basin to meet the Beartooth Highway (US-212) near the Montana line. Switchbacks, wide views of the Absaroka and Beartooth mountains, and the highest highway bridge in Wyoming. One of the best paved drives in the West. Allow half a day.

Old Trail Town

A collection of restored frontier-era buildings on the west edge of Cody, assembled by historian Bob Edgar over decades from sites across northern Wyoming and southern Montana. Includes the Hole-in-the-Wall cabin associated with Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, Curley’s cabin (Curley was a Crow scout with Custer), and gravesites of several mountain men and frontier figures. Open mid-May through September ($15 in 2026), two hours, worth it for visitors interested in actual frontier history rather than the costumed version.

Where to eat

Cody has the standard tourist-town problem: too many mediocre options, a few real ones.

The Irma Hotel restaurant. Buffalo Bill’s 1902 hotel, with the cherrywood back bar the hotel says was a gift from Queen Victoria. Steak, prime rib, and in summer a free gunfight reenactment out front. Touristy by definition; also genuinely historic. Worth one meal.

Cassie’s Supper Club. The old roadhouse on West Yellowstone Avenue that the madam Cassie Waters ran, later a steakhouse. It was put up for sale in 2025, so check that it is open before you plan on it.

The Beta Coffeehouse. A locally owned coffeehouse on Sheridan Avenue, with breakfast burritos and a crowd of regulars.

The Local. On 13th Street near the Irma: seasonal, mostly local and organic American food, lunch and dinner Tuesday through Saturday. Book dinner ahead in summer.

Avoid: the chain restaurants on Sheridan Avenue between the highway and downtown. There are good options within walking distance.

Where to stay

Three categories.

Historic and central. The Irma Hotel rooms (atmospheric). The Chamberlin Inn, a small historic property a few blocks off the main drag. The Cody Hotel, modern but central. Summer rates are high; book early.

Mid-range. Chain hotels cluster on the east side of town. Rates drop in shoulder season.

Camping and cabins. Buffalo Bill State Park west of town has campgrounds on the reservoir. Several private RV parks. For lodge-style stays with character, Pahaska Tepee, about 50 miles west near the East Entrance, is the lodge Buffalo Bill opened in 1904, still operating.

Avoid: anything 30+ minutes outside Cody marketed as a “rural retreat”, most are mediocre lodges in plain country with the same prices as central options. Cody is small enough that staying in town is the right move.

What’s around Cody

Beyond the city itself:

• The South Fork of the Shoshone. West of town, a long valley running into the Absarokas. Real working ranches, fly fishing, summer pack trips with licensed Wyoming outfitters, and the trailheads for the Washakie Wilderness.
• The North Fork of the Shoshone. The Yellowstone-bound highway. Drive it in summer for the dramatic geology of the Wapiti Valley, stop at Pahaska Tepee, continue to the East Gate.
• The Bighorn Basin. East of Cody, the broad agricultural valley between the Absarokas and the Bighorns. Worland, Greybull, Thermopolis (mineral hot springs) are all within day-trip distance.
• The Bighorn Mountains. Two hours east, accessible from Greybull via US-14 over Granite Pass. If you have time for a multi-day pack trip, the Bighorns have excellent horse country and licensed outfitters.

Connection to Buffalo Bill

You cannot understand Cody without understanding Buffalo Bill. By the reckoning of the scholars who edit his papers, he was the most famous American in the world at the turn of the twentieth century. His Wild West show toured Europe and America for three decades and shaped what the rest of the world thought “Western” looked like. He backed the town that bears his name as a deliberate development play, irrigation, railroad and tourism together. He died in Denver in 1917 and is buried on Lookout Mountain near Golden, Colorado, not in Cody, though he had once wanted Cedar Mountain west of town. (The story that a Denver newspaperman paid his widow $10,000 for the body has never been confirmed. Wyoming took the burial badly for decades.)

The full bio is worth its own piece; for now know that the Buffalo Bill Center of the West is the definitive collection of his life’s material, and that the town he founded is more or less the town he intended.

What to skip

Tourist Cody has accumulated some clutter. Not worth your time:

• The costumed street shows. Fine for a few minutes; the Buffalo Bill Center tells the real story much better.
• Most of the Sheridan Avenue souvenir shops. Mass-produced “cowboy” merchandise from elsewhere. If you want real Western goods, look for the smaller leather and saddle shops in town, or wait for a real heritage maker.

When to visit

Peak season (Memorial Day through Labor Day): everything open, prices high, crowds at the Yellowstone gate. Plan around the Cody Stampede if you can (early July).

Shoulder season (mid-September through mid-October): the best window for thoughtful visits. Museums open, weather still good, rodeo over but the country itself comes into its own. Lodging cheaper. Yellowstone’s East Entrance road is open through October.

Winter (November through April): quiet, cold, museums open, lodging cheap. Yellowstone’s East Entrance is closed to cars; the only park road open to regular vehicles in winter runs from the North Entrance at Gardiner to Cooke City. For a serious Western Americana research trip without crowds, winter Cody is underrated.

Cody vs other Yellowstone gateways

If you are choosing between gateways:

• West Yellowstone, MT: closest to the geyser basins. Tourist-heavy, less character. Pick if Old Faithful is the priority.
• Gardiner, MT: north entrance to Mammoth Hot Springs. Smaller, less infrastructure. Pick if you want quieter.
• Jackson, WY: Tetons + south Yellowstone access. Spectacular but expensive (significantly more than Cody) and the brand of “Western” is more designer-cowboy than working-cowboy.
• Cody, WY: east entrance, a long drive to the park’s main sights. Pick if you want substantial non-Yellowstone Western content (the Center, the rodeo, Heart Mountain, Old Trail Town).

For a full Western trip, Cody is the most substantive base. For a Yellowstone-only trip, West Yellowstone is more efficient.

Final note

Cody works because Buffalo Bill knew what he was doing in 1895 and the town has stayed true to the idea since. It is unembarrassed about being a Western tourism town. It also takes its history seriously enough to put a serious museum, a serious internment-camp memorial, and a real working rodeo at the center of itself. That combination is rarer than it sounds. Most American tourism towns settle for either spectacle or substance. Cody manages both.

Two days here, run honestly, will leave you with a stronger sense of the actual American West than any number of national park drive-throughs.

Gear for Cody country

• Pendleton National Park wool blanket, the Yellowstone pattern belongs on a trip through the East Gate
• Tony Lama floral belt, for the rodeo, the Irma dinner, or Frontier Days in Cheyenne
• Klean Kanteen insulated 20 oz, for the drive through the Wapiti Valley and the North Fork

Related reading on this site

• The Wyoming regional outfitter directory
• Wyoming’s best horse packing trails
• Hand-tooled leather: how real Western leatherwork is made
• The Western dress code, decoded by setting
• What is a trading post? A history of frontier commerce
• Heart Mountain: the Wyoming camp where nearly 14,000 Japanese Americans were held
• Buffalo, Wyoming: the Occidental Hotel, the TA Ranch, and the Bighorn Front
• Cheyenne Frontier Days: the complete guide to the Daddy of ‘Em All
• Wyoming hot springs you can actually soak in: fees, seasons, access
• 9 Wyoming ghost towns worth the drive

Further reading

• Louis S. Warren, Buffalo Bill’s America: William Cody and the Wild West Show (Knopf, 2005). The standard scholarly biography.
• Larry McMurtry, The Colonel and Little Missie (2005). The popular treatment of Cody and Annie Oakley.
• Buffalo Bill Center of the West online research collections.
• Cody Stampede official site for current rodeo schedule and tickets.
• Heart Mountain Wyoming Foundation, official site for the historic site and museum.