The National Museum of Military Vehicles Trip: Day One
Day One
On Monday morning, September 14, 2020, I left Billings, Montana and headed west, following I-90 to the town of Laurel, where I turned south on US 212, the same two-lane highway that takes you to the Beartooth Mountains. It’s about fifteen miles from my apartment to the northern terminus of the Beartooth Highway. Just past Rockvale, a fifteen minute drive, I turned left onto US 310. A little past the municipality named for famed mountain man Jim Bridger, I took a right onto Montana State Route 72. At the Wyoming state line, the thoroughfare becomes Wyoming 120. Following this route took me to, and through Cody, Wyoming, a larger city named for the famous buffalo-hunter turned stage man, William F. Cody, more commonly known by his moniker, “Buffalo Bill.” After picking up breakfast at a Burger King, following my leisurely two-hour drive, I continued south toward Thermopolis.
For those of you who love the west, a must see is the Buffalo Bill Center of the West at 720 Sheridan Avenue on the western side of Cody. Tickets for adults are $19.75 and for children, ages 6-17, $13.25. Kids under 6 are free. These tickets are good for two consecutive days. This article, however, is not about that wonderful conglomeration of five museums in this quant western city a mere hour from the famed Yellowstone National Park. That’s for another time.
The Cody Country Chamber of Commerce Visitor Center is just down the street from the Buffalo Bill Center, and if you stop there, you can pick up a map of the city with possible Cody destinations on the back. Use this to help you navigate the city until you find yourself back on Wyoming 120 headed south toward the town of Thermopolis. It’s a straight shot of a little over eighty miles to the small metropolis in the middle of the Wind River Basin, a very arid part of Wyoming. There was nothing special to see. My chiropractor had told me about a chocolate shop in the town of Meeteetse, but as it turned out, they are closed from the middle of September until the middle of November.
A few miles south of Thermopolis, however, US 20/WY 789 takes a thirty-three mile jaunt through the Wind River Canyon. It’s a beautiful drive through a narrow river valley. It’s not as nice as some that I have seen, but well worth the time. To the right, or west side, of this valley, lie the Owl Creek Mountains, which top out at 9,874 feet. To the east, Copper Mountain, of the Bridger Mountain Range (not to be confused with the mountain range of the same name that overlooks Bozeman, Montana), reaches 8,300 feet into the Wyoming sky. The Owl Creek Range, which connects the Absaroka Mountains with the Bridger/Big Horn Mountains to the east, resides entirely within the Wind River Indian Reservation. Portions of the Northern Arapaho and Eastern Shoshoni tribes reside within this land set apart for Native Americans. In Laurence Parent’s Scenic Driving WYOMING, this is Scenic Drive #25; Wind River Canyon: Shoshoni to Thermopolis.
Following US Highway 26 west, from Shoshoni, a little over twenty minutes finds you in Riverton where US 26 becomes Wyoming 789. A little less than thirty minutes along this state highway will take you to Lander, the county seat of Fremont County, Wyoming. As of 2018, this small town with a population of just over 7,500, on the southeast side of the Wind River Range, is the largest body of people near those magnificent peaks.
From Lander, a little over ten minutes, along Wyoming 131, will find you rolling through the entrance to Sinks Canyon State Park, Wyoming. This is the beginning of Parent’s Scenic Drive #12: Lander-South Pass City Loop, in his book Scenic Driving WYOMING. If you have seen the Charlton Heston/Brian Keith movie The Mountain Men, then you might remember they were always talking about the “Popo Agie River.” The Middle Fork of this illustrious stream runs through the small Wyoming State Park. At one point, It actually flows underground through a sinkhole in the park, before reemerging several hundred yards downstream.
I did not traverse the entire eighty-one mile drive. The first ten miles, to the Worthen Reservoir turn off, was paved; after that it became a gravel road, and a google search said that portions could be rough at times. WY 131 takes you high up the side of a mountain as you traverse many sharp curves and switchbacks before topping out at well over 8,500 feet. There were many nice views, but nothing spectacular. Frye Lake is to the right, or western side, of the route, and about a mile further is the road to Worthen Meadows Reservoir. It is here, that the pavement ends.
So, following a late lunch, at the edge of the pavement, I turned around and returned to Lander. From there, it was the small town of Fort Washakie, along US Highway 287 and then US 26 to a night’s stay at the Dubois/Wind River KOA Holiday Campground. After traveling about twenty minutes, I entered the place where the bodies of Sacagawea, the famed guide to the Lewis and Clark Expedition, and Chief Washakie, a famous Shoshoni leader, are buried. The Wind River Trading Company, a “trading post” in Fort Washakie, is a good place to purchase souvenirs and pick up some information. Another hour brought me to the small town of Dubois. With a population of less than 1,000, this hamlet on the northeastern side of the Wind River Range does not have a lot to offer. They do, however, have something of value to this writer. The entire purpose of my trip was to visit the newly-opened National Museum of Military Vehicles. Since hearing about this little gem in the wilderness, I have longed to visit the museum. And now that I have seen it, I’ll be back. The Dubois KOA Campground had something I had not seen before. They have some smaller cabins, made just for two people, carrying one full-size bed. Traveling by myself, this was perfect, and to make things better it was really close to the Office, where the bathrooms and showers are. That made things very handy.
