This August, we took a family road trip to Yellowstone National Park. We set out on a Saturday night, stayed over in Lincoln, NE, continued driving on Sunday and stayed that night in Casper, WY, and finally arrived in Cody, WY on Monday. Cody is the closest city in WY on the east side of Yellowstone.
As we got close, our driving views looked like this:
We stayed at the Cody Wyoming Trout Ranch, where we got to camp out in tipis – it was glamping and so much fun!
Inside our tipi:
There was a little pond to fish in and Dave had the idea that we could catch fish for dinner, but we were not successful. Simon finally got to go fishing though!
I thought we’d be fishing in the river, not a little pond! The river flowed right next to the tipis.
Since we didn’t have any fish to eat, it was lucky we brought along hot dogs, which we grilled outside of our tipi. That evening, we headed over to check out the Cody Nite Rodeo. None of us had ever been to a rodeo before!
We were told that it was better to walk around to the far side of the field to sit, and on the way we checked out the horses.
We watched the cowboys and girls getting ready for their events.
Then there was a flag presentation and a long presentation of all the sponsors of the rodeo.
I’m sure when you think of a rodeo you think of bull riding, but there were other events first, stating with bucking bronco riding.
There was calf lassoing, which was cute but also sad.
In the middle of the rodeo, all the kids were called down to play a game. They all tried to catch a calf. Simon is in this picture in a black sweatshirt next to the girl in coral on the bottom right.
Next there was Jr. Bull Riding. These are kids competing!
Cowboys text too.
There was barrel racing, where the horses run around the barrels for time.
And kids did this competition too. This girl is one of the girls I photographed above.
And finally, Bull Riding. You are meant to stay on for 8 seconds. Some barely made it for 1.
Then we headed back to the tipis where we saw millions of stars (that I was unable to photograph) and built a fire to roast our marshmallows.
And then we settled down in our tipi for the night! It was cold there, so the tipi had a heater! Have you ever been glamping? How about to a rodeo?