The Reel Decoy

After Breakfast I had to do quick search for a housekeeper because I had left the room key locked in the room. The housekeeper was agreeable to opening the door for me so I could pack for the day’s trip. Nice start.

The old lodge was opening as we left Pahaska Tepee so we stopped for a quick tour. The original lodge named Pahaska Tepee was developed at the turn of the century by Bill Cody and used continuously up to the 50’s. It is now open only as a museum. There are many old artifacts collected over time, and the building itself is worthy of note. It was built of rough logs with the bark on, two stories,with the lodgings on the second floor opening onto the central hall, which has a big wood-burning fireplace. In back of the fireplace there is a large dinning hall. A kitchen on one side and a bar/lounge on the other complete the basics. Outside, the full porch overlooks the river. It must have been a special experience to stay here. The guests of long ago first arrived in Cody by stage from Billings, they stayed overnight in Cody at the Irma Hotel, then they continued to “half-way Lodge” for another overnight. Finally, after another full day on the stage, they arrived at Pahaska Tepee—where they could continue on to Yellowstone. Many stayed right here for hunting and fishing.

Next stop, Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone. We took the road to Artist Point to get pictures of lower falls. We got there just before 3 tour buses loaded the viewing stand to overflow. We got out pictures, enjoyed watching the soaring Blue-green Swallows and returned down the road to Tom’s Lookout where we took photos of the upper falls. White Pelicans were swimming in the river between the two falls—every now and then their heads dipped into the water. Hope the fishing was good.

The road to Old Faithful Geyser Basin goes through meadows that are green with spring grass. We saw elk and deer and many buffalo. We passed through Madison Junction the headwaters of the Madison River, which will join the Jefferson and Gallatin to become the Missouri at Three Forks. It was there that we meet our first real traffic jam. About 30 minutes delay, because of drivers slowing and stopping to look at a large herd of buffalo on the route to Old Faithful. Finally, it was our turn to look, but the buffalo seemed to be sleeping.

We drove on—to arrive at Old Faithful, where we parked and joined the throng of people waiting for the 2:30 eruption. I sat on the edge near one end of the seating area, people are 6-8 deep for the 150 yards or so that are nearest to the geyser. Where I was sitting there were fewer people and the views are just as good. A Mountain Bluebird was flying back and forth in the trees near the spout of the geyser. The thousand or so people watching and waiting shushed and there was a strange silence as the geyser began to gurgle, then sighs as the eruption began in earnest. After the last gurgle everyone left just like they leave after a football game.

The real gems of Old Faithful Geyser Basis are the paint pots and sulphur pools; the colors are exquisite against the blue and yellow of the spring flowers.

We left the park, not stopping in West Yellowstone, to continue on to Ennis. On the way we stopped at the Quake Lake Visitor Center that commemorates those killed by the 1959 earthquake that was centered near West Yellowstone. We watched a video that described the geology and the effects of the quake. The video was shown in a hall with big windows that looked out on the dam caused by the debris. We could see the bare scar left on the mountain by the landslide. We could also see the large boulders now lying across the canyon from the mountainside where they originated. The slide happened quickly in the remote area and left 300 casualties and 28 dead buried under the slide debris. The visitor center is an impressive stop—makes you think about the forces of nature.

Driving towards some black clouds we soon found ourselves in a real mountain squall. It only lasted a few minutes, and it cleared the air and turned the fields brilliant green. How fortunate we have been with the weather. We arrived in Ennis about 5:30 ready to rest a bit and go out for dinner. We checked in and found ourselves in a double-wide trailer just in back of the motel. We have a big lawn, deer in the adjacent field and llamas across the street. We went to dinner at The Reel Decoy, recommended by the hotel owner, very good food—Chicken Picatta, Hamburger, Pulled Pork Sandwich were the main dishes, but we had deserts, of course.

Oh, in case you were wondering, Ennis has a 4th of July Rodeo—just like Red Lodge and Cody.

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Cody Museums

The day opened sunny at Pahaska Tepee but cool, 35 degrees. A Red-napped Sapsucker, woodpecker to non-birders, was gleaning small insects from the pine trees outside our door. The wranglers were at the corral with their string of horses. The wranglers were from Colorado and Kentucky, got to Pahaska in May to work with the horses, which winter in Powell near Cody. They found plenty of snow and cold weather in May, but June has been nice. We can still see snow in the mountains around Pahaska.


Seems like most of the help are from the somewhere else—wanting to find out something of the history of the place, we asked the waitress if she had been here long and the answer was “since April”. Not much use asking the staff about the history of the lodge. By the end of summer they will be experts, but not yet.

The front door of the gift shop opens and a guy comes out with a life-size wooden carved Indian in his arms. He sets it beside the door and Pahaska is open for breakfast. Breakfast was the Western: eggs, hash browns and toast plus juice, good. Ready for the trip to Cody.

Telephone still out? I asked the cashier about the phone as she manually filled out a credit card form: “as long as the box is under water things don’t look to good.” The worst flooding is closer to Cody, but the river behind our cabin is running to its banks and the water is brown from the run off-- no fishing here.


Cody is preparing for the Cody Stampede Rodeo, which is held the same days as the Red Lodge Rodeo. This is a little competition between Cody and Red Lodge that has been going on for some time. Some of the cowboys fly between cities and compete in both rodeos the same weekend. On this Wednesday, however, there were more bikers than cowboys, but both breeds were visible. The Irma Hotel founded by Wild Bill Cody was taken over by bikers. The other side of Main Street was a little more typical of what I remember.


The Cody museum is worth a trip in itself—five museums connected to a center court. We saw first the Buffalo Bill museum which has momentos and pictures from his life, the West and the Wild West Show. The photo at the right is a stage coach blanket made of skins. Our visit was interrupted by a power outage—the building literally went dark after a pause that seemed long two backup lights came on but they were far apart. Later a guard came and let us to the lobby where there was light from the street.

We ate lunch on left-over sandwiches from yesterday that happened to be in our cooler. Since the blackout was city-wide it didn’t make much since to look for anything better. When the light came on we went back and saw 1500 rifles and pistols on display in the Winchester museum. There were many exhibits and old photographs so it wasn’t as boring as it may sound. There were an additional 1200 weapons in the study area, which we encouraged to visit—we skipped that part. Opting instead to quickly visit the gift shop. Where you could buy this Indian loom project. Maybe a photo will do for now.

Finally we visit downtown Cody, where we found used cowboy ropes for $15 and strawberry sherbet and oatmeal cookies for $6.00.

The trip back to Pahaska was scenic but uneventful. It’s time for dinner.

Tomorrow we return to Yellowstone Park.

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