Travel News

The Great American Travel Experiment: Can You Recreate the Past with a Family Road Trip?

Locations in this article:  Buffalo, NY Philadelphia, PA

Cody, Wyoming

A hundred years ago, someone had to lodge and feed the tourists flocking to the area and that someone was Buffalo Bill Cody. The Donald Trump of his day (with better hair), the guy was a genius at marketing the West. His spirit and his name are still everywhere in Cody―from the Buffalo Bill Museum to the historic Irma Hotel he built. We stayed at the Cody Legacy Inn and Suites, which is owned by Buffalo Bill’s granddaughter. We also stayed at Pahaska Tepee, which was Buffalo Bill’s private hunting lodge where he’d entertain friends and visiting dignitaries. Now another family owns it, but I’d go back in a heartbeat just to have their skillet breakfast again, it was the best thing I ate on the whole trip.

Teton Mountain Range, (photo by Jon Jay)

Late afternoon sun on Jackson Lake, Grand Teton National Park, Wyoming. Credit: Karis Simons

Our daughter is a horse-nut so a visit to the Cody Nite Rodeo was de rigueur and terrific fun. All of us loved Dan Miller’s Cowboy Music Revue―sweet, family-friendly and pitch perfect.

When my husband was 12 his parents put him in the back of a car and drove from Philadelphia to Yellowstone and the Grand Tetons. It’s a trip he never forgot. It was crucial to him that he experience it again with our daughter. Traveling to duplicate fond memories can weigh a trip with expectation; comparing moments can leave one coming up short. But, in this case, it was better than I remembered. We can only hope that one day our child heads out on a family adventure with Yellowstone and the Grand Tetons in her sight.

 Text by Jamie Simons for PeterGreenberg.com. Jamie Simons is a freelance writer based in Yosemite National Park, California.

Photos by Jon Jay and  Karis Simons. 

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