Buffalo Bill and Red Rocks

Buffalo Bill's grave and museum

To get to the museum and grave site of Buffalo Bill Cody you need to drive up to the top of Lookout Mountain in Golden, Colorado. It was the great showman's final wish that he be buried here, much to the chagrin of the good folks in Cody, Wyoming, who thought he should rest eternally in the town named for him, back in 1917. The drive to the top of Lookout Mountain is not for acrophobics. Not only is it narrow and steep, and has one switchback after another, but cyclists with slim, sinewy bodies--damn, it was tempting to just bump a couple of them a little bit--are all over the road, heading up and heading down. Along with motorcycles, cars and an occasional bus. But at last we reached the summit, a vertical half-mile above the mile-high city below.

Mary F. and Arthur at the resting place of Buffalo Bill

To me, the grave of Buffalo Bill is a little, well, odd. The rough quartz stone, mortared together in an amateurish way, the roughly lain tiles between three apparent burial sites, although there is no mention of any other occupants, and the prison-like wrought-iron fence; it doesn't seem appropriate to the man. We have stood at the tombs of presidents, and none of them had a fence.

We can't help but wonder who designed this.

The plaque on Buffalo Bill's monument.

On the way back down the path stood this bronze beast:

The noble bison in bronze.

At the bottom of the path we came to the Buffalo Bill museum, much more impressive inside than out:

Arthur and Mary F. at the entrance to the Buffalo Bill Museum

Little Sure-Shot: Mary Frances Oakley

On the inside the museum contains an interesting tableaux and timeline of the life of William Cody, artifacts and artwork:

Buffalo Bill on horseback.

The famous portrait.

Did Buffalo Bill visit your town? Well, yes, the Wild West Show visited Athol, Massachusetts on June 12, 1897. Probably at the Fair Grounds, which in those days were on South Athol Road.

Mary F. finds Wild West Show appearances in Athol, St. Johnsbury, Fitchburg, etc.

One more buffalo--this one of the taxidermy variety.

After the museum, we stopped in at the combination cafe and gift shop, and enjoyed "Original Duffy's Root Beer Floats."

Mary F. and Arthur outside the teepee.

Mary F. has a last look at urban Colorado, a half-mile below.

Big Red Rocks

From Buffalo Bill's, we wandered east a ways to a fascinating geologic structure called Red Rocks. They're big, and they're red, and somebody was smart enough to build an amphitheater between them that fits the natural geologic angles, the colors and the views. At the entrance, we were greeted by this Civilian Conservation Corps worker in bronze:

I haven't seen a memorial to the CCC's save the ubiquitous stands of white pine

in our area. As a small child when my dad returned from WWII, our home was a

cooking shanty abandoned by the Corps when they disbanded.

The big red rocks

In this modest park we saw more giant red rocks than we had seen since our visit to the Utah national parks last year. (Mary Frances loves red rocks.)

A natural skyscraper.

A towering monolith.

The Amphitheater

We've seldom seen nature messed with so well. The amphitheater is built into the hillside between two monoliths, capturing the flavor of the natural formations, yet offering an excellent venue for concerts and entertainments:

Mary Frances at the amphitheater.

The view southeast from the amphitheater.

Monolith at the north end of the amphitheater.

View of the amphitheater and the eastern plains beyond.

Monolith at the southern end of the amphitheater.

Mary F. looking southwest from the mezzanine of the amphitheater.

After leaving Red Rocks, we enjoyed a meal at Chili's directly behind our hotel (mostly good stuff but I can't recommend the thin chili or the weak Presidente margarita.) All in all, a very pleasant day with our son and the rich natural beauty of Colorado.

Tomorrow: Our last day in Denver.