Cody, Wyoming and SUNSCREEN!

The rains have definitely ended, I had to put on sunscreen today!

Cody Wyoming is a very nice little town. Capitalizes on its heritage as a western frontier town with much tourism associated with typically western things like cowboys and rodeos. Here's a shot of downtown Cody.

They do make one claim which I feel they cannot back up. They claim to be the Rodeo capital of the world. However, we all know to which city that title belongs. Cody derives it's name from Buffalo Bill, who's real name was William Cody and there is a very popular Buffalo Bill interpretive center in town. Bill started out as a Buffalo hunter who supplied meat to railway workers during the civil war. Later he became a performer founding the "Buffalo Bill's Wild West" show which toured around North America and Europe in the late 1800's.

Today I was working in the Shoshone River canyon a few miles west of Cody and below the Buffalo Bill Reservoir. The canyon is quite impressive with rocks ranging in age from the Pre-Cambrian to Cretaceous in age exposed on either side. Here's a shot looking up the canyon toward the reservoir. You can just see the river at the bottom. All the rocks in the photograph are crystalline.

Here is the Buffalo Bill Reservoir.

I was sampling the Flathead again today. Sampling the Flathead will be a theme of my work until I get to Utah in about 5 days. The exposure of the unconformity between the Flathead and the Pre-Cambrian crystalline basement is breathtaking. I knew from Streetview images that it would be impressive but I actually laughed out loud when I saw it. See if you can interpret the unconformity from the picture.

The Flathead looks completely different here to the exposures in Montana (Neihart). Pretty rocks with lots of trough cross bedding.

Pitched the tarp tonight off the back of the truck. There were showers around this evening so I thought I would set up the tarp. The tarp is a Moss Heptawing we bought years ago for backpacking. Works pretty well for car camping I think.

I'm off to one of my more remote sample locations in the Rattlesnake Hills tomorrow. The nearest town is Casper, Wyoming some 80 km to the east and its not exactly a metropolis. I will be incommunicado for a few days before I get to Rawlins on Thursday. Hopefully I will find a place to reconnect and fill you in on all the developments between now and then.

I showered today. First time since Calgary. If felt good.