Buffalo Bill State Park is located about 10 miles west of Cody, Wyoming.
Buffalo Bill State Park is on the shore of the Buffalo Bill Reservoir. The reservoir is created by the Buffalo Bill Dam on the Shoshone River.
It is about 40 miles from the east gate of Yellowstone National Park.
Site Review:
We treated Buffalo Bill State Park as “Lodging only” camping. We had site #6 in the North Shore Bay camping area. Our site faced the reservoir. The site had electric and water hook-ups. There was a dump station nearby.
The sites at Buffalo Bill State Park:
- spacious
- have picnic tables and fire rings
- are all pull-thru sites (the type where you pull off to the side of the main road and parallel park)
- are mostly level (some minor levelling may be required).
- There was plenty of room for the motorhome, the tow dolly, and the detached car.
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A bit of a shocker is that there are no flush toilets or showers! Honestly, I am a bit baffled by this. The comfort station is clean but has vault toilets.
There is a small ranger hut as you enter the park that is intermittently manned from 9-5. Know your site number if you plan on arriving after hours, proceed to your site. Your reservation information will already be attached to the campsite post.
If you do not know your site # I guess you are to scout all the vacant sites to find the one with your information. There was no campground host to help with this.
There is no camp store, and there is no place to buy wood or ice at the campground.
Activities:
Buffalo Bill State Park is a picturesque spot, however, there is really nothing to do. There are no activities. People did swim in the reservoir, but there is no designated swimming area.
The park does have a boat launch, but due to the lack of activity on the reservoir, it appears that people don’t travel to Wyoming for boating-related activities.
People visit Buffalo Bill State Park because of its close proximity to Cody (it is a good place to begin a trip to Yellowstone or a good place to wind down after a trip to Yellowstone).
Cody:
Cody has the amenities you need, and also some worthy sightseeing attractions:
Buffalo Bill Centre of the West
Buffalo Bill Cody (whom the town is named after) was originally a buffalo meat provider. When he was employed by the Kansas Pacific Railroad, he was asked to organize a western event to commemorate the 4th of July. This ultimately turned into “Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show”, which rose to international fame in the late 1800s.
The Buffalo Bill Center of the West is actually 5 museums in one (one of the museums focuses exclusively on the life of Buffalo Bill Cody). The other 4 museums include:
- The Draper Natural History Museum
- The Plains Indian Museum
- The Whitney Western Art Museum
- The Cody Firearms Museum
The admission is $19 per adult and this gives you a 2-day pass that can be used on any 2 consecutive days. We found this to be a top-notch museum with beautiful displays and a lot of interesting information. It was definitely worth the visit.
Cody Nite Rodeo
Cody hosts an amateur rodeo every night in the summer. Events include saddle bronc riding, calf roping, barrel racing, and of course bull riding. The Cody Nite Rodeo is staged at Stampede Park at the west end of Cody, nightly at 8 pm. Tickets are $20 for adults The show goes for about 2 hours.
We decided to go to the Cody Cattle Company and purchase their “Trifecta Ticket” for $47. This includes an all-you-can-eat chuckwagon dinner, a live western music show, and a ticket for the rodeo.
Dinner is at 5:30 pm and features:
- chicken
- beef brisket
- potatoes
- baked beans
- applesauce
- cornbread
- Caesar salad
- coleslaw
- brownies
- lemonade, coffee, and water
- for an additional charge, you could have steak, or purchase alcoholic beverages.
I am generally not a fan of serve-yourself-all-you-can-eat places, but this place is actually pretty good. I ate my fill and enjoyed my meal.
At 6:30 the western show starts. I was pleasantly surprised by the quality of musicians and by the show itself.
The show wraps up around 7:30 which gives you ample time to make it to the rodeo, which was about a 10-minute walk (and an even shorter drive) from the restaurant. I would definitely recommend this to anyone wanting to make evening plans in Cody.
Other activities in Cody include everything from:
- trolley rides
- an Old Trail Town
- float trips on the Shoshone River
- a re-enactment of an Old West Gunfight (held almost every night at 6 pm in front of the historic Irma Hotel in downtown Cody.)
Things to Know:
- The bathroom situation at Buffalo Bill State Park is unusual. This is not a huge problem with an RV, but if bathrooms are a feature that seriously affects your campground selection, then you might want to consider one of the campgrounds right in town- there are several to choose from.
- If stargazing is an interest of yours, then reading the Wyoming sky over the reservoir is a prime stargazing opportunity.
IMO:
I like Buffalo Bill State Park. The space and the privacy between sites are preferable to the parking lot quality of some of the in-town campgrounds we passed. It is very easy to access Cody, and is only a 10-minute drive after the rodeo, to return to the site.
I see no point in staying at Buffalo Bill State Park for its own sake, but as a place to park your RV and visit Cody, it was ideal. I would stay there again.
