Buffalo Bill's Irma Hotel

The showman's own hotel, still performing

★★★★★📍 Cody, WY (East Gate base, 1 hr)$$

Cody founded his town where the Burlington railroad met the road to Yellowstone's East Entrance, and the Irma was its declaration: a sandstone corner hotel "just the sweetest hotel that ever was," by its builder's modest assessment, designed to catch park tourists and host the great man's own court — he kept two suites and an office, and the register ran to presidents, princes, and Annie Oakley. The cherrywood bar remains the relic: carved in France, shipped via cape and rail at staggering 1900s expense, allegedly Victoria's thank-you for the royal command performance — polished nightly by elbows ever since.

Staying splits two registers. The historic rooms and name-suites upstairs (Buffalo Bill's, Irma's, Annie Oakley's) run Victorian-authentic — antique beds, period wallpaper, floors and plumbing with 120 years of opinions — the choice for travelers who want the story with the key; the annex additions behind run motel-modern for the sleep-first. Downstairs does the heavy lifting regardless: the restaurant's prime rib buffet is a Cody ritual (breakfast under the bar's gaze may be better), the Silver Saddle saloon pours to locals and Harley pilgrims equally, and June-through-September the Cody Gunfighters' 6pm street show — melodrama, blanks, and mustache commitment — makes the front porch the town's best free seat.

As a base: Sheridan Avenue's shops and the Buffalo Bill Center of the West are walking distance, the Cody Nite Rodeo runs every summer evening across town, and the park's East Entrance — via the Wapiti Valley's gorgeous 50 miles — sits an hour west, making Cody the scenic-approach base for the lake-and-canyon side of the loop. Summer books the historic suites well ahead on name recognition alone; winter rates drop with the town's pulse. It's a creaky, storied, completely singular night — exactly the point. Book directly.