Wyoming's Gateway To Yellowstone Is A Top Spot To Retire With Rodeos, Mountain Scenery, And Rugged Western Charm

Named after legendary frontier scout and showman Buffalo Bill, whose real name was William Frederick Cody, the Wyoming town of Cody is every bit as fantastic as Buffalo Bill's famous Wild West Show. Cody is also a gateway to Yellowstone. It's surrounded by a beautiful landscape of rugged mountains and rolling Western plains. There's great fishing, and it's home to one of the biggest museum complexes dedicated to the West. Cody even gained a reputation among travelers as one of the 5 best "cowboy core" vacation destinations.

There's also a great gallery scene if you're artistically minded. If you're more about cowboys and horses, though, Cody hosts a renowned nightly rodeo. This Western town is rugged and scenic, with plenty to do and lots of open space. You'd want to visit for all these reasons and more, but imagine spending the golden years of your life there. If you're looking to retire, Cody invites you to embrace life at your own pace. Among Yellowstone entrances, Cody gets a bit more traffic than the hidden gateway to the north tucked into the pristine Custer Gallatin National Forest in Red Lodge, Montana, so it can get crowded. But that trade-off means more amenities and services.  

This is a town where over 40% of the population is over 45, where the crime rate is below the national average, and where property values just go up. For these reasons, in addition to Cody's undoubtable Western charm and Wyoming's easy tax laws, it's no wonder that smartasset.com listed Cody as the top place to retire in Wyoming and in the top 100 nationwide. At the least it's worth a visit, and if you decide to fly to town, the Yellowstone Regional Airport in Cody is where your adventure starts.

It makes sense that a town named after one of the West's greatest ringmasters is home to the Buffalo Bill Center of the West, five museums in one. You could spend a day every week of your retirement exploring Western history here, from cowboys to Native Americans to ancient life, and given Buffalo Bill's legendary shooting accuracy, one of the biggest collections of firearms anywhere. While the Buffalo Bill Center is home to the Whitney Western Art Museum, you could also peruse the galleries in town for some artistic inspiration. After purchasing your new Western home (the median price is about $555,000 at time of publication), you'll want some art to match. With no personal income tax in Wyoming, you'll probably have money left over for art.

For those looking to find a forever home in a town with real cowboy action, the Cody Stampede Rodeo happens every night all summer. While the world's largest outdoor rodeo is found to the east in Cheyenne, Wyoming, Cody's rodeo earned it the nickname of "Rodeo Capitol of the World." If your dream retirement looks like an episode of "Yellowstone," this town still boasts real ranchers and cowboys happily mingling with newbies and tourists, Stetson hat and all. You'll want to eat steak here, and the Cody Steakhouse is fantastic. For breakfast or lunch, check out Sitti's Table, which Guy Fieri visited on "Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives."

Outside of Cody, there's a universe of lakes, rivers, and streams to fish, and several fly shops in town more than happy to give you advice. The mountains hemming in the valley rise out of plains that stretch on forever, making for glorious sunsets. And there's Yellowstone, just a little over an hour away. 

Retirement is a great time to reflect on history and legends, and Cody is just the place to do that. Bill Cody himself founded the town in 1895. You can even visit the original site, Old Trail Town, made up of charming old cabins saved from around the area and moved to the spot where Buffalo Bill first planned the town. Colonel William F. Cody was more than an exhibitionist. He had a vision for a town that could grow, thanks to its proximity to Yellowstone, and even envisioned the irrigation and dam projects that made it into a fertile valley. Now that town has grown into the kind of place a Western-minded retiree could be happy.

In town, you can hang out at a hotel Cody built. The Irma, named after his daughter, was founded in 1902 and still welcomes guests today. The cherry wood bar was a gift from Queen Victoria to Buffalo Bill and European royalty used to stay there on exotic hunting trips to the Americas. Calvin Coolidge attended the Cody Stampede on July 4th, 1927, and President George H.W. Bush fished near Buffalo Bill's hunting lodge in 1989. Maybe they were attracted to the fact that the town is 19.5% seniors, and they felt like they were among their peers.

Of course, long before there was a city, there were trappers, tribes, and scouts, such as Cody himself. In his later years, he decided to found his own town and chose this stretch of land between the Big Horn and Absaroka mountains he remembered from his scouting days. In a way, he made his own personal retirement village. It makes sense, then, that Buffalo Bill's namesake town is a place where the Wild West lives on, and where you can live on with it.