What is the best route

What are you pulling with?

Ford 350 Super Duty

I think you could be undertrucked, but perhaps it's working just fine for you.

That drive looks like a challenge whichever route you take.

If you want to avoid the pull and descent over the Bighorn mountains, you can go north out of Cody to pick up I90 At Laurel, MT. The shortest would be routes 120 and 72 to join with routes 310 and 212. I have not driven this route, but Streets & Trips indicates a gradual descent between Cody and Laurel.

If you want to try going over the Bighorns, route 16 has easier grades than route 14.

I have pulled both North to Laurel, which is easy and basically flat. East and South to Ten Sleep then over to Buffalo is much more scenic and has some hills but much easier than the other routes using 14. Either are pleasant drives.

16 across the Bighorns is not an "easy" pass to cross. It is much easier than 14, but it's still a pretty good climb and then a pretty tough descent. If you have come out of Cody from Yellowstone, you'll probably be ok with it, but watch your brakes on the descent.

TexasShadow wrote:
16 across the Bighorns is not an "easy" pass to cross. It is much easier than 14, but it's still a pretty good climb and then a pretty tough descent. If you have come out of Cody from Yellowstone, you'll probably be ok with it, but watch your brakes on the descent.

I agree there is a runaway catchment system coming out of the Big Horn Mountains on Hwy 16 almost to Buffalo. So heads up for the decent. Go to down to the bottom of the WYODOT page.
www.wyoroad.info/highway/webcameras.html
Good Luck
Scott