Bears, cowboys, canyons and

where a US soldier or a Native American warrior fell. We reached the gorgeous town of Cody, due south in Wyoming, via some more spectacular scenery – this is aptly named Big Sky country.

From the amazing coffee at Rawhide café to the mouth-watering steaks at Proud Cut Saloon via fancy footwear at Wayne’s Boot Shop, everything in Cody has “cowboy” running through it like a stick of rock. Everyone wears Wrangler jeans and drives huge 4x4s on the way to the Stampede Rodeo on the outskirts of town.

I asked the manager at our charming Chamberlin Inn if the roads were bad up here in the winter, what with all the big trucks, but he simply said: “Naw, that’s just cowboys for ya.” And the most famous cowboy of them all has an entire museum dedicated to him.

The brilliant Buffalo Bill Center of the West celebrates the extraordinary life of William F Cody – Pony Express rider, gold prospector, Army scout, fur trapper, buffalo hunter, skilled marksman, soldier – and finally, flamboyant showman with his Buffalo Bill’s Wild West show.

Queen Victoria was so impressed with the extravaganza when she saw it in London in 1887 that she gifted a huge cherrywood bar to his Irma Hotel. It’s still there, in the historic building which dominates the main drag.

After heading down through Yellowstone, we weren’t done with looking for bears yet. The jaw-dropping Grand Teton National Park, named after its magnificent mountain range, awaited.

We based ourselves around the cracking town of Jackson – kids will love the rustic log cabins at the Hatchet Resort, while sporty types will prefer the ski centre at The Inn at Jackson Hole.

After a weird but tasty lunch at Gather (duck salad with waffle croutons!), we joined an expert guide from Jackson Hole Wildlife Safaris for an afternoon flushing out pronghorns (similar to antelope), moose, elk, mule deer and beavers.

Elk and moose shed their antlers every year, and the town square is piled high with horns every May as they are sold for mounting, carving