I felt like an extra in Dances With Wolves
visitor centre, knowledgeable park rangers and Native Americans bring the battle to life.
Uniquely, the battlefield has stone markers to show where many of the combatants fell – everyone from Custer himself to Cheyenne warrior Little Whirlwind. Asha, meanwhile, had discovered the nearby Crow Trading Post and acquired her own cowboy hat, which she insisted on wearing at all times, including on the flight back to London.
And yes, we did meet Native Ameri- cans. Quite a few, in fact. In Prairie Edge, an excellent Native American art and crafts store in Rapid City, I ran into Frank Nightpipe – a real live Sioux! I was all set to discuss history – and so was Frank. He was delighted to meet me because I’m English and he was very keen to chat about his favourite subject... British naval history.
Denver, a surprisingly cool and trendy city, would be the end of our fortnight’s trip and where we ticked shopping off our wish-list. Suffice to say that we had seen the American dream – and now we bought it. But before Denver there was one last stop: the little town of Saratoga, Wyoming (population 1,671, probably including deer). To be honest, a place that has signs warning you not to bathe in the horse trough doesn’t fill you with much hope of a good dinner. Wrong again: we stumbled into Bella’s Bistro, an Italian restaurant that provided the best meal and best advice of our trip.
We asked our waitress if we should take the interstate back to Denver or go via the dull-looking ‘scenic byway’ that took in the Snowy Range section of the Medicine Bow Mountains. No brochures we’d seen even mentioned this route, but our waitress insisted we drive ‘over the Snowies’. So the next morning, with the temperature at 27C and the sun blazing down, we set out. After just 90 minutes’ driving we were 10,000ft up in the Snowy Range surrounded by still-frozen lakes and 3ft snowdrifts in mid-June.
Like all good hosts, America had saved the best for last.