Day 13: Yellowstone to the Little Bighorn — On the Eve of History

2026 Rally4Vets America Grand Tour

Some days, the road hands you something you couldn’t have planned if you tried. Today was one of those days.

We pulled out of Yellowstone, and honestly, it’s impossible to leave that place without one last look in the mirror. The drive east was stunning: tunnels carved through red rock, river canyons, that endless Wyoming-into-Montana sky. We crossed into Wyoming and then into Montana (signs duly held, photos duly taken), pointed toward the Little Bighorn Battlefield, and packed two unforgettable stops into one big day.

Buffalo Bill Center of the West — Plan for Two Days

First stop: Cody, Wyoming, and the Buffalo Bill Center of the West. This place is a stunner. It’s actually five museums under one roof, and a ticket is good for two days. Take our advice and use both, because you cannot do it justice in one.

The section on Native American history and life is extraordinary – thoughtful, deep, and moving. And then there’s the firearms collection, which is, hands down, the largest collection of firearms we have ever seen in one place. Thousands of them, tracing the whole arc of American history.

We also found ourselves face to face with an Andy Warhol screenprint of General Custer from his “Cowboys and Indians” series – a bit of pop-art foreshadowing, as it turned out, for exactly where we were headed next. We could’ve spent the entire day there. (Two days, really. We mean it.)

The Interview That Moved Across the Street — and Became Something Better

We had an interview scheduled with NBC Billings at the Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument. But when we arrived, the Park Service was deep in preparations for something enormous: the 150th anniversary of the Battle of the Little Bighorn, happening June 25–27, 2026, almost exactly 150 years to the day after the battle on June 25–26, 1876.

So we couldn’t film on-site. At first, we were bummed. Then it turned into one of the best blessings of the whole trip.

We set up across the street and ended up in conversation with descendants of George Armstrong Custer himself, as well as several reenactors preparing to take part in the 150th commemoration.

One of them was Hans, Austrian-born, now living in Canada, and a veteran himself who served on a peacekeeping mission in Cyprus. On the 26th and 27th, he’ll sound the bugle at the reenactment. A soldier from Austria, lifting a bugle over the Montana grass to help America remember. The brotherhood of those who’ve served doesn’t stop at any border. Meeting him was an honor.

Think about that. We came to mark America’s 250th birthday, and we stumbled into living history on the eve of a 150-year remembrance, standing with the descendants of the very people who fought here, as native Americans, reenactors, and 500 horses and riders gather to honor everyone who gave their lives on this ground.

The Battle of the Little Bighorn, Custer’s Last Stand, and to the Lakota, Northern Cheyenne, and Arapaho who won it, the Battle of the Greasy Grass, is one of the most studied, most complicated, most American stories there is. Being here as the country prepares to remember it, with descendants from that history standing beside our little rallymobile, was the kind of moment this whole tour exists to find. We did our NBC interview with the Montana plains and the tipis rising behind us, and we’ll remember it for a long, long time.

The Car Keeps Doing Its Job

One more thing worth saying: everywhere we go, people are drawn to the WRX. The graphics stop folks in their tracks, and the next thing you know, we’re talking about veterans, about service dogs, about the road. It happened again today: a friendly crew waved us down, and we ended up trading stories and snapping a photo like old friends. The car isn’t just transportation. It’s a conversation starter, a handshake on wheels, a rolling invitation to talk about why we’re out here. We love it every single time. Thank you Subaru!

A Great Day, Start to Finish

Yellowstone in the mirror, the Buffalo Bill Center in our heads, Custer’s descendants and the reenactors in our hearts, and an NBC interview in the can. On a tour about America at 250, today reminded us that this country’s story is layered, hard, beautiful, and still being told — and that the best way to understand it is to go stand on the ground where it happened.

What a day. What a country.

The Rally4Vets 2026 America Grand Tour isn’t a road trip. It’s a moving act of remembrance; a celebration of the country and the people who created it.