Looking back on the experience, it's hard to describe the announcer's attitude, so I'll just give…read morean example. At one point, the announcer asked if people were visiting from another country, then who was visiting from another state--show of hands. Then he asks who is from California for the crowd to boo. I thought it was pretty weird and uncomfortable. (It wasn't just this one moment.) This isn't a turn off for everyone, so you may have a great experience. This is not an event where everyone is welcome--Not even all Americans. For me, it was jarring to see people who claim to love America being so at ease with hating so many Americans. I gave it two stars (rather than one), because it was otherwise a fun show. Mutton busting is amazing. Great performers and competitors showcasing Western culture, marred by an announcer wanting to show off his prejudices.

This was such a fun nite at the Granby rodeo - lots of laughs, excellent show + good food!read more

This will be a long, but worthwhile review of this dude ranch. This ranch is located in Livermore,…read moreColorado. It is a hidden gem in North East Colorado not far from the Wyoming border. The ranch is owned by the Prince family, and has been since 1992. They can accommodate over 40 guests, but you would never know that there were that many people in the ranch because their attention to detail and guest obsession is top notch. Everything they do is all about that single guest. All of the ranch hands are top notch. They excel in character, respect, and manners for all of the guests. The ranch activities range from horseback riding, to skeet shooting, to fly fishing and much more. Almost all of those activities are included in the package, except white water rafting and massages. The owners, Christine and Dickie Prince, make sure the experience lives up to each and every guest's expectation. Each horseback ride is different and exciting. The chief wrangler, Madii, paired up each guest with the perfect horse for the week, and honestly, it was a magical week. At the end of the week, they hold a guest rodeo, where each of the guests compete against one another in events like barrel racing, pole bending, and keyhole racing. All in all, it is a very exciting trip. I brought my wife and my two grown children to this ranch and they were drawn in to its charm and, frankly, we were all sad to see the week end. We were treated like family the entire time we were there and have already committed to return next year. While we were there, we discovered this ranch was chosen by USA Today as the #1 dude ranch in America. We researched 14 ranches before picking this one and we agree with USA Today. If you are looking for the perfect family vacation away from the commercialism that is typical of all inclusive vacations, I highly recommend Cherokee Park Ranch. Your family might end the week like mine - missing the comradery, the fun, and the attachments made that will last a lifetime. If I could give this ranch more than 5 stars, I definitely would do so. I don't think you will be disappointed.

The Elizabeth Stampede has become an annual tradition since our friends moved to Elizabeth before…read moreCOVID. So naturally when they announced the festivities were back, so were we! ++ The local brewery, Elizabeth Brewing Company, had a booth set up and was serving up a killer prickly pear margarita beer that I just couldn't get enough of. ++ Can we talk about the food? Cause damn, were there some amazing food vendors. I'm a sucker for funnel cake. So I always insist on picking one up, and it never disappoints. There are tons of other options including tacos, shrimp po' boys, and so many more options. ++ Naturally, the mutton bustin' is the sweetest part of the show. Watching the littles hold on for dear life to a fluffy sheep is always the sweetest. ++ There's a ton of vendors selling just about everything you need. Belt buckles? Yep! Shirts? Yep! Cowboy hats? Yep! Window? For the love of god why are they selling window at the rodeo, but yep! ++ The people are always super friendly. Though I will say, with the "cowboy culture" gaining popularity (thanks Yellowstone) it's gotten a lot more crowded than previous years. Easy to see that The Elizabeth Stampede is a tradition we look forward to year after year. Can't wait to make our way back for a sunny day spent with friends.

We had a really great time here. Enjoyed seeing the animals and meeting a lot of friendly people.read more

It was cold outside today. This is the 2025 National Western Stock Show Kickoff Parade. It had all…read morethe things. It had a marching band. It had horseback riding. It had other livestock. It had diversity of culture and representation. It had a mariachi band. It had a nightlife live band. All the committee men and the board of directors. It had all the flags and the beauty queens. It had upcoming county affairs and surrounding support from other areas in Colorado and Wyoming. And it had lots of little freebies. The only thing I missed was the Longhorns in the parade. All of the advertisements have longhorn bulls coming down the street and I thought for sure I'd be able to see him. But there was enough flare flavor, and crowd interaction to make me happy, including the Denver Broncos own, Miles. Pro tip at the end of the parade deck into a coffee shop and let the crowd clear before heading out and about your day. See y'all at the rodeo.

The 2025 parade was a let down to say the least. No signs for parking to start with. The parade…read moreitself was nothing like it should have been. No floats, one marching band, AND NO LONG HORNS!! I have been to small town parades that had a better performance. We left wondering if this is the effort that goes into the kickoff, is it even worth paying to go to the stock show rodeo or other events. Very, very disappointed

This place has the trappings of an authentic honky-tonk. It has the size, wooded areas, dueling…read moremechanical bulls, gift store, wraparound bar, kitchen, banquet room, etc. I love the rich history of musicians who have played here over the decades, shown in framed, autographed photos covering all of the walls. The Grizzly Rose takes pride in providing live country music, five nights per week. During my visit on a Saturday night, I enjoyed listening and dancing to the music of Duey & Unbroken. The 40,000 square feet of this country dance hall is impressive. Surprisingly, only 2,500 square feet is allocated to the dance floor. This is too small for the demand placed on it during a Saturday night. The front half of the dance floor is devoted to country swing dancing, while the back half is reserved for line dancing. This leaves no room for progressive partner dancing, i.e., two-step (as is normal across Texas). Country swing could not have been the prevailing form of partner dancing here since the inception of this honky-tonk in 1989. So, what year did it displace two-step? I enjoyed the line dance lesson at 7 p.m., followed by the country swing dance lesson at 8:15 p.m. Strangely, two-step is how the opening pattern taught for country swing, before it abruptly switches to country swing. Yet, they refer to all of this as country swing. This supports my suspicion that country swing hijacked two-step at some point in the history of this honky-tonk. If this is how locals here are brought up on country dancing, they're in for a surprise, if and when they go to honky-tonks across Texas, where two-step prevails. Given how crowded the dance floor gets, they might consider expanding it by another 1,000 feet or more. Then it might be possible to spare enough room on the perimeter to bring back progressive partner dancing (two-step, three-step, partner cowboy cha-cha, etc.). The main seating and walkways are concrete ground, which can wear on your feet. Therefore, I doubt the average person lasts more than a few hours of dancing before throwing in the towel.

I used to love the Grizzly Rose, but the last two or three years have seen such an increase in the…read morecrowd that I won't be going back. The dance floor is filled with wall to wall people like a standing room only concert and when that is full they jam themselves into the areas around the tables. Grizzly Rose needs to seriously lower their "sold out" status by at least a hundred people. The drinks are also expensive. I seriously don't know what the draw is anymore - no room to dance and expensive beer. I won't be going back.

What happened???? The only good thing about the festival…read morethis year was the music. I loved the bands that I got to hear. I have been going to this festival for 25 years or more. I've seen it grow and become one of the highlights of fall. I have not been since COVID. Wow. What happened? I really hate leaving critical reviews, but had to in the hopes that person(s) who are organizing this event will read this and make some improvements. While I realize that inflation is terrible now, the cost of food was insane. Some other reviewer mentioned that the cost for a booth this year was around $200. Overall, they didn't have much to offer this year. We went on a Sunday which is often less busy, but it felt like the Arapahoe County Fair. There were only a few Scottish themed food items and rest were typical carnival food. There wasn't a vendor selling Guinness or cider. They had some craft beer, mead, and wine in a can. There was one small food truck selling scotch eggs and another selling cottage pies. Each of these vendors had very long lines. There were a few vendors selling fish and chips. Several turkey leg vendors. There were only one-two people working at each booth. The admission fee was strange. The website said purchasing tickets online would save money. It was $35 at the door and $40 if you purchased it online plus a $5 convenience fee. That made no sense. That is higher rather than lower. I purchased two tickets online anyway and only got one. I emailed them and they emailed me my tickets. A few people mentioned that whomever organized the Festival needed to find a better vendor for selling tickets online. I would agree. Their website needs to be updated. Schedules of events were unclear. There was no information about parking and when we arrived, there were no signs indicating where we should park. There was a janky little machine that you could pay for parking through that. When got there, there was no program or one printed map and schedule on a sandwich board sign, so you could take a picture of. It was a map that looked like a 3rd grader did it with Minecraft and information on which tent to go to for the music. There were about half the number of pipe bands, competitive dancing, dogs of the British Isles, and agility dog shows. At the closing ceremony, there were only a handful of people in the bleachers and maybe 3 bands. It was so sad to see it decline like this. Just overall, it seemed like no thought or attention was given towards anything and it was like they thought the festival was going to run itself. I don't know how the festival is supposed to be run -- is it all volunteers?

I'm still a fan, but there have been many negative changes to the festivities: prices are higher,…read morethere were no rescue dogs there, on Sunday there were minimal dog agility activities, the heavy armour jousting was absent, and many of the clans have pulled out. We plan to get there early so we can get parking, and take a picnic rather than eat the festival food. Sis and I go to walk with the Douglas Clan in the service on Sunday, and love visiting with other clan members. Albannach was also present, as was the Welsh Baker in a separate tent set up for enjoying a Scotch egg and scones.

After a lackluster light viewing last year at Chatfield, we knew we had to up our game this year…read more Parking was a breeze with the multi-level garage, we scanned our tickets, stopped at the first cider station for some hour beverages and pretzels, and were on our way! I ordered "ciders" and they didn't ask, but automatically gave us the expensive souvenir cups - be aware of that. They're significantly more expensive, but you can get discount refills. You can get a spiked cider by adding cinnamon whiskey, Baileys, or peppermint schnapps. The pretzels were good, but know they don't have mustard. Only $3 cups of cheese. The lights are well done, plenty to look at. There were animal exhibits to see as well - we were able to see elephants and giraffes as well as the tropical pyramid experience - which was hot and humid. (I had to leave that early due to my thermals on under my clothes.) The workers were smiling and mostly friendly. We spent about 1.5 hours there and everyone had a great time. The ground is a little uneven in spots, which can be challenging to navigate while in the dark if you have mobility issues - bring folks to lean on! Overall a nice experience. Recommend!

We had the 5:30 pm reservation to walk around the zoo park to experience the wonderful Christmas…read morelights. Despite the freezing temperature of 25 degrees, we were bundled up so the cold didn't bother us. We were very impressed with the professional lightning wrapped all the way up trees and branches and brushes. Really enjoyed the glowing lanterns on buildings and trees. Some of the housing for the animals were open and we got to observe an elephant, 3 giraffes (one is pregnant!), and the reptile house. Everything was clean, smooth walkways, food vendors available during the walk, gift shop was inviting, lots of free parking spaces, and restrooms along the way. Signs were clear to keep us getting lost and everyone was orderly. The staff were friendly and knowledgeable. We were not rushed and we casually strolled around. I look forward to visiting the zoo for future events. Definitely a kid and adult friendly environment.