Steamboat's Summer Rodeo: The Cowboy Half of Ski Town USA

Most people file Steamboat Springs under “ski town,” and the slogan painted on the mountain backs them up. But the valley around it has been working cattle far longer than it has been running chairlifts, and on summer weekends that older life climbs back into the saddle.

The Steamboat Pro Rodeo Series runs Friday and Saturday nights through the heart of summer, roughly July into August, at the Brent Romick Arena in the Howelsen Hill complex, a couple of blocks across the Yampa from downtown. The Chamber lists a 7:30 p.m. start, with bull riding, bronc riding, roping, steer wrestling, and barrel racing on the card, plus calf-chasing events for kids. The series has been PRCA-sanctioned since 1989, and boosters like to call it the country’s most successful weekly rodeo.

The roots go deeper than the lights. The Steamboat Pilot first mentioned a rodeo here in 1898, an outgrowth of the cattle business, and early contests were settled by impromptu bets right on Lincoln Avenue before the action moved to Howelsen around 1908. The WPA poured the concrete grandstands in the 1930s.

Dates shift year to year, so check the current schedule and tickets on the Steamboat Springs Chamber’s rodeo page before you go.