We traveled to Cheyenne, Wyoming to experience the world’s largest outdoor rodeo; Frontier Days. Imagine a county fair on cowboy steroids. The rodeo included cowboys competing in bull riding, steer riding, calf roping, and more. Frontier Days was exhilarating and left me feeling awed by these individuals who risk life and limb, and are at their very core, authentic Cowboys.
What I really loved about Cheyenne, because I could actually touch and feel it, was Terry Bison Ranch. I had read about it in FMCA (Family Motor Coach Association) Magazine, and booked it without even researching other campgrounds around Cheyenne. Terry Bison Ranch was fully booked months prior to Frontier Days, so we were invited to dry camp in an overflow lot and offered access to facilities.
The Ranch is one of the largest Bison ranches in North America with 27,500 acres and roughly 3,000 bison. It has a private railroad, The Terry Rail Express, which travels around the ranch, extending from Wyoming into Colorado. You can take the railroad for a one hour ride and hand feed the bison. These tame bison, considered the “show herd” consist of about 40 head of bison. I have to say it was absolutely WILD! getting to hand feed these (up to) 1,400-pound animals.
Terry Bison Ranch has lots of animals you can get up close to, including ostrich, lamas, pigs, burros, goats, horses, chickens and roosters. We dry camped in the back field among the livestock pens, each morning waking up to the curious ostrich faces towering over the fence. Our dogs would bark, sending the ostrich a flutter only to turn around and run back for more.
Terry Bison Ranch has a great restaurant, Senator’s Steakhouse and Saloon, and the Tombstone Café, also on site, serves up scrumptious breakfast from 7 to 11 a.m. daily.
By the saloon, the evening chill is warmed by a cowboy-style campfire, which means big: more Bonfire! We enjoyed jawing around with a couple of cowboys who work at the ranch. Randy and Lanny filled us with stories of life on the real frontier.
For an authentic cowboy experience, Terry Bison Ranch will deliver it in spades. Go horseback riding, there’s pony rides for the kids, or you can fish the stocked private lake, or just kick back and enjoy this most enjoyable slice of Wyoming. Learn more at http://www.TerryBisonRanch.com.
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