An American tradition is a family affair.  And though it is a contest for cowboys, fans come from all walks of life. They are cowboy families and they are city folk.  The annual contest is how cowboys celebrate America’s birthday in the Badlands. While we attended this annual X Games contest, we also realized it was the people around us, the cowboy families who made it the event that it is.

The annual Killdeer Mountain Roundup Rodeo supplies camera bugs such as us with plenty of color, drama, and action.  Most of all, it provides families young and old. So, while it’s the action in the arena that captures most of the attention, it’s the cowboy families and other people on the hillside watching the action that make the state’s oldest professional rodeo what it is.

 

Of course, that action in the mud on the other side of the fence was pretty dramatic. And that’s why people, including us, were at the rodeo.