Another big bucket list kind of place that I wanted to visit on this trip was Yellowstone National Park, in western Wyoming.  It was getting late in the day on my drive there when I approached Cody, WY, so I decided to spend the night there and start into Yellowstone in the morning.  But what do you do in the evening when you’re in Cody?  That’s Cody, as in Buffalo Bill Cody, and this is apparently where he had his wild west show.  Well, you go to the rodeo!

There’s “Nite Rodeo” every evening in Cody, so I thought it might be mainly for the tourists, but strangely it was mostly full of locals.  And no, I have no idea why it’s spelled that way, especially when they spell ‘every night’ correctly just below it on the sign.

It turned out to be a fun way to spend the evening, and the atmosphere was infectious.  They started the event with a prayer for the safety of all riders and animals, and threw in one for the serving military as well.  Then the national anthem was sung, and they got right into it.  There was bareback bronco riding, saddle bronc riding, calf roping, a cowgirl drill team, barrel racing, a calf scramble for the kids, and of course the bull riding.  I didn’t take many good pictures, but I’ll include a few videos here to give you a sense of the atmosphere.  Hint: it’s loud, so maybe turn down your volume!

This is the bareback bronc riding.

 

This is an example of the bull riding.  This 15 year old was a local boy.  The lady who rode just after him got the biggest bull of the night though.

 

And then was the cutest competitor of the evening, in the junior barrel racing.  She had to be about 5 or 6 years old, and her little horse was well trained, but she navigated the course pretty well with the whole crowd cheering her on!

 

So that was my night out in Cody.  Very relaxing and a nice evening with the locals!