The Colorado State Fair

We left Bighorn RV Park this morning, and headed 65 miles straight east on Highway 50 along the Arkansas River.

It is sad to be leaving the mountains, as our winding road took us to lower elevations. But we have a plan for today. We pulled into Haggard's RV Campground at around noon, and hooked up the motor home to electricity. Then we headed 25 more miles east in the pickup.

That's because we wanted to spend the day in Pueblo at the Colorado State Fair. The fair's web site informed us that visitors can park for free at the downtown parking garage, and then take the free shuttle to the fairgrounds. While we waited for the shuttle, we noticed that the monarchs must be migrating through Pueblo.

We found them enjoying a butterfly bush next to the downtown parking garage. We visited Pueblo this past spring, so we already knew that this city has done a great job of sprucing up their downtown and river walk with beautiful landscaping.

When the shuttle pulled up, we piled in. We were required to wear masks, but this certainly beat paying for parking at the fairgrounds and then walking to the gate. The shuttle dropped us off right at the state fair entrance gate. 

Because it's senior citizen day at the state fair, we even got in for free! Thanks Colorado! It's a beautiful blue-sky day, and we're ready to explore the fairgrounds, even though it's a tad bit warm.

We're noticing that the Colorado State Fair isn't as big as some state fairs we have visited in the past. It's interesting that it is hosted in the far eastern side of the state, away from most of the bigger metropolitan areas. That's probably why fewer people attend. We got a schedule of events for today, and made our plan to see everything. We started in the livestock barns, where the open class goat show was finishing.

In another barn, the bulls were being judged, and females were doing a good job of keeping these big boys under control.

We thought it was interesting that at the Watusi Bull judging event, they don't try to halter and lead these big-horned bulls around the ring. The bulls just roam around the pen while the judges try to stay clear of their horns.

The petting zoo is probably designed for children, but visiting here was high on Denisa's list of things to do at the Colorado State Fair.

The first scheduled entertainment event was the Great American Duck Race. Volunteers were picked from the audience to start the four ducks, and then to encourage them to cross the finish line at the end of the pool. There were plenty of volunteers for this event, because the winner of the 16-duck tournament wins a duck-call whistle. Big stakes here!

The next event was the Swifty Swine Pig Race, where we cheered by section for our favorite pig.

We caught the end of the Reining Horse competition. This was the ladies' class, and we were certainly impressed with their ability to rein their horses and guide the calf where they wanted it to go. It made us sad that we had missed the men's professional division, because we're guessing that was awesome.

We toured through the small animal barns as well. We were surprised to see some exotic birds among the animals being displayed at the state fair. I appreciated the printed signs that let us know what we were looking at. We would be much better bloggers if birds in the wild came with name plates that explained that this was a "Dark Throated Golden Pheasant,"

or a "Red Splash Indian Fantail."

The next scheduled show was "Splashtacular." It started with a team of divers making complicated dives off the springboards close to the water's edge. Then they moved up to the taller diving platform where two divers jumped off backwards at the same time.

But the climax of the Splashtacular was the diver that made the climb to the platform high above the pool. They can only try this dive on calm days when the weather cooperates.

Diving from that height into a nine-foot-deep portable pool is really tricky. We're glad to report that this diver was successful in his attempt.

We always try to taste the local cuisine at a state fair, and in Pueblo that would a "slopper." That's a local dish made up of an open-faced cheeseburger smothered in pork green chili, with fries on top. We didn't take a picture because it was (ahem) sloppy. We shared one slopper, which would have put us in last place on the slopper-eating contest held earlier at the state fair. Last year's winner ate 37.5 sloppers!

The last show of the day at the Colorado State Fair was the Thrill and Stunt Show. That included a motorcycle riding around the inside of this metal ball.

It's hard to tell in the picture, but he got going fast enough to make his motorcycle go upside down inside that metal ball.

Most of the act was about balance, and it included walking inside this hamster-cage-like device as it rotated high over the crowd at the end of that long metal arm. Denisa thought it looked terrifying, while Mark thought it looked like fun.

But even Mark was smart enough to recognize he wouldn't want to walk around the outside of that circle while it rotated high above the fairgrounds.

Colorado was one of the few states that continued their state fair last year when everything else was shut down for Covid. After a day at the fair where everything was outside, we understand how they were able to have a state fair while keeping socially distanced. It's much different from many state fairs where visitors are shoulder-to-shoulder inside exhibit buildings. But after a warm day completely outside at the fair, we were ready to head back to some air-conditioning at the campground. Thanks Colorado, for a free day at your state fair!