Rowell Ranch Rodeo

In the past we have enjoyed the calf roping (free) and bull riding. This year we attended the bull riding on Friday night. We opted to to buy our tickets online despite having to pay a convenience fee. But when we arrived we found our online tickets to be far from convenient. We parked in the auxiliary parking lot and attempted to enter through that entrance, but when I showed our printed tickets complete with unique barcodes, we were told that we would need to walk to the other side of the rodeo park and enter through that entrance. So we begrudgingly walked to the other entrance expecting that they perhaps had special hardware for reading the barcode. When I approached the gate holding my printed tickets I was told that I would need to go to the ticket booth with them. There, a man looked though several sheets of printed paper and crossed our name off a list. Why the other gate couldn’t have the same list is beyond me. I was then permitted to walk through the gate once the booth guy hollered to the ticket taker that it was ok to let us in. So much for high tech devices at the rodeo.

If this isn’t your thing, you should at least go once in your life anyway. Adult ticket prices are about $ 16 but you get in and out privileges. I don’t see why you would do that anyway because parking can be a pain so you wouldn’t want to lose your spot unless you do the morning festivities, go out for lunch, then come back at 1:30pm for the main event. Going out for lunch might not be a bad idea because there isn’t much real sustenance, except for fries and snow cones, until 5pm when the bbq starts.
The main event at 1:30pm lasts for about 2 hours so make sure you bring a hat and tons of sunscreen. Only about ¹⁄₅ of the entire stadium is shaded so you’ll be lucky to get a spot there. Expect to see bull riding, team events, and other things… I don’t know the names but there are events like women riding their horses around barrels for time, men lasso-​ing calfs and tying up their legs for time, etc. It’s all dangerous stuff and we saw a guy get his collarbone broken while trying to put a bull into a headlock.
Other than the main events, you’ll see a few booths for food, a bunch of booths with selling random cowboy attire and accessories, face painting, and a bunch of sponsors. It won’t take longer than 20 minutes to go through all of that.
Let’s be honest. If you go and you’re Asian, you might feel a little out of place. Heck, if you’re not wearing Wrangler jeans, a plaid shirt, a cowboy hat, or cowboy boots, you still might feel out of place. Luckily, no one made a big deal out of it so maybe we are living in a melting pot even though I felt like I was in Kansas.

So, dear reader, gaze at that Google map to your right. You see a red arrow with the familiar little star pointing to what seems to be the middle of nowhere. Welcome to part of the charm of the Rowell Ranch Rodeo. Like so many other Bay Area Unilocalers, I love rodeo.
OK, like me and maybe two other Unilocalers but still, think about it. I’m standing shoulder to shoulder with people I don’t know, drinking beer in pointy toed footwear. Exactly how different is that than clubbing in San Francisco. True, the rodeo smells a bit like cow manure HOWEVER, the chances of an underage blonde waif throwing up a gutfull of cheap champange on my shoes is minimal. So, ADVANTAGE RODEO.
I go to the Livermore Rodeo every year (second week of June!) and have gone to the Salinas Rodeo a few times. The RRR was the smallest and homiest of the rodeos I’ve attended. They had a cool thing before the show started which was to go down in the chutes with the animals and cowboys. It was interesting to learn about all that goes on.
Laugh if you want but there’s a charm to the self-​reliance and down-​to-​earth (literally…this you know if you’ve ridden a bull) spirit of the Old West. Plus, the beer was relatively cheap and plentiful and the place is so small that, from where we were sitting, dirt from the hooves landed on us.
God, I hope that was dirt.

outdoor rodeos have to be the best.
there’s nothing like sweating underneath the blistering sun with some good ‘olé country music being played while the amazing, amalgamated scent of beer, dirt, and cattle permeate the air.
now THAT’S A RODEO; and, the Rowell Ranch seems to hold a few of these a year. this is definitely an experience to remember.