Honestly, we sometimes forget how easy it is to get to Cheyenne, Wyoming from Denver. Even with traffic and road construction, in around two hours, you can be in under wide open expanses, with a whole other vibe and immerse yourself in the (kinda) wild west. Summer is a great time to go with the anchor of a visit being the Hell on Wheels Rodeo & Chuck Wagon Dinner. Here’s what you can expect when you go. (And, be sure to check out our video below to see the weekend in action.)
It’s a Hell on Wheels Summer in Cheyenne
Given that the Hell on Wheels Rodeo mostly involves hooves and cowboy boots, you might be wondering where the event gets its name. Back in the 1860’s, Cheyenne got the nickname (and reputation) “Hell on Wheels” thanks to the rough-and-tumble collection of cowboys, cowgirls, lawmen, ladies of the night and railroaders. The name stuck.
And the Chuck Wagon Dinner part? Well, that’s easy to explain. While you can purchase tickets to the rodeo only, and grab some grub from one of the food trucks, you can also get tickets for the pre-rodeo feast, cooked up by 3LazyR Chuck Wagon.
Think about it this way: Chuck Wagons were the original food trucks, doing double-duty lugging food and cooking supplies while cowboys were on the move, and also serving as a mobile kitchen. For Cheyenne’s Hell on Wheels Rodeo & Chuck Wagon Dinner, big round tables encourage people to get to know one another after having filled up an iconic blue and white speckled, metal plate with tender brisket, buttery small potatoes, sweet-hot baked beans and creamy coleslaw, each ladled from a cast iron caldera pot. A swipe from a soft dinner roll ensures you get every bit of flavor from what’s left on your plate. Save room for apple/cinnamon, peach or cherry cobbler served from the giant pan they were baked in, topped with vanilla ice cream that melts over it by the time you get back to your seat. Iced tea, lemonade or an alcoholic drink, round out the meal.
While diners fill up on hearty grub, outside, the cowboys and cowgirls are filling themselves up with courage and concentration for what’s about to come.
The Hell on Wheels Rodeo isn’t what Coloradans would expect, especially when we’re used to the National Western Stock Show or event Cheyenne Frontier Days. It’s smaller, very homespun, and very genuine. The competitors aren’t there just to put on a show for the spectators in the bleachers. They are there to qualify and rank for future rodeos. And they are there to win money. The Hell on Wheels Rodeo awarded more than $60,000 in prize money over the course of last year’s series.
Sure, there’s pageantry, starting with the series of prayers and singing of The National Anthem broadcast over the crowd. The current and next year’s rodeo queens ride in on horses, carrying flags that ripple as they make the loop around the oval track to cheers and applause. And with that, the competitions begin.
Events include bull riding, steer wrestling, barrel racing and bronc riding, the latter of which started off the event with a heart-in-your-throat bang. You wonder how these fellas’ bodies can take being whipped back and forth and side to side trying to stay on. Some don’t and get thrown to the ground, ideally, brushing off the dirt and walking away on their own. But sometimes, the awaiting paramedic crew comes rushing out with a stretcher to take a wounded rider to the ambulance right outside the gate. And that’s while the rest of the crew are trying to round up and calm down the horse still trying to buck off the rider no longer there. The audience collectively holds its breath for a few moments, hoping for the best. But then it’s on to the next competitor because that’s what rodeo life is.
The size of the Hell on Wheels Rodeo enables you to be immersed in a slice of life that really is a way of life for the participants, many of whom have been training for this since they were kids. And the audience cheers them on like they are their own – because they are.
For us Coloradans, two of the big benefits of going to the Hell on Wheels Rodeo is that it’s more affordable than Cheyenne Frontier Days and it’s easier to go to it since it’s smaller and happens over the course of the summer and early fall. The Hell on Wheels Rodeo runs June 6, 13, 20, July 11, August 22 and September 5 in 2025. Get more information and purchase tickets here.
Beyond the Rodeo in Cheyenne
This visit was a return one for us, having spent a weekend there three years ago. That time, we spent two nights and covered a lot of ground. This time, we were there just for one night, coming up in the afternoon on a Friday, in time for the dinner and rodeo. We left late afternoon the next day. We didn’t partake of any of the activities we did last time but made some new discoveries.
While we waited for it to be check-in time at our lodging for the night, the Nagle Warren Mansion (more on that below), we grabbed a couple of the 10 beers they serve at a time at the Blue Raven Brewery located right behind the B&B in a charming, historic house. The place invites grabbing a board game to play, listening to live music or grabbing a seat out back on the spacious patio. Inevitably, you’ll have to head inside to one of the restrooms where an old, metal keg has been transformed into a urinal! It’s a must-see even if you aren’t using it.
A quick check-in at Nagle Warren Mansion before heading out to the fairground for dinner and the rodeo left us looking forward to our return for the night. Holding court on the corner with its arched windows and turret, the 1888 mansion used to be one of many in the area (a book in our guestroom showed pictures of a lot of them), full of grandeur. Referred to as “The Duchess of Cheyenne,” the mansion hosted world leaders, celebrities and those in need.
And speaking of full, after multiple rounds of renovation over the years, the current owners made sure the house was full of antiques and decorator items that would represent what a stately home of that era would look like – a time capsule of the 1900 Victorian age.
We nabbed one of the tasty Cowboy Cookies ready for guests by the check-in desk and were escorted to our room, the Buffalo Bill’s Col. Wm. F. Cody. The chair he sat in is in the room, next to the working fireplace. Jas Barbe, the current innkeeper (and chef) told us to be sure to sit in it. And that’s one of the nicest things about Nagle Warren Mansion – it’s a show place but it’s not a museum so books are meant to be read, chairs are meant to be sat in. Even the piano is meant to be played.
And, certainly, the dining table is meant to be sat around to enjoy breakfast in the morning, chatting with fellow guests from all over. Jas, quite the Renaissance Man, not only has a long career in hospitality, but he is also a trained chef, having spent many years cheffing in Europe. Our breakfast consisted of a big raspberry-white chocolate muffin, caramelized pineapple and a souffle-like egg dish with two kinds of cheese, accompanied by chicken sausage. It was delicious and filling.
Our room was comfortable, although the bed was too firm for my taste but perfect for my husband’s. The clawfoot tub in the bathroom was a treat to behold and bathe in, especially with the nice bath products provided, including bath salts. A whimsical touch were the western-themed rubber duckies, which didn’t want to float but were fun just the same.
Learn more about Nagle Warren Mansion, and book a room, on their website.
After checking out, we headed back toward Colorado but stopped for a noon train ride at Terry Bison Ranch, located a short distance from the Wyoming/Colorado border. This place was so much more than we’d anticipated so take our advice and allow plenty of time to enjoy it thoroughly.
We’d met the owners of the Ranch the last time we’d been there at a wonderful cookout and feast in the field of a local farm. They’d provided the bison meat for the meal and were so humble and down to earth, we had no idea the operation they have had going on for years and years.
After passing a number of flashy fireworks purveyors, visitors drive in under the tall, metal sign of Terry Bison Ranch to find a restaurant, general store, horseshoeing school, mock western town, train depot and fields as far as the eye can see.
Don’t be surprised to find a peacock perched on your car when you return to it, nor one of the resident cats crossing your path (or sleeping next to the cash register in the store). Hop on the open-air train for a guided tour of that expanse of land. See the drive-in movie area that used to be and the pond that had just been stocked before it was struck by lightning a while back, drying up the water and killing the fish. Just about at that point, the guide forewarns his passengers that there’s a possibility of a train robbery in these parts. A few minutes later, sure enough, very loud shots go off and robbers appear, ready to hold us up (candy from the kids, money (tips) from the grownups). Yes, I’m spoiling the surprise here because I gotta warn you, the fake gun shots are loud. Just be aware and take precautions for your hearing or your children’s. It’s all in good, slightly scary, fun. It gives you a real feel for what it was like for cautious train passengers just trying to get to their destinations unscathed.
After that excitement, the real thrill comes when the train stops and the bison come trotting toward the train, as prairie dogs in the field duck into their burrows to avoid getting trampled. Each ticket for the train ride comes with a bag of bison food, big pellets that riders are encouraged to feed to the bison, following the guide’s strict recommendations about what TO touch and what NOT to touch on the bisons’ heads. The beasts surround the train, knowing full well what this strange machine full of stranger-looking beings, means for them – chow time! They come right up to the train on both sides and extend their long tongues out to catch a pellet being dropped in, their big, round eyes, always keeping watch. It’s a crazy experience not to be missed.
The train ride continues on (as long as all of the bison have moved away from it because, if they don’t, you stay), literally passing through a portion of Colorado (the un-Colorful Colorado sign tells you so), then it’s back in Wyoming and around to the station, just past a grassy area that was set up for a wedding the day we were there. It was good fun, educational and a great way to end our time in Cheyenne.
Learn more about the Terry Bison Ranch here.
At the Chuckwagon Dinner the night before, my husband had ordered a cocktail made with spirits from Pine Bluffs Distillery which is located about an hour outside of downtown Cheyenne. While it meant going out of our way to get back home, we wanted to check it out after hearing that they make their distilled spirits from locally-derived grains, in partnership with local, generational farmers, providing “grain-to-grass” flavors.
“This isn’t the kind of place you happen upon, is it?” I asked the woman who greeted us from behind the bar of the tasting room. She laughed and said “Nope, you have to make a point of coming here.” Indeed, Pine Bluffs Distillery is way off the beaten track, literally on the other side of the railroad tracks, in a large building with a spacious, covered porch and eight tanks. There’s nothing much else around except fields.
But inside, there’s a lot of seating, a wrap-around bar, retail area selling spirits bottles, t-shirts, hats, flasks and other paraphernalia for new and established fans. Along one wall are huge murals of characters from various bottle labels.
Order a reasonably priced cocktail or get a flight, which we did, giving us a chance to choose six spirits. Each was so unique and good in its own ways.
A man and his dad were at the bar when we walked in and suggested we try the gin because it didn’t have that strong juniper flavor. I was thinking “that’s exactly what I LIKE about gin” but we got it as part of our flight anyway. Thankfully for me, the herbaciousness was there but, true enough, it wasn’t overwhelming. It was complex and really good – perfect for people who don’t think they like gin, and for those of us who do. If we’d had more time, we would have ordered one of the cocktails – they sounded so good.
Learn more about Pine Bluffs Distillery on their website.
What’s new and coming soon to Cheyenne?
Horse Palace at Swan Ranch has opened, offering 30,000-square-feet of slot machines, other gaming machines, a concert stage, expansive bar, steakhouse and more.
The Cheyenne Children’s Museum is fun for the whole family, with interactive, hands-on science, technology, art and engineering.
The Wyoming State Capital will celebrate Wyoming’s 135th anniversary of statehood on July 10 with the newly-enhanced self-guided tour experience.
Thunder Plains has its first season of horse raising in August, 2025. Wyoming’s first full-sized horse racing track, equestrian center and entertainment venue, there will be 16 live races in 2025.
Discover a year’s worth of Cheyenne events here.
It doesn’t take much for those of us in Colorado to feel like we had a real getaway. Cheyenne is full of fun and an authentic western vibe with loads of history, new experiences and discoveries. Get more ideas and get planning with the Visit Cheyenne website.
-Story and photos by Courtney Drake-McDonough, Publisher & Managing Editor, InGoodTasteDenver.com
Please note: As is common practice in our industry, we were hosted for portions of our visit but this does not, in any way, affect our opinions or our goal to bring our readers information they can use.
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