June 14th – 18th, 2026
Starts:
Winnemucca Ranch
Ends:
City of Reno
The Reno Rodeo Cattle Drive is a five-day journey from Winnemucca Ranch escorting fifty-five guests and three-hundred head of short-horned cattle through the back hills of Northern Reno and…
…into the city of Reno. The wagon train and the cattle drive continue to make their way with great fanfare and crowd exuberance along Clear Acre Lane to McCarran Boulevard and finally culminates down Sutro Street to the Reno Rodeo grounds – and – it’s the ad hoc kick-off to the start of the RENO RODEO WEEKEND CELEBRATION! Yahoo!
I had read about the Reno cattle drive over the years…
…and it immediately inspired the romantic in me…
…charm of the old West, relive the past, Hoss Cartwright and Little Joe…Kitty, Festus and Sheriff Matt Dillon…
…The Big Valley…
…why, why, why did they cancel that series? For the life of me…
…it’s the abiding question…it’s like the elephant in the room. Do you offer them peanuts?…what’s the etiquette?…
…anyway, you get the picture…so as I was saying…
…this was my big last chance to be a cowboy and do cowboy things…
…although my wife wasn’t exactly laboring under my delusion (psychosis she called it)…
…and, yes, I had a great-great-grandmother who traveled West by covered wagon and that’s why I grew up in Boston…
…it was my great shame…
…I mean, the history books have this huge migration West and my great-great-grandmother invents the transcontinental U-turn!
…of course, there were other concerns regarding the cattle drive…
…I don’t own a horse and haven’t ridden since high school…
…so the very idea of riding in a SADDLE for four days straight put me in a pickle…Full Stop! Right?
…my imagination, like a runaway train, said that at the very least it’s gonna cost me a month of saddle sores to prepare for this cattle drive…
…or…
…I’d end up on a very expensive covered-wagon ride stuck with the tinhorns, or worse yet,…
…the only tinhorn stuck in the back of the wagon headed for Boston like my grannie – inventor of the U-turn.
Admittedly, my wife and I have traveled to Lake Tahoe and Reno many times…
…and parts of the drive from Las Vegas to Reno can be awe-inspiring…
…while others parts – not so much…
…but what’s an eight-hundred mile road trip…
…when there’s the prospect of sitting behind a thousand head of cattle in a thick cloud of dust when…
…VOILA!…I cover my mouth with my trusty BANDANA!…
…Did you say bandana? Full stop!…that’s what I’m talkin’ about…
I mean…look at the picture above – it’s bandana land! Full stop! It’s beyond bandanas…
…sidebar- if Rosanna Rosanna Danna married Dan Tana – in a bandanna – she’d be Mrs. Rosanna Rosanna Danna Dan Tana in a bandanna……….sorry…
…Confession….I’ve had a red bandana in my dresser drawer since forever, pressed and folded, and, I kid you not, no bull…
I have been bursting – like a kid at Christmas – waiting…to wear that bandana. Full stop! Huh? Right? Is it me?
…But where the hell can you wear a bandana?…They’re never in fashion…and try appearing in one.
A night out with my red bandana and my wife…and it’s welcome to my wife’s 33rd annual running-of-the-mouth – she’s the Pamplona of nasty comments – spewing vulgarities and body-part euphemisms – as unpleasant as a bare-assed bride at the altar – in a withering stream of YA LOOK LIKE A DAMN FOOL invectives! Ugh!
…It’s like the French with their scarfs, right? Every night can’t be scarf night…
I think the last time bandanas were even in the conversation was the do-rag….
…Ok? But this is me? I’m no Tupak…I’m a dumpy white guy – plaid sports coat – do-rag…what kind of conspicuous oddity does that engender…I shudder to think of the mocking?…
…and just off my right ear is the resurgent hectoring of Pamplona’s running of the mouth – YA LOOK LIKE A DAMN FOOL!…
…Okay, okay, enough with the bandanas.
…But, then again…
…I chose a completely different tact…I read that the cattle drive followed a route through PUBLIC lands. That was it!
I would front-run the cattle drive while photographing it…
…Unfortunately, I couldn’t find the exact spot where the drive was to begin…
…as they keep that information close to the chest for fear of public pests and nuisances like myself. Right? Full stop!
…But persistence paid off…
…and I did locate the cattle drive off the highway…
…but they were already encamped…
…and I could hardly crash their cattle drive…
…especially with all those dour cattle people forking over huge sums for the privilege of being on this bucket list…
…these self same customers who planned it, dreamt it, fantasized about it, owned a horse, wore denim even in bed and knew exactly what they were doing, whereas I didn’t…
…and me…the meddlesome photographer lurking about while snapping away…not good… …regardless of my ready smile and sunny disposition…
…although, I’ll ever-so-slowly reveal a little secret…
…when there’s a photog in the house snapping away, people can and do rise to the camera occasion…
…with gushing smiles, oozing charm, lots of radiance and, above all – fawning – oh, yes, do they fawn! Full stop! Shameless.
…and they always know where the camera is. Amazing! It’s that symbiotic, rutting cat, corner-of-the-eye, slag relationship that the lens has with those being seen…
…as I lull you into a smug, relaxed contempt with my chummy, somewhat doctored version of events….so, back to my dilemma…
…I was left to guess via maps and Garmin-like tools exactly where the cattle drive might be in Northern Reno along the dry washes of dusty dirt roads and derelict ranches…
…and, then I lost them – again! I lost the cattle drive. How could I lose a cattle drive? It’s not like they were trying to avoid me. Cattle drives are notoriously slow – max – one mph getaway – you could walk faster.
…of course, once it was established that I didn’t know what I was doing…I heard the rumblings of a familiar rushing wind as Pamplona’s running of the mouth swelled to a stage five hurricane as the words whistled past my nose – take off that red bandana, YA LOOK LIKE A DAMN FOOL!…
…and all this confusion meant I missed the first full day of the cattle drive and I was in a panic…
…but what saved me was…
…I didn’t count on the logistics that accompanies the large movement of people, animals and supplies necessary to feed such an outfit and so I located the cattle drive due to all the choking congestion in the back roads of Northern Reno along the dry washes of dusty dirt roads and derelict ranches.
…also, I happen to be an oil painter of cowboy and Western art. Who knew? I hope you enjoyed my tall tale. I certainly did.
Oil painter? Hmmm! Did I hear you correctly?…
…and your next question might be…
…have I seen any of your work?…
…and I might say…”Yes, I believe you have….” FULL STOP!
Thanks for visiting. 😊
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For further information on Reno Rodeo Cattle Drive, click HERE