Travel in 10: Travel Podcast · Voyascape Media / David Brodie & Tim Johnson

Bonus Episode - Let'er Buck! Broncos, Steers, Whiskey & Beer at the Pendleton Rodeo (from Hidden Trails of Oregon)

·28 min·25 clips

The episode opens with Oregon as a place the host has spent a lot of time in over the last couple of years. It starts on the coast, where Cannon Beach, Mazanita, surfing, and the Highway 101 drive get a quick mention. Then it shifts inland. Bend comes up as a favorite stop, with microbreweries, a ski hill, and plenty of adventure sports. From there the story lands on Pendleton and its summer rodeo. Aaron Miller of Hidden Trails of Oregon created the episode. The host also mentions getting to know him earlier in the year at a travel conference panel. The scene opens around a huge racetrack. Military aircraft cross overhead while Navy parajumpers drift into the grassy center. The narration then heads for the press box above the bucking chutes. Those chutes are heavy metal tunnels that hold the livestock while riders get ready. Security checks that visitors are wearing proper cowboy boots and hats before they are allowed inside. That detail gives the place a strict, slightly playful sense of ritual. The competitors ride untrained horses, or broncos, rather than bulls, and they still have to hold on with one hand. When the gate opens, the whole thing turns fast and violent. The episode treats the rodeo as both spectacle and something very real. It also points out that the arena has no ad banners, jumbotrons, or flashing lights. Instead, it is a sea of Western sights and sounds that has stayed close to its roots. The history section reaches back 115 years to the first roundup, its September timing, its immediate popularity, and a moonshine-era story about bottles and empty jails. The close notes that the Roundup only paused for World War II and COVID and still draws 65,000 people today.

As heard by us

Pendleton comes through as a live, high-energy stop rather than just a rodeo stop.

The episode gives Pendleton the feel of a live, high-energy stop rather than just a point on the map. It moves from Oregon's coast country and Bend into the interior, then settles on the Pendleton Roundup, where the press box sits right above the bucking chutes and the arena…

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Why you'd press play

When you want Oregon with the coast, Bend, Pendleton, and a little moonshine lore.

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