C’mon, everyone loves a donkey so what better way to spend a weekend than going to see a festival full of donkeys!
The small town of Mancos, Colorado is about an hour from us. The drive over is one of my favorites, we go from the high desert to towering pine trees and snowy peaks back down to a high desert. Mancos is a cowboys and hippies kind of town. There are large cattle ranches to breweries and bakeries.
This was the 4th annual Burro Fest. I have never attended until this year. The Burro Fest is an invite only to 12 donkeys around the region. These burros came in all shapes and sizes, tall and skinny to short and round. They were all so cute but the best part was they were in costume.
Each donkey and handler competed in a obstacle course that was set up down one of the streets of Mancos. As you can imagine, donkeys are stubborn, that’s what made this event exciting to watch. They would hit the breaks, spook, buck or maybe even try to run away. The obstacles consisted of crossing logs and an irrigation ditch, circling a tire stack painted pink with a little pig face, backing between two 6ft logs and standing on a podium. No task was completed with ease, some went around or skipped all together but the ones who got through were winners in my book.
The fest also featured 12 artists who were assigned a donkey model to paint, draw or sculpt live during the day of the festival. There was also a school band playing and other donkeys roaming the streets.
We went through the little Mancos Museum and stopped in the bakery before heading back home to share the memories with the rest of the family that were busy working while we played.
Here are a few photos captured with my phone of the Burro Fest!
