Buffalo Days (Grand Lake)

On the third weekend of August, the Town of Grand Lake fills its parks with Buffalo Days. The program is bingo, a footrace, cornhole, lakefront bands, a dinner of buffalo barbecue, and a parade down Grand Avenue. The town sits on the shore of Colorado’s largest natural lake. The festival moves among Town Park, the Grand Lake Center, and Gene Stover Lakefront Park on the water. The 79th annual edition ran August 14 to 16, 2026, in honor of Colorado’s 150th anniversary. The Sky-Hi News reported pleasant temperatures and mostly fair weather.

Bingo at Heckert Pavilion

Friday began indoors at the Grand Lake Center with a beginner Western line dancing class. It promised a chance to “stomp, slide, spin and boot scoot” to country, rock, and pop songs, with no partner needed. The Rocky Mountain Folk School followed with a watercolor session. An instructor led painters step by step toward a cowboy boot set among mountains and wildflowers.

In the evening the Rotary Club of Grand Lake called Buffalo Bingo under Heckert Pavilion in Town Park. Cards were five dollars, cash only, with cash prizes. The pavilion tables fill fast, so later arrivals bring a lawn chair or a picnic blanket. At 8:30 the same park showed “The Sandlot” on an outdoor screen, presented by Lupine Village cabins. Snacks were served and adult beverages sold, and outside alcohol was not allowed.

A stampede and a buffalo dinner

At nine on Saturday the Buffalo Run 5k started from the Grand Lake Center; the town’s announcements call it a “stampede.” The course loops through downtown and along a portion of the Continental Divide National Scenic Trail. The Sky-Hi News described racers on a cool morning going along the lakeshore, across Rainbow Bridge, and around Main Street. Cameron Meyer, Iris Wu, and Jacob Wilson took top honors. The Rotary Club sponsors the race, and the 2026 proceeds went to Colorado Aerolab.

By ten the cornhole tournament was under way in Town Park. Teams pitched bags for a custom Buffalo Days/America 250 board set and cash for the top three, beside a beer garden run by KFFR Community Radio. Around them ran the free carnival: a bounce house, an obstacle course, axe throwing, and a kiddie bull called Angus McRodeo. The newspaper’s photographer found children in a bubble pit after the last bags were thrown.

At two the crowd moved to Gene Stover Lakefront Park for music on the lake until nine. Four Colorado acts played: Christie Huff, Ray & The High Rollers, the Sam Walker Band, and Jason Scott & The High Heat. Sagebrush BBQ & Grill sold a dinner of real buffalo barbecue with sides. The KFFR crew poured drinks to raise money for a new satellite radio station location in Grand Lake. The concert costs nothing to attend.

Cowboy Church and the Cowpoke Parade

Sunday opened at nine at the gazebo in Town Park, where the Community Church of the Rockies held an hour of Cowboy Church. Each year spectators come early to get something to eat and set up chairs and tailgates near the announcer’s stand in the park. At 12:30 the Cowpoke Parade went down Grand Avenue with shiny trucks, high-stepping horses, dancers, and first responders. When it ended, the Grand Lake Fire Protection District opened the Water Zone at Lakefront Park. The town’s schedule told people to wear a bathing suit and bring a towel: “you’re going to get soaked!”

The avenue has room for a procession. When Grand Lake was platted in 1881, Grand Avenue was laid out 100 feet wide. The Historical Society’s marker on the avenue says traffic was no problem at the time. The extra space was allowed for rodeos and horse races.

Fish fries on the Public Square

That marker stands beside the sidewalk overlooking Town Square Park. The original townsite of forty-four blocks set this ground aside as a public square. According to the Grand Lake Area Historical Society’s walking tour, the community held annual fish fries there in the early 1900s, and these evolved into the Buffalo Barbecue. The marker adds that a bear was once roasted on the square. The Community House, built there in 1922 with donated money and labor, still serves as town hall, theater, and community center.

The festival has changed months. The walking tour, compiled in 2012, places the Buffalo Barbecue in July. The Historical Society’s photographs show its members marching in the Buffalo Barbeque Parade on July 21, 2013, and again in July 2014. The marker says only “mid-summer.”

By 2020 the Grand Lake Chamber of Commerce was writing of “August’s Buffalo Days weekend.” That June it canceled the festival and its other summer events because of the COVID-19 pandemic. “We too mourn the loss of these Grand Lake signature events and are hopeful that next year’s events will be grander than ever before,” executive director Emily Hagen said.

The Southways’ lodge, 1948

The Historical Society records that the first Buffalo and Barbecue and Covered Wagon Days was held in 1948 on the grounds of the Southway Lodge in Grand Lake. The town’s own page gives the same year and calls the first event “a small community celebration of our Western heritage.” The Sky-Hi News and the marker say only that it began in the 1940s.

Frank and Mona Southway owned the lodge. On June 8, 2016, their son Hoppe Southway spoke at the Historical Society’s annual meeting in Town Hall. His talk, with pictures and stories, was titled “The Adventures of Frank and Mona Southway.”

His parents had traveled the world with heavy construction machinery and pipeline work. His father’s pipeline jobs took him to Israel and to Capetown, South Africa. Before the Southway Lodge, the couple owned the Stagecoach Inn. Hoppe grew up in Grand Lake in the 1960s and ‘70s. By his account, as the society set it down, his parents at the lodge struggled to make a living while having a lot of fun.