Dinosaur Stone Age Stampede

Cady Park lies at 600 Triceratops Terrace in Dinosaur, Colorado, a town of about 315 people near the Utah line. Its two main streets are Brontosaurus Boulevard and Stegosaurus Freeway. On the second weekend of September the park holds the Dinosaur Stone Age Stampede, two days of cornhole, car and OHV displays, food and craft booths, a community dinner, and live music after dark. The Stampede Committee runs it, and Marshelle Gray and Julie Elarton are its named contacts. In 2026 it fell on Friday and Saturday, September 11 and 12. The schedule warned that all times were tentative and some events weather dependent.

Friday night in Cady Park

The 2026 festival opened at 4 p.m. Friday. Kids’ activities and an Adventure Zone started at that hour, along with open cornhole games and the Dino Booze & Beer Garden. Vendor booths and food vendors stayed open until 8. Antique cars, OHVs and ATVs were on display in the park. The Dinosaur Community Dinner was served from 5 to 7, and at 7 the Flying Blind Band began a set that ran until 10. The next morning the festival posted: “If you missed Flying Blind Band last night in Dinosaur, Colorado don’t worry! They play again today from 12-2pm. What a show!”

Pancakes, old iron and a poker run

Saturday began at 8 a.m. with a free pancake breakfast hosted by the Artesia Fire Department, donations welcome. The beer garden reopened at the same hour with Peach Mimosas. The chalk art competition ran until noon. A visit with a paleontologist was on the schedule, its time listed as pending.

At 9, registration opened for three events: the cornhole tournament, the Fossil Fuel Classics car show, and the Prehistoric OHV Poker Run. The car show calls for “Classic Cars of All Ages - The Older the Better!” and sorts entries by decade, from the 1950s and earlier through 2010 and later. Entrants who include a dinosaur in some way earn bonus points. The festival site advertises “Prehistoric Old Iron” alongside the cars, and Visit Moffat County lists the event as a car and tractor show. Awards were presented at 2:30.

The poker run starts and finishes at Cady Park. Its route follows trails in Colorado and Utah, and part of it crosses public land under a special permit from the U.S. Bureau of Land Management. Riders buy up to three hands, $25 for the first and $15 for each of the others, and may add a $10 Bonus Fossil Card to each hand. Prizes of $250, $150 and $100 are paid at 12:30, once the last hand is turned in. After the 2026 run the festival congratulated its OHV winners and thanked Wagon Wheel West for its support.

The afternoon brought a watermelon seed spitting contest and Raptor Crap Bingo. The festival later posted congratulations to the bingo winners as well.

Ned LeDoux on Triceratops Terrace

The Hammer Down Band played at 7 p.m. Saturday, and at 9 Ned LeDoux took the stage for a free concert. A week before the festival, its page put it this way: “You know what you don’t see very often in Dinosaur Colorado? Super stars like Ned LeDoux playing to the best crowd ever for FREE right on the heels of playing Red Rocks in Denver...for not free!”

For those who wanted to stay close, the committee sold dry-camping spaces, with restrooms available in the park. T-Rex Reserve VIP sat directly across the street from the concert. Prehistoric Point was a block away, and its reservation page asked campers to “park safely but tight!”

Baxter Flats, Artesia, Dinosaur

According to a 2023 KFF Health News report carried by the Craig Press, the settlement was first called Baxter Flats. It was established as a town in 1947 and named Artesia, for the artesian wells in the surrounding hills. In 1966, the report says, the National Park Service told local leaders the town would prosper from its connection to Dinosaur National Monument if it changed its name to Dinosaur. The festival’s own site says the name changed because of the monument’s popularity. Residents renamed the town and its streets.

Prosperity did not follow, the report says, in part because the Colorado side of the monument has few dinosaur fossils. “People come in and ask, ‘Where’s the museum? Where’s the skeletons?’” said Jim Evans, the town treasurer. As the park rangers say, Utah has the bones, Colorado has the stones. The name Artesia is still on the fire department that hosts the Saturday breakfast.

The same report counted four marijuana dispensaries in town, opened after a 2016 ballot measure and drawing customers from Utah. It listed what the tax money had paid for: new sewage ponds, a repainted water tank, and a beautification project planting trees and flowers. It then added: “And last year, for the first time in decades, the town revived its annual festival, now called the Dinosaur Stone Age Stampede, with food, games, and music.”

The first Stampede, September 2022

The first Stampede was held Friday and Saturday, September 9 and 10, 2022, in Cady Park. Marshelle Gray served on the subcommittee that organized it. She told the Craig Press that the masterminds were Nichole Becker and Julie Elarton. “The vision was to bring the community together and celebrate,” Gray said. The committee drew support from across Colorado and the Uintah Basin.

That first program had more than 30 food and craft vendors, a rock climbing wall, cornhole, and a small car show. Rodeo events ran from noon Friday into Saturday evening. A barbecue dinner was served at 5 both nights for $5 to $10 a plate. A raffle offered a couple of guns, coolers and gift cards. Grand Junction musician Joey Rowland’s band played Friday. On Saturday the Sean Moon Band played, which describes its music as Western Colorado Red Dirt, “a little bit of country and a little bit of rock.” At 9 on the Friday night, a Dinosaur National Monument ranger set up a telescope in the park for a program called Under the Full Moon.

Afterward the festival’s site recalled craft booths, barbecue and “dancing the night away under the stars.” It also recalled visitors from nearby towns and states who pitched in wherever help was needed. The site announced the 2023 edition for September 8 and 9, with a poker run as its new family adventure. Mayor Richard Blakley said of the first Stampede, “This is a dream come true for me.”