Spend a day in Logan County

Logan County • Crook, Fleming, Illiff, Merino, Peetz, Sterling Sterling where it’s at for rodeos

Logan County Fair week boasts four rodeo events

If ropin’ and ridin’ are a couple of your favorite things, there are plenty of both during the summer in nor theast Colorado. Many counties in the area hold a Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association-sanctioned rodeo during their county fairs.

The hotspot for rodeo, however, is Sterling with no fewer than four rodeos scheduled during the Logan County Fair alone. In addition, the International Feedlot Cowboys Association will hold its team roping and barrel racing finals in Sterling for the fifth consecutive year in 2021.

The IFCA is comprised of men

A bulldogger makes his move during a rodeo event at the Logan County Fairgrounds in Sterling. (Jeff Rice/Journal-Advocate)

and women involved in the cattle feeding business, a big part of Colorado agricultural economy.

Fair time is rodeo time in Sterling. The week of the county fair star ts with two ropings in one day. In the morning is the Jim Mason Memorial Roping, which includes tie-down, breakaway, ribbon and team roping and barrel racing. In the afternoon is an open team-roping competition that sees hundreds of teams competing.

The PBR comes to town that week with an evening of bull riding, and the next day sees the 4-H/FFA Junior Rodeo, with youngsters riding and roping in some of the hottest competition.

The last two days of the week are reser ved for the pros when the Dick Stull Memorial PRCA Rodeo attracts pro rodeo athletes from all over the country. It’s a one goround rodeo split into two per formances and features saddle bronc and bareback bronc riding, tiedown roping, breakaway roping, steer wrestling and bull riding.

So if rodeo is your spor t, Sterling is the place to be and summer is the time to be here.

Logan County • Crook, Fleming, Illiff, Merino, Peetz, Sterling Spend a day in Logan County

Golf courses

Tee of f at one of Logan County’s three golf courses. Sky Ranch Golf Course, located at 17408 Highway 14 on the west side of Sterling, recently got a new name but is one of the five oldest courses in Colorado. River view Golf Course, just off I-76 on County Road 370, of fers a relaxed golf experience with the option of professional instruction. For a shor ter game, head east on Highway 6 to the 9-hole F&H Golf Course on the sandhills between Fleming and Haxtun, at 43355 County Road 30. Sterling Recreation Center

The Sterling Recreation Center’s outdoor pool is reopening this year after being closed through the 2020 season due to COVID. The complex, which opened in 2006, was refurbished during the closure, giving its four water slides and water features a like-new look and the pool bottom a new sur face. Other amenities include a volleyball net and basketball hoops in the larger of the two pools and a small wading pool for the youngest splashers.

Inside the center, you’ll find an indoor pool with a diving board, updated fitness equipment and cour ts for basketball, walleyball, and racquetball or pickleball. A day pass provides access to all the amenities, and there are also punch cards and annual memberships for those planning long-term use. For information, call 970-5227882. Sterling City Parks

Sterling boasts a plethora of parks that provide all the amenities you could ask for. On the west side of the city is Pioneer Park, which offers two playgrounds, tennis cour ts, sand volleyball cour ts, a disc golf course, a nationally-recognized softball complex and over a mile of trails. Park space on the east side of Sterling includes the

Families go for a splash in the outdoor pool at the Sterling Recreation Center in the summer of 2019. (Sara Waite/ Journal-Advocate)

Overland Trail Recreation Area, home to the Kiwanis Fishing Pond, as well as the city’s river bottom proper ty on the South Platte, where new trails are being developed. Columbine Park, on the south end of Sterling, of fers plenty of open grass along with a playground, pavilions, a concrete walking path, veterans memorial and various pieces of public ar t.

In between these parks are over a half dozen neighborhood parks with various features, as well as other city-owned open spaces that of fer a place to get outside and enjoy fresh air and sunshine. Prewitt Reservoir

The Prewitt Reser voir State Wildlife Area of fers year-round recreation on the border of Logan and Washington counties. The reser voir itself is around 2,400 acrefeet when full, and is open to wake-

Pioneer Park's 1.4 miles of trails includes natural paths through the woods. (Sara Waite/Journal-Advocate)

less boating. The proper ty of fers deer, dove, squirrel and water fowl hunting as well as warm water fishing. Camping is allowed except where posted. Anyone 16 and older accessing the SWA must have a valid hunting or fishing license or SWA pass.