One last celebration of summer.

Then fall arrives at the doorstep.

From Our Hometown

Let ’Er Buck

In Pendleton, September is impossible to separate from the Pendleton Round Up.

For a few days every year, our hometown changes completely. People return from near and far. Horses seem to be everywhere. Downtown fills. Music drifts through the streets. Old friends find one another again, and new visitors discover Pendleton for the first time.

If you have never experienced Round Up, it is difficult to explain exactly what happens here when it arrives.

You can feel it before you see it.

There is history. Legacy. Tradition. Things that have been done for generations alongside things being experienced for the very first time.

There is the roar of the rodeo and the quiet craftsmanship of something made by hand. Western traditions live alongside the extraordinary colors, artistry, history and culture of the Native American communities who have been an essential part of this place and its story for generations.

There is the flyover overhead. The Happy Canyon Night Show after dark. The beloved Westward Ho! Parade winding through town, one of the longest non motorized parades in the country.

And, of course, there is the Round Up itself.

It is loud and dusty and beautiful and exhausting. It is cherished and familiar, but somehow still manages to feel exciting every single year.

If you ever get the chance to experience it, you should.

For a few days, our little hometown feels like the center of the West.

After The Celebration

The Exhale.

And then it ends.

Almost overnight, Pendleton grows quiet again.

The trailers leave. The streets empty. The dust settles.

And suddenly, fall is standing at the doorstep.

There is something beautiful about that rhythm. Round Up gathers everyone together for one enormous celebration, then sends us home just as the season begins asking us to slow down.

The Turning Season

Fall, Out West.

The second half of September feels entirely different from the first.

The mornings become cooler. The evenings arrive earlier. Leaves begin turning along the streets and across the hills. The rain, absent for so much of summer, slowly begins finding its way back.

This year, we are especially ready for it.

It has been a difficult fire season across the West, and after months of watching smoke, heat and flames threaten the places we love, the first signs of cooler weather feel like more than the changing of a season.

They feel like relief.

We hope for rain. For quiet skies. For a little help from Mother Nature.

And after the beautiful chaos of early September, we are ready for some quiet too.

Perhaps That Is What September Does Best

Gather.

People come home. Families meet up. Friends find one another in crowded streets and grandstands. Generations gather around traditions that existed long before any of us and, hopefully, will continue long after us.

Then, when everyone has gone home, we begin gathering in a different way.

Around tables. Under blankets. In kitchens with something warm on the stove. Around candles lit a little earlier each evening.

We gather ourselves.

Fall in the West is fleeting. There is only a small window between the heat of summer and the cold that follows, and perhaps that is why we love it so much.

We know not to rush it.

So when the dust settles this September, that is exactly what we plan to do. Rest a little. Reflect a little. Open the windows when the rain comes. And enjoy every bit of this short, beautiful season while it is here.

A Few Things We’re Loving This September

• The Pendleton Round Up
  The traditions, the people, the horses, the history and the feeling of watching our hometown come completely alive.
• The First Rain
  That unmistakable smell when rain finally meets dry earth again. This year especially, we will be grateful for every drop.
• Cool Mornings, Warm Afternoons
  A sweater in the morning, sunshine by lunch, and just enough chill returning after sunset.
• The First Signs of Fall
  Leaves beginning to turn. Earlier sunsets. Something warm simmering in the kitchen. Candles burning before dinner.
• A Quieter Pendleton
  We love Round Up with our whole hearts. We also love the deep breath that comes afterward.