Looking for things to do in Palm Desert or Indio during Stagecoach weekend? Our family guide to Desert Rodeo in Thermal, CA covers tickets, kids, mutton bustin', camel rides, and whether it's worth going.
Desert Rodeo in Thermal, California is one of the best family-friendly things to do near Palm Desert, Indio, and Stagecoach weekend. It is a real PRCA rodeo with bull riding, barrel racing, mutton bustin', camel rides, and a genuinely strong Kids Corral. If you are in the Coachella Valley that weekend, yes, it is worth going.
We grew up on the coast. All of us. Beaches, burritos, Trader Joe’s within three minutes. When we moved to Palm Desert, we learned that the desert has its own thing going on — but rodeo was not a word that appeared anywhere in that orientation. We had genuinely never seen bull riding in person. We had never seen a saddle bronc. We had, at best, a secondhand pop-culture understanding of what mutton bustin’ meant.
Last weekend changed all of that. We went to Desert Rodeo in Thermal, and we are still talking about it.
What is Desert Rodeo, exactly?
Desert Rodeo is a PRCA-sanctioned ProRodeo festival held at the Desert International Horse Park in Thermal, California — right next to Indio, about ten minutes from the Empire Polo Club, and a short drive from Palm Desert, La Quinta, and the rest of the valley. It runs over three days during Stagecoach weekend, which means if you’re already in the desert for the country music festival, you now have a very compelling Saturday option that essentially nobody tells you about. If you’re looking for more of the day-to-day context behind where we live, our Desert Life topic hub is where we collect the rest of our Palm Desert and Coachella Valley favorites.
This was its second year, organized locally by Dave and Kerry, who we are so grateful to for making this happen. We are already calling it a desert institution in the making, and we feel qualified to say that because we’ve lived here long enough to know how few things there are with this kind of energy.
The event is produced by Flying U Rodeo — a 60-year family operation led by producer Reno Rosser, continuing his late father Cotton Rosser’s legacy. The professionalism isn’t an accident. It shows in every corner of the event.
The rodeo itself was more than we expected
We expected a nice local event. We got a full production.
Bull riding, saddle bronc, bareback riding, barrel racing, team roping, steer wrestling, breakaway roping — every event a real PRCA rodeo runs, running here, in our desert, under the mountains. The lighting was great, the PA was great, the announcing was great, and the energy in the stands was genuinely electric. We sat there in slight disbelief that this was happening forty minutes from our house.
Neither of us had ever seen bull riding live before, and it is something else in person. The bulls are bigger than you’re imagining. The rides are shorter and more violent. The whole arena holds its breath. Theo, who spent most of the day as the family’s designated skeptic about his own cowboy enthusiasm, was on his feet by the second rider. Saddle bronc was equally wild — both of us kept saying variations of “how do they do that” until it stopped functioning as a sentence.
And then there was the grand entrance.
Someone skydived into the arena carrying an American flag to open the show. We genuinely did not see that coming. One minute you’re finding your seats, the next there’s a person descending from the sky with the Stars and Stripes, and the crowd is losing its mind, and you realize the production bar for this event is significantly higher than you budgeted for emotionally.
Nia did mutton bustin’
This is the part we will be talking about for the rest of the year.
Mutton bustin’ is exactly what it sounds like: young kids ride sheep, rodeo-style, for as long as they can hold on. Our nine-year-old Nia — who lives at approximately her own pace and cannot be rushed under any circumstances — walked up to that sheep with a calm that suggested she had been doing this for decades.
She had not.
She rode it. Full event. We screamed. The crowd cheered. Nia dismounted with the composure of someone who had simply handled some business and was now ready to find a snack. It was one of those parenting moments that’s impossible to plan and impossible to forget. If your kid is in the age range, do not skip mutton bustin’. We cannot recommend it highly enough.
The Kids Corral was next-level
The entire Kids Corral section deserves its own paragraph, because it’s what makes Desert Rodeo work as a family day and not just a rodeo for adults. Posts like this are exactly why so much of this site ends up living under Family Life even when the setting is part travel guide, part local-events review.
Pony rides, camel rides, a petting zoo, a mechanical bull sized for kids, and mutton bustin’. That’s the list. A camel. We are in the California desert watching our daughter ride a sheep and our son watch a camel from a safe distance, and somehow all of this feels completely normal now.
Noah, who is nine months old and has opinions about everything, was deeply interested in the animals. He’s at the age where big moving things register as extremely important, so he spent most of the Kids Corral portion in a state of focused, raspberry-blowing alertness.
Theo tried lassoing and it did not go well
There was a vendor where you could practice lassoing. There was a target. There were instructions. There was also Theo.
We will not narrate what happened in detail here. The TikTok covers it. What we will say is that Theo approached it with great enthusiasm and departed it with great humility, and the vendor was extremely kind about the whole thing. Nia watched. Nia did not offer encouragement.
Good vibes, good people
One of our favorite things about Desert Rodeo was who showed up. The crowd was the desert at its best — laid-back, festive, genuinely excited, none of the energy that big festivals can sometimes attract. Jess ran into her friend George and the two of them had approximately the best afternoon.
That’s the thing about an event in its second year — it hasn’t been discovered by everyone yet. The people who are there tend to really want to be there. That energy is rare, and it won’t last forever once word gets out.
Chris Rock was there
We spotted Chris Rock in the crowd, which is either the most normal thing in the world or the most surreal, depending on how you feel about seeing a famous comedian at a PRCA rodeo in the Coachella Valley desert.
He had a Druski cutout with him, presumably for making content of his own. We respect the vision entirely. We were also making content. Desert Rodeo: content crossroads of the American West.
Stay hydrated — the HydroJug that saved the day
It is May. It is the desert. The sun is doing what the sun does here, which is commit fully and without apology.
We brought the HydroJug Pro Tumbler and it was not optional — it was essential. The kind of big, insulated, handle-on tumbler that holds a serious amount of cold water so you’re not making three trips back to a vendor booth between events. Nia drank out of it. Theo drank out of it. Jess drank out of it and then pointed out that we should have brought two.
She was right.
At an outdoor event in the Coachella Valley sun, hydration is not a suggestion. If you’re going to Desert Rodeo — or Stagecoach, or literally any outdoor event in the valley — get a big insulated tumbler and fill it before you walk in. This is the move every time. If you want the rest of our heat-survival shortlist, we keep those picks together in our desert-life favorites.
Food: great options, we want more of them
Honest review: the vendors we tried were genuinely good. TKB Sandwiches was there. Several local taco shops were there. The food we actually ate, we liked.
Jessika, who is a woman who believes deeply in having options, wanted more. More variety, more coffee, more of the kind of spread you’d see at a bigger festival. What was there was solid — zero complaints about anything we ordered. But the selection has room to grow, and we think year three will deliver on that front.
We’ll be there to eat our way through it regardless.
The sponsors tell you how real this is
One of the clearest signals of an event’s legitimacy is its sponsorship list. Desert Rodeo’s includes Resistol, YETI, Tito’s, Coors Banquet, Boot Barn, Wrangler, Pendleton Whisky, La Quinta Resort, and Melin — among many others. That’s not a small local event budget. That’s a festival getting serious attention from serious brands.
The charity component is also worth knowing: Desert Rodeo supports the Golden Circle of Champions, which raises funds for children battling pediatric cancer in the Greater Palm Springs area. Kids honored receive Resistol cowboy hats and Montana Silversmiths Champion belt buckles. It’s a good thing to be part of.
This is going to be a desert institution
We have lived in Palm Desert long enough to have a feel for what sticks and what doesn’t. Desert Rodeo is going to stick.
The production value is there. The PRCA sanction is there. The location — the Desert International Horse Park with mountain views in every direction — is perfect for this. And the timing is smart: Stagecoach weekend brings a built-in audience of country music fans who are already in the valley, already looking for something to do, and already in the right headspace for cowboys and cold drinks.
We think it becomes a desert institution the same way Stagecoach did. That’s not a small thing to say. We’re already looking forward to year three. If this is your kind of post, the rest of the blog tends to bounce between family travel, Palm Desert life, and the products that keep our little circus moving.
Dave and Kerry: thank you. For real. The valley needed this.
Questions we Googled before going
What should I wear to Desert Rodeo?
Comfortable, casual, and sun-ready. Cowboy hats are fully appropriate and encouraged — there’s a custom hat vendor on-site at the Retail Ranch marketplace if you want to commit. Closed-toe shoes are a smart move. And sunscreen is non-negotiable; this is Thermal-California-sun-in-late-April, which is its own category of intensity.
Is Desert Rodeo family friendly?
Very. The Kids Corral alone justifies bringing children. Mutton bustin’ is open to young kids, there’s a petting zoo, pony rides, camel rides, and a mechanical bull for the small ones. The main arena has full professional rodeo events that are exciting without being inappropriate. We saw families of every configuration having a great time.
Is Desert Rodeo near Stagecoach?
Yes. It’s at the Desert International Horse Park in Thermal — about ten minutes from the Empire Polo Club where Stagecoach is held. If you’re in the Coachella Valley for Stagecoach weekend, Desert Rodeo is the best thing to do with your daytime hours that nobody puts on the official itinerary.
What is the Kids Corral at Desert Rodeo?
The Kids Corral is a dedicated children’s area inside the festival with pony rides, camel rides, a petting zoo, a mechanical bull for kids, and mutton bustin’. It was our daughter’s favorite part of the entire day, and it’s the reason we’d confidently call this a full family event rather than just a rodeo for adults.
How far is Desert Rodeo from Palm Desert / Palm Springs?
Thermal is approximately 25–30 minutes from Palm Desert, 40 minutes from downtown Palm Springs, and right next to Indio. Easy drive from anywhere in the valley.
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Meet the four of usFrequently asked
What is Desert Rodeo?
Desert Rodeo is a PRCA-sanctioned ProRodeo festival held at the Desert International Horse Park in Thermal, California — about ten minutes from the Empire Polo Club and a short drive from Indio, Palm Desert, and Palm Springs. It runs over three days and features full professional rodeo events — bull riding, saddle bronc, barrel racing, bareback riding, team roping, and more — alongside a festival experience with vendors, western games, bars, and a Kids Corral.
When does Desert Rodeo happen?
Desert Rodeo runs during Stagecoach weekend in the Coachella Valley. If you're already in the desert for Stagecoach, it's one of the best add-ons you didn't know you needed.
Is Desert Rodeo good for kids?
Yes — genuinely one of the most kid-friendly events we've been to in the desert. The Kids Corral has pony rides, camel rides, a petting zoo, a mechanical bull for kids, and mutton bustin' (kids riding sheep like miniature bull riders). Our daughter Nia loved every second of it.
What is mutton bustin'?
Mutton bustin' is a rodeo event for young kids where they ride a sheep for as long as they can hold on — basically bull riding in sheep form, for the under-ten crowd. Our daughter Nia competed in it and handled it with what we can only describe as reckless enthusiasm.
Where is Desert Rodeo located?
Desert Rodeo is held at the Desert International Horse Park in Thermal, California. Thermal is right next to Indio and a short drive from Palm Desert, La Quinta, Rancho Mirage, and Palm Springs.
Who runs Desert Rodeo?
Desert Rodeo is produced by Flying U Rodeo — a 60-year family operation — and led by producer Reno Rosser, continuing the legacy of his late father Cotton Rosser. Locally, it wouldn't exist without Dave and Kerry, who have made it happen for two years running.
Is Desert Rodeo worth going to?
Yes. The production value surprised us completely. Real professional cowboys and cowgirls, real bulls, real broncs, a charity component benefiting kids with pediatric cancer, and big-name sponsors including YETI, Coors, Resistol, Tito's, and Boot Barn. This is a legitimate PRCA rodeo — not a petting zoo with a cowboy hat.
