The very best part of our time at the cowboy poetry gathering was actually in the hours before the performances began, at the chuckwagon breakfasts.

First of all, they were held in the part of the park known as Poet’s Grove. Second of all, those cowboys cooked up some damn good biscuits.

But what made it the best part of the trip was the chance to hang out with cowboys and cooks and poets and local residents and kids and grownups. It was cold (17 degrees one morning, which was why the cream for coffee froze in its tin pitcher). But it was also warm, in the sense of friendship and common respect of the cowboy traditions. And it sure was rich in photographic opportunities.

Lone Star Cowboy Poetry Gathering
Alpine, Texas
photographed 2.22.2025