Getting Down at the Fort Worth Stockyards

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Our Thanksgiving weekend was spent with the Grandparents in Dallas / Fort Worth. It was my first time to this area of Texas and I was quite excited to check out North Texas. We spent Black Friday outside and checking out a very cool, very touristy part of Fort Worth – The Stockyards!

It was all the Texas cowboy & ranch life stereotypes all rolled into one. Just because it was touristy, didn’t mean I didn’t love it and appreciate their hard work any less!!

I’m a farm girl myself, I grew up playing with cows and chickens and swimming in creeks at my grandparent’s farm in Franklin County, Virginia.

So I soaked up all the Fort Worth Stockyards had to offer and had an amazing few hours drinking cold beer, cowboy boot shopping, and making friends with Longhorns!

After walking around, it was about time to grab a beer.  Here at the Stock Yards in Forth Worth, you’re allowed to drink beers on the street and many restaurants facilitated that with bars facing the sidewalks!

We wanted to find a great cowboy dive bar to grab a cold Shiner, and it wasn’t hard to find that.  I saw a stairwell leading down to a basement and a neon sign pointing us down.

It was your typical Texas dive bar! Crappy service, a bartender who didn’t put up with the creeps hitting on her, and low, low prices for ice-cold beers.

After the bar, it was time to do some more exploring. Everywhere along the streets were Longhorn picture opportunities and real-life cowboys waving to children.

We ventured the main streets plenty, so next it was time to do some side-street exploring. That’s where all the coolest things are.

There was a cool stock yard maze for kids and adults alike, and there was a large platform above the maze where you could help people through. That’s where we were able to spot the large pen of Longhorns tucked away into the corner!

They do a running of the cows at the Fort Worth Stockyards twice daily at 11:30 am and 4pm.  We barely missed the morning one but knew we weren’t gonna be around later in the evening. I was kinda bummed thinking I would miss out on seeing these guys.

But we spotted that pen and immediately ran to the fences.  Cows are those creatures that don’t seem that huge until you’re up-close to ’em. And the Longhorns were no exception: they were MASSIVE.

Besides being massive, they were also sporting beautiful patterns in their fur.  These Longhorns were actually quite majestic and they seemed gentle just laying around, some were curled up just like a dog or cat.

I spotted some tuffs of grass and quickly proceeded to rip them up to see if I could make friends with one of these guys. And I was successful in befriending one of the large steers. I had to keep an eye on his horns though! One turn of his head could’ve knocked me out, or even worse!

On the way to the Longhorns we stopped and awed at a large railway turntable. The whole thing was fascinating and I can definitely imagine how incredible it would be to see this thing in action!

Next, we headed over to the actual stock yard pens just to take a peak.

This was such a cool experience during our recent trip to Dallas/Fort, Worth! I really feel like I got an authentic Texan cowboy experience at the Fort Worth Stockyards: I fed the Longhorns, made friends with a miniature horse with an attitude problem, and drank Shiner in a crappy bar.

All in all, it just made me love Texas even more!