The Round-Up

Are you ready for some s'mores and s'more of The Young Riders, over an open campfire?  Here it is! A weekend of camping and historical fun for fans of the TV show The Young Riders. Many of us are fan fiction authors, but some are just fans who love getting the chance to dish on the show for four days.

Rock Creek Round-Up got it's unofficial start in 2012, when my I discovered Rock Creek was now a state historical park while researching a fan fiction story I was writing.  I dragged my son up there for their annual Trail Days and we had a blast.  The next year, was the first official Round-Up, when friends from Michigan, Wisconsin & Minnesota joined us.

We gather at Rock Creek State Historical Park near Fairbury, Nebraska for a long weekend in June.  The specific weekend is picked sometime in January/February by popular acclaim.

We arrive on Thursday.

We spend Friday traveling the old Pony Express Highway (U.S. 36) to nearby historical sites like St. Joe, MO, Seneca, Marysville, Fort Kearny, Pioneer Village, etc. We don't see the same thing every year, because there's just not enough time. So we rotate sites.

Saturday and Sunday are spent at the campsite, getting some R&R, staying up until all hours of the night talking like teenagers and watching The Young Riders on our laptops around the campfire.  Don't worry, there's plenty of s'mores, banana boats, and, this year, we'll be trying campfire cones! We top the weekend off Sunday evening with a fans only stroll at sunset for pictures at the old Pony Express buildings.

Monday we reluctantly head home.

If we go the first weekend in June we catch Rock Creek Trail Days, full of historical reenactments and a Pony Express hand off demonstration run.  There's also sometimes a Civil War Battle reenactment.

In the middle of June there's also the possibility of catching the annual Pony Express ReRun, in which volunteers ride the old Pony Express route carrying a real mochila filled with real mail.  They alternate directions each year. In 2014 it was Sacramento to St. Joe.  In 2015 It'll be St. Joe to Sacramento.  Either way it'll pass through Rock Creek on a weekend in June.

I'll be posting pictures and stories from the 2014 Rock Creek Round-Up here on this site.  It's Thursday, June 26th through Monday June 30th this year.  If you'd like to join us, just call the park and reserve a campsite, and leave me a note here, so I know to expect you!

For news on future Round-Ups, keep an eye on this site.  I'll post here as soon as we start planning dates for the 2015 Round-Up.  If you're thinking of coming from overseas, don't worry about the camping gear. We've always had plenty of extra on hand!  Just let us know! And, Ride Safe!

--Pilarcita