Eagle Flight Days, a new dinosaur museum, FAC, gravel bike mania and more: Tricia’s Weekend Picks 6/24/22

Eagle Flight Days

Eagle will be celebrating an event that has been going on for over 100 years. This Friday and Saturday, Eagle Flight Days returns and it’s not an air show and it has nothing to do with flights. In 1921, the County Seat was “stolen” from Red Cliff and moved to Eagle. The town has been celebrating the history and relocation ever since.

The small-town fun kicks off on Friday with Family Fun Night from 4 to 9 p.m. Eagle Town Park will be filled with giant yard games, inflatables and glow-in-the-dark kids crafts. The annual Castle Peak Pet Show will be from 5 to 6 p.m. and silent disco headphones will be available from 5 until 9 p.m. Food trucks will be on site as well.

New this year, instead of showing a family friendly movie with popcorn from 6 to 8 p.m. on Friday night, the Eagle Flight Days committee decided to show Game 5 of the NHL Stanley Cup Finals between the Colorado Avalanche and the Tampa Bay Lightning. Popcorn will still be available and the whole town and Avs fans from all over are invited to watch the excitement on the big screen together while they cheer on the Avs in Eagle Town Park.

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After the game, enjoy a free live concert with local band, Trees Don’t Move and kids can play with glow-in-the-dark lawn games from 8:30 to 10 p.m.

On Saturday, wake up to the smell of fresh pancakes at the annual Lions Club Pancake Breakfast at 8 a.m. or get ready to do the Splash of Color Fun Run. Registration and t-shirt pick up starts at 8 a.m. with the race going off at 8:30 a.m. The course is 1.2 miles long and takes runners through the Bull Pasture and down Wall Street and to Eagle Town Park. Get ready to be blasted by colorful chalk along the way and one more celebratory splash of color at the end, at 9:30 a.m.

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The big event happens at 10 a.m. as the parade goes down Broadway with tons of floats and groups dressed up and all decorated. The parade concludes with the big spray down of the crowd by the fire department. The fun continues with a whole afternoon and evening of contests, fun and live music in Eagle Town Park:

• 10 a.m. – Parade on Broadway
• 11 a.m. – Kid Zone | Inflatables | Crafts | Food Trucks | Horseshoe Tournament
• 1 p.m. – 2 p.m. – Hula Hoop Contest
• 2 – 4:30 p.m. – Flight Days Kickball Tourney 
• 3 – 4 p.m. Basketball Shoot-Out
• 3 – 5 p.m. – Live Music – Derringer
• 5:30 – 7:30 p.m. Live Music – Rewind
• 8:30  – 10:30 p.m. – Live Music – Six Million Dollar Band

For more information and to register for events go EagleOutside.com/FlightDays.

FAC at the Westin Riverfront

FAC is back at the Westin Riverfront Resort and Spa in Avon. FAC is short for Friday Afternoon Club, a time to relax, hang out with friends and have a few drinks and eats and the Westin Riverfront’s patio offers the perfect venue to kick back after a long week.

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FAC will be hosted at the new Stoke & Rye restaurant in the Westin Riverfront, an American Modern Grill concept by internationally acclaimed chef Richard Sandoval. Come early for the music and stay for dinner. The patio has a full bar set up outside, fire pits and patio seating. Doors open at 5 p.m. and the music will start at 6 p.m. This week’s band is The Laughing Bones. Other bands on the schedule include:

• July 1: The Margarita Brothers – Tropical themed cover band
• July 8: The So What Brothers – Eclectic, fun cover band
• July 15: Turntable Revue – Brother and sister act playing folk style covers
• July 22: JV3 – Denver’s premiere 90s pop-rock tribute trio
• July 29: Deja Blu – Widely varied covers from the 70s, 80s, 90s and today’s top 40
• Aug. 5: The Radio Band – Local cover band playing classic and alt rock from the 1970s – 2000s
• Aug. 12: DJ Jason Harris – Solo DJ playing up and downtempo 
• August 19: Nearly Now – A mix of blues, funk, jam and original music
• Aug. 26: Rewind – Local cover band, classic and alt rock from the 1970s – 2000s
• Sept. 2: Finaleyes – High energy covers of dance party hits, 80s rock, today’s hits and timeless classics

FAC at the Westin Riverfront gives back to the community. A portion of proceeds from drink sales will be donated to a different local Vail Valley nonprofit partner including Small Champions, the Eagle Valley Humane Society, SpeakUp ReachOut, Education Foundation of Eagle County (EFEC) and Walking Mountains Science Center. The nonprofit partner for this Friday is the Vail Valley Charitable Fund.

FAC at Stoke & Rye is free and open to all, but advanced registration is requested on EventBrite. The Westin Riverfront’s valet parking is for guests of the hotel and for those with dinner reservations only. It is recommended that FAC guests walk, bike, take a ride share or park on Lake Street near the hotel. For more information about what’s happening at restaurants at the Westin Riverfront, go to RiverfrontDining.com.

The Museum at Dinosaur Junction

Bring the kids and the kids at heart to the grand opening of The Museum at Dinosaur Junction, which houses artifacts, replicas and real pieces of pre-historic Colorado found right in Eagle County.

Billy Doran, the executive director of The Museum at Dinosaur Junction and founder of Fossil Posse Adventures dinosaur camp for kids, has hiked all around the hillsides and valleys looking for pieces of the past and is excited to share his findings in a new, permanent location.

The space is in the former June Creek Elementary School, which is now the Early Family Learning Center and Eagle County School District offices in Edwards. Doran found out that the space was available three years ago and immediately went to work on securing it.

“I think it was meant to be. I had no idea this was sitting here a few years ago. The day after I found out, I had a meeting with Philip Qualman, the superintendent at Eagle County School District and he walked me in here and said,‘what do you think?” and I was blown away. I couldn’t have possibly asked for a better location and space where I can display these huge dinosaur replicas.

The exhibits represent a 200-million-year history of the region throughout the Triassic, Jurassic and Cretaceous time periods.

There will be a private reception this Saturday from 10 to 11 a.m. for donors and then the public is welcome to attend from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.

“We’ll have balloons and some giveaway toys for children while they last. We look forward to blowing the socks off our local community now that they can see what I’ve been working on We’re so excited to share it with others. You become a kid again when you are standing beneath a 15-foot-tall skeleton that weighs 90,000 pounds,” Doran said.

The Museum at Dinosaur Junction is open Wednesdays through Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and ticket prices vary. For more information, visit DinosaurJunction.org.  

Edwards Happenings

The Edwards Corner Market is back and provides locals and visitors alike a farmers market experience on a smaller scale every Saturday from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. The Edwards Corner Market started in 2005 and has become a weekly spot for people to gather and grab groceries for the week, create their own farm-to-table meal or pick up unique hand-crafted gifts, housewares or flowers. For more information, go to EdwardsCornerFarmersMarket.com.

Before or after the Edwards Corner Market, hop across the street and go to the Edwards Summer Marketplace at Edwards Village Center (between the Edwards Post Office and Vail Valley Pharmacy).

Debuting this weekend, the Edwards Summer Market showcases the goods and services in that area and fosters community with activities like yoga on the lawn at 10:30 a.m. with Mountain Soul Yoga, live music from 12 to 3 p.m. with Dave Perron and you can grab breakfast or lunch while there. Café 163 will have an outside bar. Have you been to the “new-ish” Yeti’s Grind? Head there for coffee or a snack. Food trucks and pop-up shops will also be there. Feel free to bring a blanket or lawn chair and relax on the lawn. The event will go until 5 p.m.

To get you ready for the July Fourth holiday, there will be a special booth set up with all things red, white and blue to dress up you, your family and even your pets. As of press time, here’s who is participating:

• 714 Home
• Austen Boutique
• Bottle & Cork
• Café 163
• Moontime Cyclery
• Shine Intuitive Skincare
• Suzy Sweets
• Vail Valley Pharmacy
• Yeti’s Grind
• Mountain Soul Yoga
• Vagabond Cafe
• Jenny Thomson of Crystal Top Jewelry
• Sunward Jewelry
• Talfourd Jones handcrafted handbags
• Polished Petal
• Paintings by Sophia Fernandez
• Flower Hound

Big Horn Gravel

The latest craze in biking is gravel riding and to capitalize on the amazing terrain in the area, the Bighorn Gravel race is set to take place this weekend. A two-day event, Bighorn Gravel will feature an Expo on Saturday and races on Sunday. Sprinkled in between the riding will be clinics and guided rides, live music, raffles, food trucks, free camping and more.

Gravel biking is becoming so popular that the event sold out by the end of the day on Wednesday, but the Bighorn Gravel Expo, live music, food and fun will be available to the public.

Bighorn Gravel was the brainchild of Jake Wells and Mike Brumbaugh. Wells is a multi-time U.S. cyclocross national champion who is concentrating more on gravel and endurance events. Brumbaugh is the owner of Venture Sports and is an avid cyclist, climber, skier and entrepreneur.

“After riding on bikes and in cars for many, many hours together, Mike and I wanted to host an event that inspires people to get out of their comfort zone and push beyond what they are willing to say ‘yes’ to on a normal given weekend,” Wells. “What better place to do that than by showcasing our own amazing back yard here in Eagle County, Colorado.”

There are three distances for this inaugural event:

• Ram’s Horn Escape: 85 miles, 11,000 vertical feet of climbing
• Little Bighorn: 50 miles, 6,000 vertical feet of climbing
• Gravel-Curious: 20 miles and 2,000 vertical feet of climbing, non-competitive

The home base for this event will be the Gypsum Sports Complex and Gypsum Mountain Rec Center. On Saturday the public is invited to attend the Bighorn Gravel Expo. Here you can learn from the experts and go for a ride with TheFeed’s High Performance Team athlete Eli Kranefuss and Pinarello Scuderia athlete and Olympic silver medalist Mari Holden at 10 a.m. She will lead a women’s ride after the clinic. The Craftsman Beer Garden opens at noon, there is a kids race at 3 p.m. and Primal J and the Neanderthals play from 2 until 5 p.m.

The races happen on Sunday, but once again, the races are sold out. Rain or shine, a police escort will lead riders from downtown Gypsum to the course. The Ram’s Horn Escape starts at 7:30 a.m. followed by the Little Bighorn race at 8:30 a.m. and the Gravel Curious ride at 9 a.m. For those staying back in Gypsum, the Bighorn Gravel Expo area will still be open with the Craftsman Beer Garden opening at noon, live music with Custom 20 from 1 to 3 p.m., awards at 3 p.m. and Coldsmoke taking the stage from 4 to 6 p.m. For more information, go to BighornGravel.com.