In Maui's Upcountry, Rodeos And Cowboy Culture

In Maui's Upcountry, Rodeos And Cowboy Culture
UNITED STATES - JULY 01: Horseback riders walk on Sliding Sands Trail within smoking crater; Haleakala National Park, Maui Island, Hawaii (Photo by Paul Zahl/National Geographic/Getty Images)
UNITED STATES - JULY 01: Horseback riders walk on Sliding Sands Trail within smoking crater; Haleakala National Park, Maui Island, Hawaii (Photo by Paul Zahl/National Geographic/Getty Images)

At the Oskie Rice Arena, the Friday night lights hung in the damp, mid-December Hawaiian air. Beaming through Maui’s notorious red clay dust, the lights served as a backdrop to one of the Upcountry’s biggest annual events. On the metal bleachers, families were bundled against their idea of the cold: a winter chill that sank just below 60 degrees. There were coats, blankets and hoodie strings pulled tight. There was Portuguese soup and Puerto Rican stew at the family-run concession stands, where the handwritten menus were scrawled in thick felt marker, crossed through as the “onolicious” fried ice cream or pork with tofu and macaroni ran out.

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