People of all ages and dogs and a few horses came out to the 56th Annual Mancos Days parade Saturday morning.
The parade spanned nearly an hour and 45 minutes and was kicked off by the Mancos Fire Department, which sprayed the crowd as its trucks roared down the parade route.
"If you don't want to get wet, too bad!" said the parade emcee over a megaphone, as children and adults scrambled for cover or ran into the water to cool off.
Dozens of local businesses, nonprofits and charity organizations including Escalante Shrine, Clampers, San Juan Bible Camp, Hospice of Montezuma County, Chavalo's Mexican Restaurant and the Mancos Class of 1975 dazzled the crowd with their custom floats - all seeking to capture this year's "Only in Mancos" theme.
Mancos Days Pioneer Queen Ellen Paquin and her family, were pulled in a horse drawn carriage through the parade route and she was dropped off at the Pavilion in Boyle Park for the annual Queen's Lunch.
Paquin, a second-generation Pioneer Queen, wore her mother's dress to the festivities on Saturday.
"The parade was great," said Cy Riffle of Summit Ridge. "We've came out the last five or six years. The kids love the firetrucks. We brought our newborn, Memphis. It's his first Mancos Days."
After the parade, the crowd shifted down to Boyle Park for games and the second day of softball tournaments.
Several hundred children signed up for the annual duck races put on by the Mancos Valley Lions Club, as dozens of serious softball players waited to battle it out in the popular tournaments.
"Mancos Days is about softball," said Christina Padilla of Cortez. Padilla and her team competed Friday and won $50.
Mancos Days, a 56-year running tradition was started out after some of the merchants in town wanted to do something to bring people into town while celebrating Colorado's birthday.
