Marsh Gooding and his daughter Lida watch Street Events at the Steamboat Springs Winter Carnival. (Photo courtesy of Marsh Gooding)
STEAMBOAT SPRINGS After 35 years of attending the Steamboat Springs Winter Carnival, Marsh Gooding still gets tears in his eyes each year as he watches ranchers on horses pull kids on skies through downtown Steamboat.
“It’s the best weekend of the year for me,” Gooding said.
Gooding is a fifth-generation Steamboat resident, and the Winter Carnival is a tradition that runs deep in his family, with his grandfather starting the “Old Man’s Roman Candle Dance,” a carnival night show tradition where skiers carrying flares and fireworks and jump through flaming hoops.