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Steamboat Springs — For Steamboat Springs native Michelle Wilkie, Art in the Park is a family must-have during a summer return to the Yampa Valley.

Wilkie, her children in tow, picked up two photographic prints of the historic More Barn at Saturday's art festival, which continues today at West Lincoln Park. She wanted to memorialize the familiar sight before further development at the new Barn Village at Steamboat neighborhood changes the surrounding landscape.

"I remember driving past it all the time when I was a little girl," said Wilkie, who now ranches on the Eastern Plains near Limon. "This is home."

The Steamboat Springs Art Council, which organizes Art in the Park, was expecting about 10,000 people to attend the event. Indeed, seats in the shade were hard to come by Saturday, as thousands perused everything including fine artwork, sculpture, artisan jewelry and hand-painted onesies, while sampling locally made barbecue sauce and sheepsmilk cheese.

Families sat en masse on the grass, snow cones and funnel cake in hand, enjoying afternoon entertainment from groups including Children's Danceworks, The Great American Laughing Stock Co. and Yampa Valley Ceili Society.

"The city has a great show, especially with all the performers," artist Malen Pierson said.

Pierson's sculptures, which are made of recycled materials found at farms and shop yards near his Logan, Utah, home, were attracting interest of all kinds. Serious buyers were scouting the pieces, which included goats constructed of old toy trucks that attracted plenty of attention from Art in the Park's younger attendees.

Lots of hot air

Today's weather is expected to be warm and sunny with clear skies - and a chance of rainbow-colored hot air balloons soaring across the view.

Thousands of spectators arose early Saturday morning to take in day one of the Steamboat Springs Chamber Resort Association's 28th annual Hot Air Balloon Rodeo, which continues this morning at Bald Eagle Lake south of Steamboat Springs.

For pilot Colin Graham, hot air ballooning was love at first sight.

"I saw my first balloon when I was 3, and that was it," Graham said Friday morning as he piloted his craft above the Yampa Valley.

When fully inflated to 120,000 cubic feet, Graham's 2005 Cameron z120 stands about nine stories tall. With the turn of a lever on the balloon's twin burners, Graham could raise the craft high into the sky or dip his five-passenger basket into the Yampa River below.

More than 40 balloons are expected to launch at about 7 a.m. today; the launch field opens to the public at 6 a.m. All parking will be at the Meadows Lot on Pine Grove Road, with free shuttle service to the Balloon Rodeo.

- To reach Melinda Dudley, call 871-4203 or e-mail mdudley@steamboatpilot.com