Planning your trip to Dolores

The Event: Friday June 26 @ 6 or 7pm, Dolores Community Center We'll celebrate with music, great food and great views next to the Dolores River. The Community Center is a beautiful, newly renovated building with a grassy lawn that borders the river. We have reserved rooms at a discount at the Dolores Mountain Inn for Friday night. Just tell them you are coming for the Martins/Cieszykowski party. Depending on your plans, you can reserve as many nights as you like - but we highly recommend you reserve at least this night. Everything is in walking distance in Dolores or you can take the one minute drive from the Mountain Inn to the Community Center.

The Dolores Mountain Inn website is here:
http://www.dminn.com/
Lots of great info on the area at this site too.

The Ceremony: Saturday June 27, early afternoon. We have found a beautiful group campsite between Rico and Telluride, within a one hour drive of Dolores. This will be a much smaller and intimate affair than Friday night's party. We'll have a simple ceremony and then enjoy the afternoon hiking, sitting in the sun (hopefully) etc., followed by a cook out and campfire that evening. We can help out with camping gear - we have lots and Gareth has a cache of tents and sleeping pads that Osprey uses for product testing trips. Additionally, if there is enough of a need, Gareth will arrange sleeping bag and pad demos from our friends at Big Agnes. http://www.bigagnes.com/

Mountain Weather: The campsite will be between 9 and 10,000 feet. Days can be warm to very warm (high eighties), nights will be cold, close to freezing. There is a remote possibility that it will rain, sleet or snow in the late afternoon for a couple hours. Bring bug repellent as a precaution - although mosquitos/flys aren't very active this time of year. All that said, SW Colorado has great weather - especially in late June and camping out here is very pleasant - if you like to camp or don't camp much, but want the experience - this is a great intro.

Basic mountain clothing list:
Shorts
T-shirt (synthetic or wool)
Warm pants
Synthetic or wool blend long johns and top
Parka (down is great)
Rain jacket
Baseball cap
Wool hat
Sunglasses

DON'T WANT TO CAMP? Options are to head back to Dolores, Rico or Telluride. If you have an early flight on Sunday (not recommended) consider driving to near that location. We understand that some of you will need to get back to work on Monday, so we'll wrap the ceremony up in plenty of time for you to make the drive if necessary.

Telluride Lodging: http://www.telluridemtnlodging.com/ A good website with reasonable ( for Telluride ) lodging options. Telluride is beautiful but expensive
Telluride Town Park Campground: http://www.telluride-co.gov/home/index.asp?page=59 A good option for camping aficionados staying in Telluride before or after the events - showers on site and right next town.
Rico Hotel: http://www.ricohotel.com/ Nice place, quiet and somewhat eccentric mining town, close to campground.
Durango: http://www.durango.org/ A 2 hour drive from Saturday's festivities.

If there's a large consensus to not camp or a portion of people all want to go to Telluride for example, we'll look into some lodging deals and keep the group(s) together.

AIRPORT REMINDER To get here - airports are Cortez ( 15 minutes), and Durango ( 1 hour), both accessible via Denver. The closest international airports are Albuquerque (4 hours) and Salt Lake City (5.5 hours).


DOLORES AREA TO DO If you aren't inclined to do a full tour of the SW, your best option is to simply hang in Dolores - lots to do. It makes a great homebase for the following:
- Visit McPhee Reservoir
- Fish or float down the Dolores River
- Visit Mesa Verde Natonal Park (45 minutes)
- Visit or spend a night in Durango ( 45 minutes)
- Ride the Durango Silverton Narrow Gauge train - kids love this trip but take a good look at the various options based on how long you think things will go without meltdown. http://www.durangotrain.com/
- Visit or spend a night in Telluride ( 1 hr 15 minutes)
- Tour the San Juan Skyway (great day trip, crosses FIVE high mountain passes. Red Mountain pass is not for the squeamish) http://www.coloradodirectory.com/maps/skyway.html

The town of Dolores has two large parks, one with a GREAT playground, a riverwalk, a coffee shop (that we THINK will be open by June) and an excellent pub with wood fired oven pizza. As mentioned above, the lake is a great place to hang out and there are hiking and biking trails in and around town.

AREA ATTRACTIONS WITHIN A DAY'S DRIVE (OR ON THE WAY FROM INTERNATIONAL AIRPORTS) JUST GOOGLE ANY OF THESE FOR MORE INFO
Grand Canyon National Park (accessible from Albuquerque via Flagstaff, AZ)
Arches National Park
Canyonlands National Park (both accessible from Salt Lake City on the way to Dolores BUT VERY VERY HOT in June.)
Maroon Bells Wilderness and Aspen Area, Crested Butte, Great Sand Dunes National Park, Colorado National Monument are all viable options if you are driving from Denver.

OUR SCHEDULE
We will be free early the week of June 22nd and into the week of June 29. So for those of you planning extended stays, we'd love to hang out with you. Both the party and wedding ceremony are relatively simple affairs. The point of all this is to see and spend time with family and friends!! Again we are open to adjusting things on Saturday to work for everyone. Look for a formal invite very soon and email us with any questions at all!

WHAT DO WE NEED TO KNOW FROM YOU?
1) When you expect to arrive in Dolores
2) When are you leaving?
3) Are you coming to the ceremony or just the Friday night party?
4) Do you want to a) camp out or b) obtain lodging Saturday night. If a) what gear do you need and If b) what town do you want to stay in?