Local skaters in Dolores will have a new place to ride – and the town is having a party to celebrate.
Dolores Bike and Skate Park officially opens Oct. 24 at Joe Rowell Park with a nighttime celebration. The festivity, from 4-8 p.m., includes various food trucks, music and access to seasoned skaters to teach newer riders. The event is free and open to all ages or skill levels.
“Since it’s going to span the daytime/nighttime thing, we’re planning on turning it into a little bit of an evening party,” project lead Jake Carloni told The Journal.
“We’re going to light up the whole skate park and bike park, so you can skate and bike as long as you want,” he added to “turn it into a fun party vibe.”
Carloni said he is hopes the grand opening brings strong turnout – kids, families and supporters of the project – as dedication and enthusiasm for the yearslong development finally comes to fruition and culminates with a celebration that shows they can “be proud of what we built.”
Despite a gray and rainy Saturday, 20-year-old Cortez resident AJ Saiz and a few friends found a silver lining in the unsettling weekend weather – a dry spell long enough to break in the skate park.
“We just found a break in the storm to get outside and decided to come to Dolores and skate,” Saiz said, boards clattering on fresh concrete. “Honestly, I didn’t think it was going to be this dry, but you know, it’s Colorado – with the weather that it gives us.”
Saiz said he’s been skating off and on for about 12 years, and the new park has been a long-awaited upgrade for skaters from neighboring towns.
“We’ve been following it really closely,” Saiz said.
For Saiz, the sport is less about competition and more about freedom.
“No one’s telling you what to do – you’re learning at your own pace,” he said. “It’s just freedom, really. We’re out here teaching each other tricks and pushing each other. It’s pretty great.”
On grand-opening night, skating advocates and the School Community Youth Collaborative skateboarding team is providing skateboard rentals and helmets, as well as safety guidance. Durango Devo coaches will lead kids through bike park tutorials, focusing on safe navigation and jump techniques.
“This is a resource that families are excited about, and if they want to make sure that their kids are starting out on the right foot, it'll be a good resource for them to come here and kind of know that there's going to be some folks around that are there to show them the ropes," Carloni said.
Experienced skaters are attending the event as well to train and guide beginners on navigating the skating area and how to use it as a shared space, so there’s no collisions.
“It's a whole culture that we're going to have to learn as a community,” Carloni said.
In 2022, the project began after a town survey identified a bike and skate park as one of the top ideas to enhance the park for teens and adults, along with the children, who already benefit from the elaborate nearby playground.
From there, Carloni, owner of the Dolores Bike Hostel, applied to be on the committee spearheading the project. He was put in charge of its next steps.
“I’ve seen the plans a million times throughout the last three years and to actually see it on the ground is way more impressive. It’s a way bigger asset that I even dreamed of. It’s really cool. I really think that this is going to be a really fun thing for our community,” he said.
The skating area is expected to be fully installed by Friday. Construction was led by a team of Colorado Springs skaters, and the concrete portion was wrapped up earlier last week.
“I’m really excited and happy with the crew that came out and built it. They’re all old-school skaters,” Carloni said. “It was a group of guys that have been building skate parks for 20 years and have really perfected it.”
The bike park includes dirt jumps, rock gardens and technical features, with recent additions like 16-foot and 30-foot rock features installed during a community build day earlier this month.
