RMOWP’s 2018 conference is planned for the Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve area, with headquarters in Alamosa, Colorado. Dates are Sunday, September 23 through Wednesday, September 26, 2018, with a post-conference all-day trip on the Cumbres and Toltec narrow-gauge steam train (www.cumbrestoltec.com) on Thursday, September 27.
Most workshops and other sit-down presentations will take place at Adams State University, and lodging will be at the Alamosa Super 8, which has offered us a group rate of $89 per night for one or two adults. Don’t make your reservations yet, though – we haven’t gotten the contract. Alamosa is about 235 miles southwest of Denver and 200 miles north of Albuquerque, New Mexico.
The conference will involve some driving – Great Sand Dunes (www.nps.gov/grsa) is about 35 miles from Alamosa – but it will be well worth the effort. Late September should have wonderful fall colors, especially along the steam train’s route up and over 10,015-foot Cumbres Pass, and the weather will be cool (downright chilly in the evenings).
Other area attractions include several national wildlife refuges (www.fws.gov/refuge/alamosa) and the Nature Conservancy’s Zapata Ranch (www.zranch.org), which offers tours to see its herd of some 2,000 bison. There are also historic museums, several hot springs, and southern Colorado’s famous alligator farm (www.coloradogators.com) and UFO Watchtower (www.ufowatchtower.com).
Additional details will be forthcoming, but in the meantime block out those dates!