

Holmes and his wife frequently travel to Costa Rica and wanted the resort to feel like a beach vacation in the mountains. Looking more like a retired lifeguard – shirtless, red trunks, sun hat – than a revolutionary resort owner, Holmes plunged down the slide, delivered and forever became a god in these kids’ eyes.Īfter, he took The Durango Telegraph for a tour of the resort, now in its second year.įor starters, Holmes said the name “Tico Time” is the Costa Rican term for relaxed island living. “You guys want to see a flip?” Holmes asked an excitable group of kids waiting in line for Tico Time’s water slide last week. I’m super ambitious but then get in over my head.” “But then it turned into this overwhelming venture. “This was supposed to be a side project,” Holmes joked. Admittedly, Holmes said once he starts a project, it’s not uncommon for it to snowball into something larger than first intended. And thus forever changed the direction of Tico Time.
#Tico time resort install#
He and his wife started to accumulate properties on both sides of the Animas River and now own nearly 100 acres.īut not long after the first RV sites and a sand volleyball court were built, Holmes had the idea to install a zip line and 60-foot adventure tower. Having moved with his parents from San Diego to Durango in 1994 when he was 12 years old, Holmes (who also runs a local traffic control company) knew the advantages of Tico Time’s location. The original idea for Tico Time, Holmes said, was a modest RV park and campground, with room for long-term tiny homes, equidistant between the San Juan Mountains to the north and the deserts of New Mexico to the south. “We have one of the most amazing event centers anywhere in the world that’s pure freedom, and it’s the chance of a lifetime.”

“Tico Time is a Costa Rican cruise ship landed in the desert along the Animas River,” said longtime Durango local Rasta Stevie, who helps book shows. So this year, Tico Time is busting out of the gates, hosting a blitz of concerts and music festivals, magic shows and fireworks displays, hoping to become one of the go-to destinations in the Four Corners.

The COVID-19 pandemic, however, hamstrung live music and events in 2020. Almost immediately, the resort began taking on a life of its own. Holmes and his wife, Jenny, started buying the property along the Animas River destined to become Tico Time around 2018. “Already there’s nowhere like it in the world,” Holmes said. In sum, pretty much anything owner Robert Holmes, 39, wants it to be. Highway 550, Tico Time is a topsy-turvy mix of adventure park, campground, live music venue, basecamp for the outdoors and lounge chair mecca – a sort of free-for-all summer camp for adults and kids alike. Nestled about halfway between Durango and Farmington, just on the New Mexico side of the border off U.S. And you, like many people around town, may be asking, “What is Tico Time River Resort?”īut perhaps the more fitting question is: what isn’t Tico Time River Resort? Or maybe you have seen the ads for concerts and music festivals galore. You may have seen the brochures hyping high-adrenaline adventures.
