About Rustic Rook:

Rustic Rook Resort was designed and built by owner operator Annette Ostrander (and former business partner) in 2020 from vacant land. Coming from Illinois in 2018, but always feeling as if her soul was born in Colorado, Annette wanted to build something different that the area currently did not offer; something that would add to the lodging options, not take away from the current existing businesses. In 2019 during Rustic Rook’s planning phase the Great Sand Dunes National Park had no glamping options – only RV parks, campgrounds and hotels. Annette wanted to create a fun, family friendly lodging option that was more of an experience than just a place to stay. A place where you can relax, unwind, and spend more stress free, quality time with the people you love.

Despite the challenges that 2020 brought, Rustic Rook hosted its first guests on June 3, 2020 the day the National Park re-opened and was the first glampground in the San Luis Valley. Since then we’ve had people return each year and have loved hearing about their new adventures and seeing their families grow each year. The initial site had 30 glamping tents, a large tipi for the lobby, dog park, picnic area and a four stall bath house. Since then we’ve added 2 more bath house units, added 5 bring your own tent sites, 3 camper cabins and 5 up-cycled grain bin studio villas (Bin 4 and 5 are still under construction as of 2026). We’ve also added a disk golf course and volley ball court, horse shoe pits and more. Each year we plan to make improvements based on guest suggestions and imaginative lodging ideas.

Rustic Rook is 100% independently owned. Instead of pursuing funding from investors/crowd sourcing Annette decided to build and develop Rustic Rook the old fashioned way – with blood, sweat and tears and about every penny saved in her lifetime. She’s also very involved with day to day operations and manages Rustic Rook as an on site manager all summer long. She loves meeting guests, and despite her many other responsibilities still works a few breakfast shifts each week.

Our dream moving forward is to create more lodging options to meet the needs of different types of people and extend our season so that people can enjoy staying near the park year around. We’re also in the process of cleaning up the collapsed buildings on the 113 side of the property where we have a flowing well – phase ?? (we lost track of what phase we’re on) we will be to converting that area to a hot springs by collecting the methane that naturally comes out of the well, and using it to heat the water. We love unique places to stay, and have a few more ideas cooking :). Stay with us, and know you are supporting a business who’s owner is involved and invested in the area, and truly want to create an amazing experience for you and your family/friends.

About Annette:

Annette’s unique background in construction project management, real estate, marketing and graphic design provided her with a unusual skillset for planning and building Rustic Rook. She also spent 3 months on a 12,000 mile RV road trip exploring the USA and seeing different lodging options and designs prior to selecting the property Rustic Rook now stands on. Annette loves traveling and exploring and is always looking for new fun and unusual lodging options to add to Rustic Rooks offerings. In Annette’s free time she loves spending time outside and with her family, friends and faithful furry companion Daisy (a German Wire Haired Pointer) – it ends in an “ing” she probably likes it (examples: hiking, biking, trail running, mountain climbing, skiing, kayaking (you get the idea :))) She’s climbed all of Colorado’s 58 14ers (14,000ft mountains) along with the 4 great traverses. She also enjoys being a member of the Alamosa Search and Rescue team, Alamosa County Planning Commission and the Alamosa County Marketing Board. She loves living here and believes that being part of the community is important – serving on boards/committees as well as collaborating with other small businesses in the area to provide more guest experiences is one way of accomplishing this.

Building Rustic Rook – 2020