Puzzle lovers of La Plata County: You have been challenged to play a game of time limits, riddles and clues at the Ignacio Community Library for its end-of-the-year Escape Room program.

Lindsay Reichert, an assistant at library, said the staff has been looking for a variety of fun activities to provide as an outlet for patrons looking for a little reprieve from the snowy weather and the long, dark evenings of the winter months. Escape room-type challenges were at the top of their list.

“Escape the Crate basically makes escape rooms in a box,” Reichert said. “We subscribe to them online for the library.”

Reichert is referring to the Escape the Crate website, which provides variations of physical puzzle boxes customers can purchase and virtual escape rooms they can try to solve. The Ignacio Community Library began ordering the crates earlier this year.

“We have this community room where we put the crates and then we help the (participating) teams set them up,” Reichert said.

Reichert emphasizes that solving the crates is a team effort, and a minimum of four people is needed for the success of the game.

“It’s a joint adventure to solve the problem (of the game),” she said. “They also have an hour to figure everything out.”

Each crate come with different themes, and this year, the library staff decided to go with the infamous real-life bank robbers Clyde Barrow and Bonnie Parker.

“We gravitated toward the heist theme with Bonnie and Clyde,” Reichert said. “It’s an intriguing idea. They were these iconic, rebel outlaws during the Great Depression. They were like Robin Hood. We thought it was a fun idea.”

Though the games do have a time limit, the library has been known to loan the crates out to patrons to allow them more time at home to solve the puzzles.

“Whether they escape the crate or not, we just want them to have a good time,” Reichert said. “If they want to take them home and solve them on their own, that’s fine.”

If patrons are uninterested in the Bonnie and Clyde bank robbery theme, the library has other crates to choose from with various stories and designs.

“We have 10 different escape crates,” Reichert said. “We have a Grimm’s fairy tale theme. We have one with King Arthur. There’s a really fun circus-themed one. There’s an ancient Egyptian one.”

Reichert believe it is the perfect time to head over to the library and try out the crates, before the program ends on Jan. 7.

“A lot of people are on winter break right now,” she said. “A lot of kids are out of school and going stir crazy at home. Escape the Crate is such a fun, different thing to do with the family.”

Reichert encourages those interested in trying their hand at Escape the Crate’s puzzle boxes to call to reserve a spot and make sure to plan on two hours for the entire experience. Groups of four to six people are ideal, and a $10 deposit is required for holding a spot.

“We have so much going on right now,” she said. “The library is a great place to come and just have some fun with us.”

molsen@durangoherald.com