Glenwood Canyon Rock Slide

Just when I thought the weather couldn’t get any worse, the warming temperatures cause a huge rockslide in Glenwood Canyon on Sunday night around midnight. Sunday was another warm day on the slopes with spring-like snow at places like Beaver Creek and Vail. It seemed like you could almost watch the snow melting away. Melting snow and thawing soils mean mudslides and run-off in Colorado. But when I drove through the Canyon on Sunday afternoon around 5:00pm, I never imagined 66 Ton Boulders crashing down on the highway! Thankfully no one was hurt when that actually happened.

CDOT is stating that they cannot estimate a time of when I-70 will re-open. Last time a slide this big happened it took nearly three months to clean up! What does this mean for all the ski resorts and traffic? Well for starters I doubt if Aspen, Powderhorn, Sunlight, etc. will be seeing many Front Range skier visits. Not only that, but people west of the Canyon (myself included) won’t be able to get to any of the Vail resorts without a ridiculous detour. Going through Meeker, up to Steamboat and back down is so far out of the way it’s not even funny. Man, I feel bad for all the truckers. I guess one could go up Cottonwood Pass and through Gypsum, but that doesn’t sound much better. All that people west of the canyon can do is cross their fingers and hope the road crews can clean up at least one or two lanes before the weekend. To check the status of the clean up click here. Pray for Snow and a quick clean up!