Boulder season rolls into the Roaring Fork valley early

GLENWOOD SPRINGS Colorado— Large rocks have appeared on the highways, marking an annual rite of late winter and spring: boulder season.

Earlier this week a few of them fell to the highway and bashed through the concrete

median divider on Highway 82 just south of Glenwood Springs. Boulder season is

starting a little early this year.

“We normally have rocks start falling mostly during the spring,” said Colorado State

Patrol Capt. Rich Duran. “I think we’re a little bit ahead right now, but come March or

April, I think we’ll see a lot more.”

Duran said boulder season will be worse this year because of extra runoff coming

down from larger-than-normal amounts of snowpack in most of Colorado’s high

country. In previous years, a few people died when they were unlucky enough to

have falling boulders smash into their vehicles near Marble, and in South Canyon

and Glenwood Canyon, he added.

But it’s more common for drivers to hit a boulder that’s already come to rest on the

highway. That’s happened at least five times in the area so far, Duran said, but no

one was seriously injured. But the vehicles, some of which couldn’t be driven again,

weren’t so lucky.

Dave Stanley, service manager at Glenwood Shell, said, “It’s becoming that time of

year, and we’ll be (repairing rockfall damage) all the way through April. If it starts

raining it really gets bad.”

Stanley said he’s seen about eight or nine vehicles that have suffered an average of $400 to $500 damage after hitting rocks on highways this year. Mostly, the work

involves repairing busted wheels, and damaged oil or transmission pans.

“I’ve probably done at least eight or nine so far this year, and it’s just getting started,”

Stanley said. “You just never know when you’re going to come in and find two or

three cars busted up from hitting rocks.”

Sometimes trying not to hit a rock makes things even worse.

“I know that there’s been a couple that have swerved to miss rocks and got torn up

pretty bad,” he said.

Cars that try a little too hard to dodge a rock sometimes hit the guardrail or another

car.

“It created a lot worse damage than just going ahead and running over the rock,”

Stanley said. “You never know what (drivers) are going to do when a rock falls in front

of them.”

Springtime can create a false sense of comfort for drivers. Warmer temperatures

mean snow and ice isn’t as much of a problem on the roads, but water freezing and

thawing between rocks breaks them loose and sends them down from canyon walls

or hillsides.

“People tend to bring their speeds back up when the road is dry,” Duran said. “Even

though the road is dry, the weather is nice, the potential for that rock coming down is

a possibility.”

Duran said rocks seem to hit the highways most in South Canyon and Glenwood

Canyon on Interstate 70, and on Highway 82 under the red bluffs near Carbondale

and south of Glenwood Springs. McClure Pass and its approaches, and Shale Bluffs

near Aspen on Highway 82, also get pummeled by lots of falling rocks.

Contact Pete Fowler: 384-9121

pfowler@postindependent.com





Post Independent, Glenwood Springs Colorado CO