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More rocks fall on Red Mountain Pass

Slide cleared after U.S. 550 closed briefly on Saturday night

Red Mountain Pass reopened for traffic late Saturday night after another dangerous rockfall that afternoon sent baseball-size boulders hurling into vehicles and briefly closed traffic in both directions.

They fell in the same vicinity of winter’s massive rockfall-mitigation efforts on the enormous Ruby Walls cliffs on Red Mountain Pass.

Colorado State Patrol spokeswoman Cpl. Heather Cobler said no injuries were reported, but there was damage to vehicles. She said reports came in at about 6:12 p.m., and more rocks fell for at least a half an hour near mile marker 90, while crews with the Colorado Department of Transportation waited.

“They had to wait for the rocks to finish coming down before they could even get in there and clear it,”she said.

Chip Huntoon, of Durango, owns CH Property Service and was in the area, heading south for a camping trip with girlfriend, Emilie Benke, when his truck began getting pelted with rocks.

“It started falling on both sides of us, so we had to drive through to a safe zone,” Huntoon said.

He said two cars in front already had been hit, including one Ouray Police vehicle.

His driver’s side window was shattered and his windshield smashed.

“It’s a couple thousand dollars,” he said, calling some of the boulders closer to softball-sized. “Worse than hail damage. It got the lens in the front of my truck, my hood and the sides of the bed and the windshield.”

In all, he said his vehicle was hit by about 24 different rocks, from pebbles to boulders.

“It started raining hard, and all of the sudden we just drove into it,” he said. And it’s my work truck, which is kind of stressful. They treated it like an act of God, so they didn’t even fill out a police report.”

One alternating lane was opened for traffic as of 8 p.m. Saturday evening, and CDOT was still on scene, Cobler added. CDOT sent out a text shortly before 9 p.m. Saturday, reporting the highway was fully open in both directions.

In January, months of work began to stabilize cliff faces and mitigate rockfall. The highway was reopened without restriction in June.

Cobler said weather may have played a role in the activity. Huntoon believes it did and warns motorists that with continuing rain, there may be more danger.

“People need to know to be cautious,” he said. “If it rains hard again, I’m sure more stuff will come down.”

bmathis@durangoherald.com



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