If you’ve been on Molas or Coal Bank passes recently and desperately needed a toilet, you can thank San Juan County for coming to the rescue.
The county scrounged its budget this spring and managed to come up with nearly $23,000 to keep open the U.S. Forest Service outhouses atop the two mountain passes between Durango and Silverton. But its quick fix will need to be revisited soon.
The Forest Service in December had said it might have to close the restrooms because of budget cuts. The threat did not seem like an idle one. Not long ago, it had closed and demolished toilets at Treasure Falls, a popular spot along U.S. Highway 160 near Wolf Creek Pass.
San Juan County was able to take $22,900 from its Secure Rural Schools Act funds and use that for the toilets along U.S. Highway 550, county Administrator William Tookey said Monday.
Jed Botsford, recreation staff officer with the San Juan National Forest’s Columbine Ranger District, said the Forest Service worked with the county to arrange the deal. The county maintains the toilets through a contractor, and the Forest Service contributes administrative costs.
For motorists making the trip, there’s no other toilets along the road between Durango Mountain Resort and Silverton, an uncomfortable, winding 20-plus miles if you’ve really gotta go. An outhouse at Andrews Lake near the top of Molas is about a half-mile from the highway.
“I think we were fortunate to come up with some interim funding to keep them open,” Tookey said.
That plan will work for the next two years, then an alternative will have to be worked out, he said.
“Hopefully in that period of time, we can put together some sort of coalition of users to find some funding to keep it maintained after that,” he said.
The coalition could include San Juan County, the town of Silverton, the Forest Service, the Colorado Department of Transportation and the Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad, Tookey said.
Possibly La Plata County interests will join, as well; many users of the Coal Bank Pass outhouse are from La Plata and never get as far as Silverton.
The outhouses are closed during the winter.
johnp@durangoherald.com
