Rockfall damage repaired, popular Colorado high country road re-opened

CBS News

a day ago

Camp Bird Road, a popular access for backcountry recreation southwest of Ouray, re-opened Wednesday after considerable rockfall damage was repaired.
Ouray County authorities declared a disaster emergency in late January. At that time, large boulders above the road dislodged above a drainage near Senator Gulch and wiped much of the road and retaining wall supporting it.
A worker uses drilling equipment to set explosives above Camp Bird Road in April.
Ouray County Road and Bridge/Facebook
Work to the mostly single-lane cliffside trail, formally known as Ouray County 361, began in earnest in April. According to the Ouray County Road and Bridge Department, that process started with reducing the element of surprise. Geologists recommended bringing down more rocks above the road which threatened the safety of people using it. Five hundred pounds of explosives were used to move an estimated 8,000 tons of additional material.
The process further damaged the retaining wall, a fenced design called a hilfiker wall.
Camp Bird Road, further damaged by rockfall following mitigation efforts to bring down precarious rock in May.
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Once debris was cleared, a Norwood-based company, EarthTech West, initiated the rebuilding process.
Workers from Ouray County Road and Bridge and EarthTech West work to re-establish a hilfiker retaining wall and new roadway on Camp Bird Road.
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Ouray County Road and Bridge/Facebook
The road was re-opened to foot and bicycle traffic during non-working hours on June 1.
Camp Bird Road re-opened June 11 following a months-long repair effort.
Ouray County Road and Bridge/Facebook
Camp Bird Road connects to one of the state's premier four-wheel-drive adventures, Imogene Pass Road. The drive climbs to over 13,000 feet in elevation between Ouray and Telluride. Though the turn-off intersection is now accessible with the just-finished repairs, the high pass itself is not yet open. Bulldozers are currently trying to plow snow from the Ouray County side and are approaching the summit.
However, once that path is cleared, vehicles will not be able to descend into Telluride. Rockfall, too, recently closed the lower portion of the Imogene Pass trail out of Telluride. That road, County Road K68/Forest Service 869 (informally known as Tomboy Road), has been closed since a section near Royer Gulch was washed out during a storm in August 2024. San Miguel County has accepted bids on the project and is aiming for a possible re-opening in September -- in time for the annual Imogene Pass Run footrace after Labor Day.
Both closures posed serious problems for first responders heading into the summer recreation season. Camp Bird Road leads to exceptional hikes in Yankee Boy Basin, namely 14,157-foot Mt. Sneffels and several 13,000-foot peaks surrounding it. Without vehicle access to the area, any emergencies calls for search and rescue would likely require helicopters. That situation is now resolved, although any search and rescue help from the Telluride/San Miguel side is still limited by the Tomboy Road closure.
A section of Tomboy Road above Telluride was washed out in August 2024. It has been closed to vehicular traffic since that storm.
San Miguel County Government/Facebook
The road to the Camp Bird Mine and the town of Gothic was built in 1879, according to the U.S. Forest Service. The mine and road were named after "the thieving Canada jays that were known to pilfered miners' lunches." The mine's gold lode was discovered in 1895. It soon became one of the state's top three gold mines. The mine, after decades of on-and-off production, was last closed in 1990.
Camp Bird Road is known as one of the more dangerous backcountry roads in Colorado. Three people on a Jeep tour were killed in 2022 when the vehicle fell from the route and rolled to the bottom of the canyon.