Mudslide traps cars near Avery day-use area

Five others reported around county

The sometimes-torrential rains that came through Gunnison County over the weekend set off mud and debris slides from Marble to Lake City, including one near the Avery day-use area in the Upper East River Valley that temporarily trapped three vehicles.

Slides happened on Slate Creek intersecting the road heading into the town of Marble on Saturday night and again on Sunday morning. Others took place on the Middle Fork of the Little Cimarron, which the Forest Service cleared, and in Box Canyon.
Gunnison County director of public works Marlene Crosby says the worst slide was on Lake Fork Canyon Road, where mud and debris slid and blocked the right of way. The Bureau of Land Management owns the road and was in charge of cleaning that up. The nearby campground will be closed for the season, however.
“It’s just soil saturation,” Crosby says. “It’s not normal but when you get the consistent pretty heavy rains like we’ve had, it does happen.”
The slide in Avery happened just before 6 p.m. on Saturday. Mt. Crested Butte police officer Brad Phelps was the first officer on the scene.
“I was dispatched out there for people trapped behind a washout, but it wasn’t a washout. It was debris deposit,” Phelps says. “People with full-sized four-wheel drives were able to drive over the debris but there were three [smaller vehicles] that were stuck. They couldn’t get over some of the bigger boulders.”
Phelps called Gunnison County Public Works, which was on the scene in about an hour. Within 15 or 20 minutes, Phelps says, they had the road smooth enough for people to drive over.
In the meantime, Phelps collected cell phone numbers for people who might be concerned about the people waiting to get out. “I drove to where I had cell phone reception and called their families to tell them they’d be late.”
Since then the road has been restored and Phelps can see only a few places where the rocks slid. “I love natural events,” he says.