Drivers parked illegally on mountain roads trying to glimpse Colorado’s changing leaves, hours of traffic and “nasty” trailhead conditions have frustrated everyone from mountain residents and law enforcement to the leaf-peeping visitors themselves.
“(Guanella Pass) is beautiful, it’s gorgeous, stunning. If you park on the side of the road where there is not room to park, I hope you stub your toe really hard,” TikTok user Laura Von Sonnenschein said in a video posted Sunday. “You are robbing us of autumn joy because you have turned Guanella Pass into an undrivable, one-lane road with no park rangers or traffic control.”
In the video’s caption, Von Sonnenschein called out drivers for being “a buncha ding dongs on the road.”
The video shows slow and unmoving traffic as drivers attempt to squeeze past each other on the narrow roadway, made narrower by illegal parking.
“If you want to save three hours of your life waiting in traffic, avoid visiting Guanella Pass this weekend,” Dawn Wilson said Sunday on Facebook. “Several areas of the road are gridlocked because of people parking half on the narrow roadway, making a few sections into one-lane roads for the two-way traffic. Colors looked great, though.”
“Tried Guanella pass this morning at 9 a.m. and traffic (was) parked on both sides of the road blocking all traffic about two miles in,” Gregory Knapp wrote in another post on Facebook. “Complete sh*t show!”
Clear Creek County Sheriff’s Office spokesperson Jenny Fulton said the sheriff’s office is responsible for traffic enforcement on both Guenalla Pass and Colorado 103 — another popular leaf-peeping destination — but how often deputies can patrol the areas depends on other calls.
“It’s really challenging because Guanella Pass and (Colorado) 103 are a couple of the closest areas people from the metro go to look at the leaves changing,” Fulton said. “The traffic poses a challenge to all of our communities.”
Fulton said the Clear Creek County Sheriff’s Office only has three deputies and a sergeant on duty Saturday and two deputies, a trainee and a sergeant Sunday. One community enforcement officer — who is not a sworn deputy but who can write parking tickets — is also on duty each shift.
The small crews have to cover almost 400 square miles and any emergency calls have to take precedence over parking enforcement, Fulton said.
“For example, this past Sunday, the community enforcement officer was on Guanella Pass Road for 90 minutes doing parking enforcement before he had to leave on a call,” Fulton said. “He wrote four citations and instructed anyone who was either in or near their illegally parked vehicle to move their vehicle.”
Deputies can’t tow illegally parked cars, even if they’re partially blocking the roadway, but they can and will slap drivers with a citation and hefty fine.
“Towing illegally parked vehicles is not practical considering the volume of traffic, the number of illegally parked vehicles and towing capacity,” Fulton said.
According to Fulton, eight parking citations were issued between Sept. 9 and Sept. 25. Citations issued last weekend — including the four issued by the community enforcement officer on Sunday — had not been entered into the sheriff’s office’s system as of Wednesday.
“We patrol that area as much as we’re able to based on call load,” Fulton said, adding that patrols will be increasing over the next few weekends due to the increasing complaints and safety concerns.
But it’s not just the traffic that has people upset — the influx of hikers and dog owners to the area has left behind piles of trash and “nasty” conditions, according to multiple social media users.
One Reddit user posted a photo of “nasty” piled-up poop bags at Guanella Pass’ Abyss Lake Trailhead on Tuesday.
“WTF is wrong with people? Disgusting,” the user wrote.
“There was a lady at the trail the other day who was so fed up with this that she grabbed a trash bag from her car, loaded it up, and took it with her,” another Reddit user commented in the thread. “She said she picked up 110 of them.”
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