Sand Gulch Road has washed out again
Washed out roads are a big problem in Southern Colorado right now.
It’s especially bad in rural areas.
And it wouldn’t take much for the creeks to go over their banks again.
Continued rain has not only meant rising levels here, but new creeks have formed where they never existed before.
Many people move to Colorado for the nice views.
But one waterfall and stream in Cascade isn’t a natural feature. It used to be Sand Gulch Road.
“All of the sudden overnight, within two days, three days it looks like this,” said Parker Chestnut.
If you want to know how it got this way, you only have to look up at the mountains to the north, and back to the Waldo Canyon Fire.
“After that happened was when the major flooding and washout(s) (started) occurring,” said Chestnut.
When you see the layers of soft sand, it’s not hard to imagine the road washing out. But that same sand has another interesting effect here.
Chestnut said, I think this is the third time this year, it’s trenched out like this and filled itself back in with sand completely as if nothing happened.”
Still, the repeated washouts mean a continued headache for some of Chestnut’s neighbors.
“They do not have water and have not had water for…gosh this is a little over a month,” said Chestnut.
Chestnut has managed to make another road with a tractor, but it’s only a temporary solution.
The residents here are hoping that the heavy rain ends soon – like many other people in Southern Colorado.
El Paso County officials said that there isn’t much they can do since the road is private.
