July Storm Forces Closure of PCC Trails

Both the People & Places Trail and the Geology Time Trail are closed after a catastrophic storm on July 23, 2018, severely eroded the trails.  On that afternoon, PCC received about 2.5″ of rain in an hour and a half.

North Sand Creek, which runs between the PCC campus and Highway 50, quickly filled to capacity.  Most of the damage resulted when a buildup of dead cottonwood trunks, branches and other debris carried by the floodwaters created a short-lived dam at the PCC bridge, resulting in water backing up.

Extensive damage to the Geology Time Trail at the 200 million year mark

The torrent of water coming out of Priest Canyon (aka Ohio Canyon) northwest of PCC had nowhere to go and soon caused a breach in the 4′ berm between the Geology Time Trail and the west side of North Sand Creek, filling the former prison garden grounds where the Geology Time Trail lies with enough swirling water to reach the top of the PCC bridge as well as the bridge a quarter of a mile to the south leading to Tunnel Drive.  An 8′ wall of water finally broke through the dam at the PCC bridge.

The huge travertine block at the Geology Time Trail trailhead held its ground, but smaller rocks all around it were carried away by the floodwaters

The July storm is being called a 100 year or 500 year storm.  Gordon Bell, Facilities Department, spent four weeks hauling out debris (wood, concrete, rocks) from the creek.

Fortunately, most of the Geology Time Trail interpretive signs were not damaged, though two signs along the east side were carried away during the storm despite each being anchored by a large concrete base.   Only one has been found.  The many huge geologic boulders withstood the onslaught, but the trail itself was either mostly washed away or covered with 2-3″ of sand, and rocks lining the trail were carried away.

This is what’s left of the Geology Time Trail after the flood

The berm between North Sand Creek and the trail was decimated.  Though the berm had never washed out before, it was never designed to withstand flood waters; it was built in the early 1900’s for the proposed electric trolley from Cañon City to the Royal Gorge.

The People & Places Trail on the west side of campus suffered less damage than the Geology Time Trail, but trail erosion and public safety required that it also be closed.

The People & Places Trail also took a hit

Insurance will cover restoration of the trails and berm, but will not cover any improvements to withstand floodwaters in the future or upstream flood mitigation .  The Crossroads Steering Committee has been discussing how to control runoff on the watershed area and meeting with area specialists.

We hope to have both trails restored and open to the public by the spring/summer of 2019

Signs okay.