These pix are from more than a week ago now: before the rain. I haven’t been able to get to the interior of the basin since the day of these pix, which was the Tuesday before the rain started Wednesday. But given the wealth of weather phenomena happening, that’s been semi-, sorta-kinda OK (no, it actually hasn’t; I’m going through withdrawal, not seeing my ponies!).
So for this post a little, semi-break from the weather (not totally) … with a note: San Miguel County guys have started working to repair that erosion spot on Disappointment Road, and I hope to get some pix to highlight their good work. I don’t know the extent of damage in other parts of San Miguel County, but I’m guessing that it’s fairly significant, given the damage to roads/highways in other parts of the region, so I’m glad to have their work on our fairly minor erosion spot. And at the end of this post, a few links to recent overall articles about the flooding in southwestern Colorado and some amazing stories of rescues. They’re well worth reading (and checking out the embedded videos) to get an idea how historic the recent rains/flooding were (just in Colorado, to say nothing of New Mexico, Utah and Arizona).
It almost takes me back to my journalism days. 🙂 Onward!
Piedra in the light (again, this was the evening before the rain started last week; there were hardly any clouds in the sky that night).
One glorious refraction of light low on the southwestern horizon. Looking back maybe it was a sign of things to come, eh?
The articles:
Southwestern Colorado floods closed critical roadways
What officials know so far about major flood impacts in southwestern Colorado
Rescues and devastation: What it looked like when southwestern Colorado began flooding
And I caught Denny doing a little work (!) on the erosion spot on Disappointment Road yesterday afternoon. He said they’d had about 10 dumptruck loads of “pit run,” which is dirt with rocks of various sizes in it to bind it together. Then they were about to go to “3-inch pit run” for the top of the road to build it up a bit. Lake Disappointment is receding – and has receded quite a bit. Sadly, I never did see any ducks on the water. 🙂
THIS big machine showed up yesterday about sunrise!
And by early afternoon, this is what the road looked like!
And back to full width! Looking eastish/up-valley. Several more dump trucks went up with loads after the above pix; that was for the smaller rock-and-dirt combo. And on the right/south side, Lake Disappointment has shrunk to Disappointment Pond. 🙂
Given all those guys have going on lately with the recent rainfall, HUGE thanks to them for taking care of our little part of the world!
So very glad for all your rain – we’ve had a dry spell and actually warm. I’m sure the horses and other wildlife are loving the new green.
Glad for the guys working on the roads! Piedra is one pretty gal!
Pretty Piedra. Thanks for a mustang photo, TJ! And thanks to Denny and other county road guys for their impressive work. They make magic with their heavy equipment!