The Boulder Falls viewing platform could also be relocated — or, closed off totally — after a rockslide closed down the path last November.
Boulder metropolis officers have put a everlasting closure on the desk for the favored waterfall path and leisure space positioned alongside Colo. 119 in Boulder Canyon. In an Aug. 13 Open Area Board of Trustees assembly, Boulder’s Customer Infrastructure Senior Supervisor Hilary Dees instructed trustees the path is simply too harmful to let individuals in. It might be too harmful — and expensive — to let individuals in ever once more, she famous.
On Nov. 12, 2024, a rockslide brought on important injury to the path. As soon as rocks begin falling, Dees instructed the trustees, it’s extra seemingly for rockslides to occur once more.
“Rockfall occasions will beget extra rockfall occasions,” Dees stated within the August assembly.
Boulder Falls has spent half of its previous 12 years closed, in response to a presentation Dees gave the trustees. Rockslides began there in 1993, and town initiated some minor work to deal with them. After the 2013 flood hit Boulder County, although, the path and space had been closed till 2018.
Citing geologic and slope situations, Dees stated the path represents an uphill battle in the case of fixing or relocating the viewing platform. Renovations may value within the realm of $7 million, she stated, citing a advisor’s report on the Falls.
A number of the choices for fixing up Boulder Falls embrace drilling 40-foot metallic bars into the edges of the rock partitions — like these seen in freeway carveouts — or placing up mesh or fencing to gradual the pace of falling rocks. Proper now, there are some boulders as large as 10 feet-by-10 toes that fell final November, Dees stated.
Even when renovations will be carried out and town decides to go ahead with the spending, the November rockslide has made it unimaginable for the path to be restored to its former state.
“We can not put the path again in its earlier alignment,” Dees stated.
The identical day because the Aug. 13 Open Area Board of Trustees assembly, a man’s body was found in “complex terrain” on the east side of the Falls. The path was closed on the time the physique was discovered. Officers on the time stated the person’s loss of life didn’t look like suspicious.
Dees stated Boulder’s Division of Open Area and Mountain Parks has famous as many as 97 individuals coming into the Boulder Falls space in violation of the closure throughout a six-week interval beginning in June.
Metropolis Council will get the ultimate say as soon as the Open Area Board of Trustees makes its suggestion. Nonetheless, the timeline for making a suggestion is unclear, in response to Communications Mission Supervisor Sam Clusman.
OSMP nonetheless must conduct technical evaluation and have discussions with climbers and climbing organizations, in addition to town’s danger administration employees, Clusman stated. OSMP may even must make funds concerns, she stated.
The subsequent time Boulder Falls will probably be in entrance of the Open Area Board of Trustees is unclear, Clusman stated.
What’s for certain, although, is that the path is unfit for individuals to make use of until town takes motion to repair it, Dees stated.
“We’d like to have individuals return there, however it’s simply not secure proper now,” she stated.
