Turkey Rock Access - Wednesday May 6, 2020

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ACCESS ALERT
The culvert crossing on Teller County 51 (Cedar Mtn Rd) at Turkey Creek is failing, and a large hole has opened up in middle of the road. Teller County Road & Bridge Dept. has been notified, and they have scheduled a crew to work on the crossing this Wednesday, May 6. You will not be able to access the Turkey Rock parking area or trailhead while they are working on the crossing. Access to the Big Rock Candy Mtn and other domes on the east side of the South Platte River will only be possible from the south end of the Cedar Mtn Rd.  The county Road & Bridge folks expect to complete the work in one day, but after looking at it this morning, I would not be surprised if it takes quite a bit longer. It will depend on the size of the equipment they bring in because the culvert will likely need to be completely reset. Will post again after they have completed the work.

I hope that dog didn't fall in that hole there.

Thanks for the update!

Thanks for the heads up, Pete

Just drive past this yesterday. Knew it was bad, didn’t know it was bottomless pit status. Would be hard to avoid for wider cars. Thanks Pete.

Teller County Road & Bridge completed their “repairs” to the culvert crossing at Turkey Creek this morning and the road is passable...for now.  As I feared, they did not send the A team; he’ll, the didn’t even send the B team, they sent the D Team (for incompetent Dumb-asses).  Probably the same jack-ass who ripped out two dozen culverts while grading the roads in the area last fall. As you can see in the photos below, these morons replaced a 60” culvert with a 36” culvert - not too bright given we are in a burn scar and considering the fact that there is 12 square miles of burned watershed upstream of this crossing.  They plugged the upstream end of the old culvert with spoils from the excavated trench for the new smaller culvert, so that it can no longer convey overflow from the stream channel. They clearly didn’t bother to check their work with a laser level, as the invert of the new culvert is several inches higher than the old culvert.  I was at the site less than one hour after they had packed up and left, and the stream had already down-cut a full foot below the bottom of the new culvert, leaving it high and dry.  As a result, you can expect the sink hole to quickly re-appear as water erodes around the outside of the culvert.  I would expect the crossing will fail completely in the next real rain event (>1”/hour), and thunderstorm season starts around here in mid-May.  If you are climbing around Turkey Rock and get a severe t-storm, you may need to be prepared to drive out to the south end of CR51 - high clearance and 4x4 recommended.   I’ve been doing river restoration and burned area emergency rehab work for 30 years, and this is the worst piece of culvert work I have ever encountered.  I was concerned when the USFS transferred maintenance of the Cedar Mtn Road to the county several years ago. This only confirms that I was right to be worried.  The head of TCR&B as been notified about the shoddy work, as well as the USFS hydrologist and roads engineer.  Don’t hold your breath waiting for them to do anything about it. 

All in favor of ripping out both culverts and reducing the amount of Subarus and Promasters in the area say “Aye”. 

So is this shitty work before or after sheep nose?

Eric, it is after. Access to Sheep is unaffected

Driving out of turkey today (5/9), it looks like a scoop has been added to the new culvert.

I think that would fix the problem that Pete was talking about I'm no culvert engineer so I'm not sure.

Other than this particular spot on the road, can anyone speak to the overall status of the road all the way to the camping area at present?

Passable in a regular-clearance 2wd car or...?

Thanks!

You definitely need high clearance.

You shouldn't need 4wd unless its raining hard or something.

Thanks for the reply!
Anyone know of anywhere else in the greater South Platte area that is presently open for dispersed camping and climbing and has solid 2wd, non-high-clearance access?
I read that Devil's Head area is closed, for example.

Any updates with the road?  Open?  Any more clearance required than pre-construction?  Thanks!

The road is fine. A Subaru Forester is more than adequate.

Now getting to Big Rock Candy Mountain will require more clearance.

Agree with Tim. No problems last week getting in there with our 2wd sprinter, except the last 100 yards or so to the trailhead (which you can skip if you park at a campsite and walk).

But I'd recommend rechecking conditions every week or two, because I think enough weekender ATVing and/or a big rain might change the conditions rapidly (unless the forest service is re-maintaining the road throughout the season - not sure)