Access issue at Mill Creek?

The sheriff's office came by and ticketed every single car parked for Mill Creek 10/12/2024 (except for one Tesla with a "back the blue" sticker). Are they attempting to just shut down all access? The tickets were not reasonable as only one of the vehicles was poorly parked and there was no impingement to the very little traffic on the road. 

What are some thoughts on how to proceed? What was the message behind these tickets of the cars weren't actually causing a problem?

What is the listed infraction on the ticket(s); just illegal parking?

Im a jerry and just got a ticket their today 10/13 for being parking facing the wrong way. I don't understand because it's a 1.5 lane dead end road on national forest land with no turn around or parking other than these little pullout with no signs. 

There is a much larger pull out a half mile further up the road. That could be a safer option until someone finds out what the reason is for this overzealous ticketing. It will be a bummer if this does end up being the only long term solution though as the short approach is nice.

Bummer about the ticketing and thanks for the heads up - I too would be curious to know what was listed on the ticket.

Also , I picked up a orange crayon over by deflatour mouse and saw orange ticks on eye of the tiger. Pretty lame tactics. Pick up your trash and have some consideration for others. Just because you want to make a climb easier by identifying holds and color coding them doesn't mean other people want your beta written on the wall. 

S2k4 MattOateswrote:

Also , I picked up a orange crayon over by deflatour mouse and saw orange ticks on eye of the tiger. Pretty lame tactics. Pick up your trash and have some consideration for others. Just because you want to make a climb easier by identifying holds and color coding them doesn't mean other people want your beta written on the wall. 

Orange tick marks?  White tick marks are bad enough.

Perhaps just one reason the locals are asking law enforcement to crack down on the parking. Actually, I don’t blame them. Some climbers really suck.

Let’s keep our impact as low as possible people. 

The ticket said "(stopped/parked/left standing) vehicle on paved portion of highway/obstructing free movement"

We let the access fund know and will update if we hear back from them.

Also, I tried to put this issue into the comments on both the Dumont vicinity page and the Mill Creek Crag page but the comments won't show up. Any idea what's up with that?

Were any ticketed cars fully off the paved portion of the road? It sounds like the solution is to only use the pull outs that are actually deep enough to get off the road. On busy days this will mean some later parties will have to park at the larger lot half a mile further up the road.

Honestly this doesn't sound like an attack on access. A lot of people have been parking poorly along that road when the deeper pullouts are already taken, and they have been getting away with it. One person parked exceptionally poorly which led to the sheriff getting notified and then everyone parking poorly got caught.

Alex Rwrote:

 

Honestly this doesn't sound like an attack on access. A lot of people have been parking poorly along that road when the deeper pullouts are already taken, and they have been getting away with it. One person parked exceptionally poorly which led to the sheriff getting notified and then everyone parking poorly got caught.

Except the sheriff in question has been on an absolute bender in the last few years ticketing people in clear creek county. There have been numerous instances of people getting ticketed for facing the wrong way (no signage against it) and along the road to grays and Torreys (again, no signage), among other problems. 

I've been at mill creek with Harold on a weekday and he was parked the wrong way and didn't get a ticket. Idk if the sheriff knows him, but maybe the cop doesn't come by on some weekdays. 

Weekends is pretty obvious that the sheriff or forest ranger will probably come by your local trailhead and look for ways to educate or get money for the office so he can get a new squad car .

No parking against the flow of traffic is a state law.

https://law.justia.com/codes/colorado/title-42/regulation-of-vehicles-and-traffic/article-4/part-12/section-42-4-1205/

Mill Creek is a minor side road and 9 times out of 10 no one is going to be policing the parking. If our only defense is that we usually get away with it, or that there are no explicit signs, what help can we expect from the access fund? If we push for explicit signage and officially designated parking, the only outcome I can see from that is all the nebulous shoulder parking getting no parking signs and the closest spot on the road with enough flat shoulder space to be a larger lot becoming the designated access. That lot already exists and it is a half mile up the road. If we as climbers push this, or even just continue to do a poor job at managing ourselves, I can only see things getting worse not better.

Certainly the county has a perverse incentive with funding being tied to ticketing, but this is hardly unique to Clear Creek County. If even those parked fully off the road in the correct direction last weekend were ticketed, then that does seem like overreach and everyone with a good case should contest their tickets. The parking situation has gotten worse over the years as the area has become more popular that doesn't mean we can get away with parking further and further into the road.

Thanks Alex for correcting misperception of parking laws. You are required to park your car pointed in the direction of travel which is easy to do. The spots at Mill Creek are small and limited. On striped roads you are supposed to be 6’ from the white line, which no one does in Clear Creek Canyon, but on this road there is no line so off the pavement should be ok. Maybe someone can add info on laws for this type of road. 

I was at Mill Creek last weekend when this happened. My car was parked fully off the road and did not get ticketed.

There was a truck or SUV parked pretty far into the road. I'm guessing that angered a local which led to the widespread ticketing. I agree it seems extreme, but the county is obviously sending a message