Mountain residents frustrated with illegal parking, blocked roads during leaf viewing

DENVER (KDVR) — As more and more people head out to the mountains to see the fall leaves, locals are getting more frustrated with crowded roads adding hours to commute times.

Keturah Srot has lived in Idaho Springs for almost eight years. She said she’s never seen the roads like this.

“Only gotten worse and worse each passing year,” said Srot.

Last weekend, she planned a drive to Canon City through Guanella Pass, thinking the leaf traffic wouldn’t be too bad.

“We were not prepared for what we encountered,” she said. “There were hundreds and hundreds of cars illegally parked on both sides of the road.”

It wasn’t just on Guanella Pass. The Park County Sheriff’s Office took video in another location where cars are parked along the road.

Srot said they couldn’t make it any further into the drive.

“We did eventually manage to back out and turn around but we lost two and a half hours and we ended up having to cancel our plans for the day,” she said.

Her frustration is largely with the cars parked essentially on the road, which she says is never allowed.

“Nobody would be encountering the kind of headlock or gridlock had people not been parking there,” said Srot.

And she hopes that visitors who continue to come to see the leaves do it respectfully and only stop for pictures in designated areas.

“It just makes locals have a lot of road rage and anger and we don’t want to see the tourists anymore,” said Srot.

Srot also worries about first responders being unable to get out quickly on calls because of the road backups. It’s something the Park County Sheriff’s Office noted on Saturday as well, saying it can sometimes take two hours just to get where they need to.

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