Hanging Lake Trail reopened after mudslide washes out road to parking lot

Normally when we're talking about the picturesque Glenwood Canyon hike to Hanging Lake and weather issues, it's about the trail itself either being destroyed by burn scar runoff or it's about the crews working hard to bring it back to life. This time, it's just about the road leading up to the lake, but it was still enough to close the hiking trail for two weeks. The road just before the parking lot was covered in several feet of mud and rocks, and it took 35 loads to clear out the debris. 

"We'll be monitoring it as we go forward through the season," Colorado Department of Transportation spokeswoman Elise Thatcher said. 

Aside from the Grizzly Creek Fire leaving the majority of the canyon vulnerable to mud and rockslides for the next few years, the U.S. Forest Service said the region is just prone to flooding because of how it's built. 

"This is really unique geology with caves and all that sort of stuff," said David Boyd, public affairs officer at the White River National Forest. "That's what creates Hanging Lake, but also, these things are filling up with water and overflowing and those sorts of things. In the spring you start seeing some issues like this."

While there's a temporary pump in place intended to help keep the water moving out of the flooded area, it could stay there if the need is still there moving forward. The future is never clear in the canyon, road or trails alike.

"You can never -- in the Rocky Mountains -- you can never be 100% sure," Boyd said, "that you're not going to have to reflow washed out trails, that sort of thing."