Flash Flood

From the summit of Engineers Pass it is thousands of feet down to the highway to Ouray. After stopping at a mine we ran into a thunderstorm, maybe the mother of all thunderstorms, as the lightning flashed the rain turned the trail into a river in places. This part of the trail is steep, rocky, and narrow. Narrow as in fold your mirrors back or lose them and large rocks and rock ledges that require a spotter to guide the drivers as the tires must be placed exactly to avoid damage or sliding off the narrow ledge. A ledge with numerous switchbacks which the miners had blasted into the cliff to get up to the mines over a hundred years ago. We soon came to a washout were, with the help of a couple jeeps already there, we repaired by throwing in rocks. The washout was about six foot deep but with our repair you could ease in then power out and when the front wheels came down turn left and hope. While working on this washout someone came walking up the trail to see if anybody had a winch as a vehicle had gone off at the next washout. They also said there were at least two more washouts but they had contacted county rescue to try and come in with a bulldozer. We were able to get through the next two washouts after making repairs and found county rescue with a large winch at the bottom, he had seen us coming down and pulled over at a wide spot to let us through. He was heading up to see if any one was left on the mountain or needed help and to see what was needed to repair the trail but said he would never get a bulldozer in that night. He commented that it must be ok as everyone he saw coming down had a big smile. It took five and a half hours to go the last two miles but everyone in our six vehicles made it down ok just as darkness fell. There were a few dings and a couple damaged exhaust systems but we all made it to the ice cream parlor in Ouray before it closed.
The photo is not a waterfall but a flash flood that caused one of the washouts. Even on the highway rocks and boulders had fallen and our neighbor had one of his new rental jeeps destroyed by a boulder that landed on it's hood, luckily it missed the driver.