Quandary Parking Issue

Trailhead condition requests, questions, alerts, etc.
Forum rules
  • This is a mountaineering forum, so please keep your posts on-topic. Posts do not all have to be related to the 14ers but should at least be mountaineering-related.
  • Personal attacks and confrontational behavior will result in removal from the forum at the discretion of the administrators.
  • Do not use this forum to advertise, sell photos or other products or promote a commercial website.
  • Posts will be removed at the discretion of the site administrator or moderator(s), including: Troll posts, posts pushing political views or religious beliefs, and posts with the purpose of instigating conflict within the forum.
For more details, please see the Terms of Use you agreed to when joining the forum.
User avatar
BillMiddlebrook
Site Administrator
Posts: 6909
Joined: 7/25/2004
14ers: 58  46  19 
13ers: 172 44 37
Trip Reports (2)
 
Contact:

Quandary Parking Issue

Post by BillMiddlebrook »

On Facebook, someone mentioned that the Summit County Sheriff was placing "warnings" on cars parked along the roads near the standard Quandary Peak trailhead.

If you found one on your car, could you post whether you were parking on the 850 (Blue Lakes) or 851 (McCullough Gulch) road?

I sent an email to the Sheriff's office asking them to provide more information on their intentions and hope they will get back to me soon.
quandary_parkwarning.jpg
(650.96 KiB) Not downloaded yet
"When I go out, I become more alive. I just love skiing. The gravitational pull. When you ski steep terrain... you can almost get a feeling of flying." -Doug Coombs
Tortoise1
Posts: 417
Joined: 8/23/2009
14ers: 15 
Trip Reports (0)
 

Re: Quandary Parking Issue

Post by Tortoise1 »

That's a transient crowd, not repeat parkers. Surely someone at the sheriff's office understands that signage would be a more effective way to control parking in the area, and that cutting Quandry back to six parking spaces would have an impact on tourism. I guess there is that lower lot but that's a bit of a trek, and wouldn't hold the volume anyway.
User avatar
BillMiddlebrook
Site Administrator
Posts: 6909
Joined: 7/25/2004
14ers: 58  46  19 
13ers: 172 44 37
Trip Reports (2)
 
Contact:

Re: Quandary Parking Issue

Post by BillMiddlebrook »

Tortoise1 wrote:That's a transient crowd, not repeat parkers. Surely someone at the sheriff's office understands that signage would be a more effective way to control parking in the area, and that cutting Quandry back to six parking spaces would have an impact on tourism. I guess there is that lower lot but that's a bit of a trek, and wouldn't hold the volume anyway.
Yup. I'm trying to determine if they put warnings on the 850, 851 or both. I agree that signage would be best but if they plan on trying to eliminate parking on the 851 road, that's a big problem since the two, designated parking areas hold only a fraction of the weekend traffic.
"When I go out, I become more alive. I just love skiing. The gravitational pull. When you ski steep terrain... you can almost get a feeling of flying." -Doug Coombs
User avatar
speth
Posts: 684
Joined: 4/16/2010
14ers: 58  5 
13ers: 44
Trip Reports (3)
 

Re: Quandary Parking Issue

Post by speth »

I would assume it's 851 - I was up there today and cars lined the road from the parking lot that's right off of Hwy 9 all the way to where the trail leaves the road on the left hand side. Pretty crazy... especially considering the lot was less than half full :-k

All I want is to just have fun, live my life like a son of a gun
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Sarcasm or not, it's not even funny to post something like this. Not at this time. Reported.
User avatar
larkinrx2
Posts: 1214
Joined: 6/10/2008
14ers: 35 
13ers: 7
Trip Reports (0)
 

Re: Quandary Parking Issue

Post by larkinrx2 »

speth wrote:I would assume it's 851 - I was up there today and cars lined the road from the parking lot that's right off of Hwy 9 all the way to where the trail leaves the road on the left hand side. Pretty crazy... especially considering the lot was less than half full :-k
well, most of us get a nice alpine start and some do a quick turn around which would mean leaving the parking lot early while the late coming tourists park behind the last car in line assuming there is no closer parking or that it turns into rougher 4wd road?

sounds like a repeat of the grays/torreys road debacle, especially if the rut is in
What do you think I'm some kind of a jerk or something! - That's all I need the ashtray, the remote control, the paddle game, and this magazine, and the chair and I don't need one other thing, except my dog.
[Shithead growls at him]
I don't need my dog.
User avatar
speth
Posts: 684
Joined: 4/16/2010
14ers: 58  5 
13ers: 44
Trip Reports (3)
 

Re: Quandary Parking Issue

Post by speth »

larkinrx2 wrote:late coming tourists park behind the last car in line assuming there is no closer parking or that it turns into rougher 4wd road?

sounds like a repeat of the grays/torreys road debacle, especially if the rut is in
It's just a dirt road, nothing close to 4WD. Hikers are just choosing to go the extra 300 feet closer and clog the road instead of parking in the provided lot. The extra 150 seconds of walking is murder.

All I want is to just have fun, live my life like a son of a gun
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Sarcasm or not, it's not even funny to post something like this. Not at this time. Reported.
User avatar
its_not_a_tuba
Posts: 820
Joined: 8/13/2009
14ers: 36  1  2 
13ers: 5
Trip Reports (1)
 

Re: Quandary Parking Issue

Post by its_not_a_tuba »

I was up there Saturday doing some home shopping, we are thinking of buying a 2nd place in Blue River / Quandary. After seeing the millions of cars parked along the roads in Quandary I am now thinking no way in hell would I buy near that TH. Don't get me wrong, I support 14er access. But I can't imagine what it must be like living up there with so many people parking along the road on the weekends. I feel bad for the residents up there. So much for their quiet mountain getaway.
"Wilderness settles peace on the soul because it needs no help. It is beyond human contrivance." -- E.O. Wilson
User avatar
MountainHiker
Posts: 2588
Joined: 5/17/2007
14ers: 58  2 
13ers: 109
Trip Reports (7)
 
Contact:

Re: Quandary Parking Issue

Post by MountainHiker »

We were there Saturday. We parked on the McCullough Gulch road, right next to the little upper trailhead parking lot. We did not get a warning. As we were leaving we saw the warnings on the cars parked along the Blue Lakes road.
Red, Rugged, and Rotten: The Elk Range - Borneman & Lampert
User avatar
Rick7702
Posts: 1
Joined: 8/26/2013
14ers: 4 
Trip Reports (0)
 

Re: Quandary Parking Issue

Post by Rick7702 »

We were up there on Saturday as well and received one of the orange tags. We parked one the side of the Blue Lakes Road (850 if I remember correctly). The lot was full and we did not know until we got near the trail head that we could have parked alongside the dirt road leading to the trail head. I think better signage would help the situation as we only saw one small “No Parking” sign after the fact in someone’s yard. There were a ton of people up there on Saturday too. We talked to one group that said they had 85 people, so it was a little crazy.
User avatar
illusion7il
Posts: 260
Joined: 7/18/2012
14ers: 58  2  57 
13ers: 261 1 1
Trip Reports (4)
 

Re: Quandary Parking Issue

Post by illusion7il »

Welcome to the Future of Hiking / Climbing a 14er

1. All roads will be paved to the Trailhead
2. Trailheads will have a 3 story parking garage with Valet Parking from 9-5
3. Trailheads will be equipped with Bathrooms and running water
4. All trails will be constructed of Rock with a passing lane every 100 yards
5. Orange flags will be placed every 50 feet along the trail
6. Digital Summit Registers
7. A sign that says "Please don't pet the wildlife"
8. A credit card machine to pay your parking fee
9. Headlines will read "Traffic Jam in the Hourglass !"

Please enjoy your back country experience and remember to "Leave NO Trace".....
peter303
Posts: 3535
Joined: 6/17/2009
14ers: 34 
13ers: 12
Trip Reports (3)
 

Re: Quandary Parking Issue

Post by peter303 »

awilbur77 wrote:Don't forget the stand /gift shop on the summit selling hot dogs, cotton candy....oh wait this is Pikes Peak. ](*,)
Or Europe. Many of their mountain trails are in tamed areas with lodge and sales amenities along the way.
User avatar
rlovingjr
Posts: 19
Joined: 12/31/2010
14ers: 2 
Trip Reports (0)
 

Re: Quandary Parking Issue

Post by rlovingjr »

We were up there Friday and parked in the lower lot just below where you can make the right-hand turn onto 851. (for reference, it is where the porta potties are located)

The trail was busy and there were cars parked along a good bit of 851 from the trailhead back towards the intersection with 850. I did not see any orange signs on cars and we parked in the lower lot. The lower lot was only about half full so there was plenty of room to park there and not on the road. Possibly the law is trying get people to utilize the lower lot rather than park along 851.
Locked