Big rig causes Marble mayhem

Reporter

Hikers had to go through brush alongside Gunnison County Road 3 to get around a stuck tractor-trailer on Daniels Hill last week.

It’s always mind-boggling to see a tractor-trailer try to illegally negotiate Highway 82 over Independence Pass. But that pales in comparison to the scenario that unfolded in Marble last week.

A driver relying on his big rig’s navigation guidance system tried to climb the steep, rocky, four-wheel-drive route over Daniels Hill and got stuck on the night of Wednesday, Aug. 16. The tractor-trailer remained jack-knifed across the popular route to the Crystal Mill and town of Crystal until tow trucks extracted it on Friday, Aug. 18, around noon.

Over the 40-hour period, nobody could get by except pedestrians, bicycles and dirt bikes. The situation impacted Jeep tours, sightseers in private vehicles and campers coming and going into the surrounding wilderness. Travel on the route resumed last Friday. Hiker John Armstrong said people had to go into the brush to get around the truck.

Samantha Smith Wilkey, owner of Crystal River Jeep Tours, said her company lost 10 bookings for trips on both Thursday and Friday. She said she met the truck driver and didn’t blame him for his predicament.

“The driver went above and beyond,” she said. “It’s not the trucking company. It’s the GPS software company.”

Smith Wilkey said that as she understands it, commercial guidance systems send people onto Gunnison County Road 3, which turns into National Forest System Road 314, when searching for ways to Crested Butte, Gunnison and even Denver.

“There is a glitch in this area,” she said.

A tractor-trailer got stuck sideways on Daniels Hill outside of Marble in dark, rainy conditions last week. The road was closed for about 40 hours but travel resumed last Friday after tow trucks removed the rig.

Gunnison County Public Works has attempted to rectify the problem. A representative of the department said his boss has contacted a couple of navigation service companies and urged them to correct the misinformation. Obviously word hasn’t gotten out to all providers.

Smith Wilkey said the semi’s driver told her he initially pulled into Marble and realized the route didn’t seem right. He returned to Highway 133 and backtracked to Hotchkiss, where he gained cell coverage, and told his boss he thought he needed to find an alternative route. His boss told him to stick to the navigation system’s recommended route, according to Smith Wilkey.

I-70 through Glenwood Canyon was closed for nearly four hours because of a mudslide that evening. The interstate closed at 5 p.m. and reopened shortly before 9 p.m. It’s unknown if that closure led to the trucker’s navigation system to route him through Marble. In prior closures of I-70 during the Grizzly Creek Fire in 2020 and mudslides in the burn scar in 2021, navigation guidance systems sent traffic over Independence Pass, Cottonwood Pass between Missouri Heights and Gypsum, the Eagle-Thomasville Road and even Hagerman Pass, a four-wheel-drive route that crests the Continental Divide.

The big rig in Marble got stuck at nightfall on a very rainy night. Smith Wilkey said the driver told her that he honked to gain attention from nearby homes but wasn’t heard in the rainstorm. He slept in his truck and sought help the following morning.

Marble Town Administrator Ron Leach said he heard the tractor-trailer was destined for Denver. Fortunately, he said, similar incidents where rigs get stuck enough to require tow truck help don’t happen all that often. Most times, the trucks get to Marble and realize they aren’t going further so they turn around. Smith-Wilkey said people in the small town often flag down drivers of trucks and warn them they cannot travel County Road 3.

Several parties reported it was quite a spectacle on Friday when tow trucks arrived to get the rig back on the road. Social media posts of the incident said three tow trucks were on the scene. Armstrong said the primary tow truck was the largest one he has ever seen.

“Definitely people came out to see,” Leach said.

Daniels Hill is about one-quarter mile east of Beaver Lake, which is on the eastern edge of Marble. The hill is a 0.75-mile stretch that tops out at the intersection of the Crystal City Road and Lead King Basin Road. Even if the driver had crested the hill, he wouldn’t have been able to proceed past the intersection.

Three signs along the county road warn drivers about what they are getting into. A sign at Beaver Lake says four-wheel drive only beyond that point. A sign at the base of the hill says no winter maintenance. A sign probably 50 feet up the hill repeats, “4 Wheel Drive Only Past This Point.”

Leach said it is impossible to know if the truck driver saw the signs in the dark, rainy conditions.

While incidents like last week’s are rare, Smith-Wilkey estimated that about 20 vehicles per summer encounter difficulty on Daniels Hill, be it an RV or vehicle pulling a trailer.

“Very rarely do they have to get a tow truck,” she said.

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