A little over a week after the massive flash floods that have devasted large swaths of northern Colorado, I'm finally getting around to posting photos of our place. So many people have lost homes and all of their possessions, and I think we're just now getting a sense of the magnitude of the cleanup and repairs facing our communities. We are feeling so lucky and grateful, and sad for our friends and neighbors who have lost so much. Brad and his Foundry Group partners are joining many others in contributing to the recovery efforts. It's going to be a long process.
Our house is inaccessible by road, but we can fix that, at least once the road through Eldorado Canyon State Park is repaired. My intrepid assistant, Naomi Guy, hiked up through the park to the house on Wednesday to assess the state of things and took a bunch of photos that she has generously agreed to share. Brad shared a few of them on his blog post about the flood here.
These photos from above and below the washout on the road in the park show how it might take awhile to fix. The first two photos are used courtesy of neighbor and photographer Jenna Rice.
Our house is essentially untouched. I thought that surely our fountain pond would have broken through, but there it sits.
Our gravel parking area is absolutely pristine.
We had some very slight erosion in the stairs around the house.
So that's the good news.
The bad news is that the bottom ramp where our driveway starts from Kneale Road is completely washed out and there is a new water way running through our meadow which came across the driveway at the north edge of the meadow.
The view approaching our driveway from Kneale Road:
Two views from the top of the driveway ramp looking down onto Kneale Road:
Looking north around the corner at the top of the ramp:
The meadow with a new stream running through it:
Where the water crossed the road at the top of the meadow:
The new stream, with Naomi's backpack for scale:
The upper driveway, facing south:
Where the water crosses the road:
We are lucky. Our house was not destroyed. We have family and friends to help us if we needed it. We have resources to share to help others. If you want to contribute to the recovery, you can find resources at the Entrepreneurs Foundation of Colorado and at our Congressman Jared Polis' website here.