JEFFERSON COUNTY, Colo. — Changes are coming to one of the Front Range's most scenic roads. Jefferson County officials will soon close Lookout Mountain Road at night.
Jefferson County Open Space is making progress on new automated night-time gates that will close the road beginning Nov. 11. Officials said the four-mile stretch of Lookout Mountain Road will be closed on the east side, up the road from Golden, at the Chimney Gulch Trail pullout.
The west gate will be around Lookout Mountain Park, before the Buffalo Bill Museum. When the night-time road closure was announced in January, Jefferson County officials said people have caused a list of problems on Lookout Mountain, leading the county to to close the road to cars at night. “We find evidence of alcohol consumption.
People are smoking cigarettes and throwing them, potentially causing fires,” said Mary Ann Bonnell, a Jeffco Open Space ranger and the department’s Director of Visitor Services and Natural Resources. “People using marijuana, drugs. We find used condoms.
Underpants and bras. We find copious amounts of fast-food trash – so people just throw trash over the edge,” she said. “I have to limit my time up there because once I get started, I could spend the rest of the day up there collecting nothing but bags of trash.
It’s heartbreaking to see how people treat that mountain at night.” It's also car crashes and fires at night, according to first responders. “We’re seeing a lot of grass fires, t.