Get your cinnamon rolls: Glen Haven road open, for now

GLEN HAVEN — Grab some of Glen Haven's famous cinnamon rolls while you can. The route from Fort Collins to the Big Thompson Canyon town is clear for the first time in about two years, though another closure looms a few months away.

Nearly three years of work and $50 million went into rebuilding Larimer County Road 43 where it forks off west from U.S. Highway 34 at Drake to follow the north fork of the Big Thompson River. Much of the rural road that meanders along the river was scoured away in the 2013 flood that killed eight people in Colorado and damaged thousands of homes.

On Thursday, the county road formally re-opened in its minimal-delay state — an unequivocal cause for celebration in the mountain hamlet northeast of Estes Park.

"We want to party in the streets, but now there's too much traffic," joked Becky Childs, who owns the Glen Haven General Store with her husband, Steve.

The General Store, which churns out the cinnamon rolls, fudge and sells a variety of other goods, remains the lone shop to have opened in Glen Haven since the 2013 floods ripped through the canyons and tore homes, vehicles and buildings from the ground. The store reopened in June 2014, in time for County Road 43 repair work to begin in earnest.

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Now, County Road 43 is opening in time for permanent repair work on U.S. 34 east of Drake to begin in earnest. Blasting for the rebuild of that flood-damaged road starts in August, with a full closure to non-residents starting in October and lasting through next June.

"(County Road 43 opening) is great for the community; we'll actually be able to move unimpeded," Steve Childs said. "For business, I'm hoping we'll get a month or two of normal business before 34 closes."

The closure of 34 will all but cut off access to Glen Haven for travelers from Larimer County's population center. Instead of the relatively straight jaunt from Loveland, people wanting to visit Estes Park will need to travel south to U.S. 36 north of Longmont; those wanting to visit Glen Haven will need to head through Estes Park.

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That means more strain on business, more cut-offs for tourists and more of the word that almost bleeds into the town's name when it's said now: Resilience.

"I think the folks here understand, recovery is more of a marathon than a sprint," County Commissioner Tom Donnelly said.

Hardships on the horizon didn't diminish celebration in Glen Haven Thursday, however — Donnelly, other county officials, media and more rode an actual party bus, interior laser lights and all, from Drake to Glen Haven to survey the engineering feats accomplished in the rebuild.

Workers moved the new road between 10 and 35 feet from the river in places, meaning it should sit six feet above a 100-year flood event, Micah Leadford, project manager for the Federal Highway Administration said. In another spot, engineers actually swapped the path taken by the road and that by the river, and where the river forms and S, it now bounces against canyon wall instead of adding that impact to the structures supporting the bridge above.

"We worked with the river on this," he said. "We're not going to overpower or outsmart Mother Nature."

Standing before about 150 people at a ribbon cutting for the road at the Glen Haven fire station, Leadford was confident in the engineering and what the new designs could handle.

"We're going to see floods again, and we're confident this road is going to perform differently," he said. "And that's because of the work you've helped us all do."

Workers are still paving portions of the road, but that work should clear up in about a week, Leadford said.

Resident John McKinley, wearing a teal shirt featuring the slogan "Glen Haven Strong," called the work "tremendous." He also acknowledged that it's not the end of the line: The Glen Haven General Store is the only business left in the unincorporated community, and folks are still gathering cash to rebuild the community center.

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With U.S. 34 work around the bend, the strain will come again.

"It is what it is," McKinley said. "We will survive."

It's an attitude the Childs share. After all, what else is there to do?

They typically batten the hatches on the store in mid-October, when tourist season finishes for the year. They re-open in mid-May, and hope for a return to normalcy and maybe even a boom in a season or two: The Colorado Department of Transportation will likely reroute traffic through Glen Haven once U.S. 34 work starts west of Drake and past the fork.

"We're hoping it'll bring us a lot of traffic, a lot of business, but who knows," Steve Childs said, adding, "the last two years of construction, frankly, killed us."

July 20 meeting on U.S. 34 work

The Colorado Department of Transportation will host an informational meeting on July 20 to discuss rebuild work on U.S. Highway 34 that starts this summer.

The meeting begins at 6 p.m. at Ellis Ranch, 2331 Ellis Ranch Lane, in Loveland.

Plans have construction causing delays starting in August while work is done between Drake and Cedar Cove. The canyon will be closed to through-traffic starting at the end of October, running running through June 2017.

Related video: Glen Haven General Store reopens