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Boulder hits cars; residents blame trail construction

Naomi Havlen

A boulder the size of a hotel mini-fridge crashed onto Cemetery Lane early Friday morning, damaging two cars and leaving divots where it bounced across a road.

“It sounded like a locomotive,” said Art Phillips, who lives in the home on Pitkin Mesa Road adjacent to where the boulder ended up. Phillips and his wife, Helen, said they were woken by the crashing rock at 1:30 a.m., as was a longtime Aspen resident who lives in the lower half of their home who owns the damaged vehicles. The resident didn’t want to be identified.

The landslide also sent another rock through a garage wall below the Phillips’ residence, and a slightly larger boulder hit a parking area next to the garage. Several residents said they suspect that construction on the new bike trail being built along Cemetery Lane has loosened rocks on the steep hill above their neighborhood.



“Everyone on the block said the drilling has caused their house to shake,” said the resident whose cars were damaged. “Maybe they should have found a better way to do this work.”

The boulder that damaged his cars was just 15 feet from his bedroom window.




“In 15 years I’ve never seen a rock that big come down off the hill,” Helen Phillips said.

Her husband estimated that the rock in between the two cars weighed roughly 700 pounds.

Naomi Havlen’s e-mail address is nhavlen@aspentimes.com

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