{"id":46083,"date":"2021-06-25T18:27:00","date_gmt":"2021-06-26T00:27:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/jail-inmates-help-clean-up-x-rock-a-popular-climbing-spot-in-southwest-colorado\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T03:29:20","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T09:29:20","slug":"jail-inmates-help-clean-up-x-rock-a-popular-climbing-spot-in-southwest-colorado","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/jail-inmates-help-clean-up-x-rock-a-popular-climbing-spot-in-southwest-colorado\/","title":{"rendered":"Jail inmates help clean up X-rock, a popular climbing spot in Southwest Colorado"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"La
La Plata County Jail inmates help clean up trash at X-rock climbing area north of Durango. The area was also recently hit with offensive graffiti. (Courtesy of La Plata County Sheriff's Office)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

A cleanup crew led by the La Plata County Sheriff\u2019s Office has removed 12 bags of trash from the X-rock climbing area north of Durango city limits.<\/p>\n

X-rock is one of the most popular climbing areas near Durango. The trash, old bike frames, cabinetry and other refuse was found primarily south of the recreation area, said Chris Burke, spokesman for the Sheriff\u2019s Office. The site was also hit by graffiti conveying racist, vulgar and antisemitic messages in late May or early June.<\/p>\n

Sgt. Marty Brenner conducted the trash cleanup June 17 with four jail trustees, inmates with a low criminal status who chose to help with the project.<\/p>\n

\u201cSgt. Brenner was pretty clear that this (littering) was not from climbers or recreators,\u201d Burke said. \u201cThis was trash left by the unhoused south of the X-rock recreation area.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Sheriff\u2019s Office \u201ctagged\u201d \u2013 or identified \u2013 two abandoned campsites, Burke said. Deputies collected unclaimed property from one site and will hold it for 30 days.<\/p>\n

The Sheriff\u2019s Office continues to investigate the graffiti case.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe camps that were tagged and abandoned, we don\u2019t know if that\u2019s tied to the graffiti or not,\u201d Burke said.<\/p>\n

No suspects have been identified, he said.<\/p>\n

Keeping Colorado Beautiful, a graffiti-removal organization founded by outdoors enthusiasts, will visit the area this weekend to assess the damage done to the rocks and prepare to clean the area, said Sarah Jacobson, La Plata County administrative analyst.<\/p>\n

Keeping Colorado Beautiful uses sustainable graffiti removal techniques without damaging the rock formations or surrounding environment, according to the group\u2019s website.<\/p>\n

It will also assess the graffiti around Bakers Bridge and \u201cThe Notch\u201d at the top of Kennebec Pass, both popular recreational areas in La Plata County, Jacobson said.<\/p>\n

smullane@durangoherald.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

suspects identified in recent graffiti case<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":46084,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[168,28,611,1512,1194],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-46083","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-crime","tag-headlines","tag-homelessness","tag-la-plata-county-government","tag-la-plata-county-sheriffs-office"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46083","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=46083"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46083\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":86743,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46083\/revisions\/86743"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/46084"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46083"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=46083"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=46083"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=46083"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}