{"id":46251,"date":"2021-06-15T11:00:00","date_gmt":"2021-06-15T17:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/rv-is-free-after-spending-a-week-stuck-on-lime-creek-road\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T03:30:23","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T09:30:23","slug":"rv-is-free-after-spending-a-week-stuck-on-lime-creek-road","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/rv-is-free-after-spending-a-week-stuck-on-lime-creek-road\/","title":{"rendered":"RV is free after spending a week stuck on Lime Creek Road"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"A
A 38-foot RV pulling a sedan became stuck on Lime Creek Road for about a week north of Durango in the San Juan Mountains. The vehicle was finally towed and freed about noon Sunday. (Courtesy of Brad Klipping)<\/span>Courtesy of Brad Klipping<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

A Colorado man driving a 38-foot motor home is finally free after spending about a week marooned on Lime Creek Road, a narrow and rugged dirt road high in the San Juan Mountains north of Durango.<\/p>\n

The driver became stuck about June 5 after failing to negotiate a left turn, causing the left rear wheels to slip off the road, said Wayne Barger, owner of Animas Towing and Recovery in Silverton, which helped free the vehicle Sunday.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe just took the corner too sharp,\u201d Barger said. \u201cHe said the road gave out and his back left duel went off the road.\u201d<\/p>\n

The driver was also pulling a sedan on a car dolly.<\/p>\n

\"A
A 38-foot RV pulling a sedan became stuck on Lime Creek Road for about a week north of Durango in the San Juan Mountains. The vehicle was finally towed and freed about noon Sunday. (Courtesy of Wayne Barger)<\/span>Courtesy of Wayne Barger<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

The RV sat precariously on the edge of the road, with about a 400-foot drop to the driver\u2019s left. The driver stayed the entire week with his RV, unwilling to leave his stuff, said Brad Klipping, a mountain biker who came upon the scene Thursday.<\/p>\n

He was also unwilling to detach his car, believing it was helping anchor the RV to the road, Klipping said. No cars were able to pass, he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI can\u2019t image how he got that far,\u201d Klipping said.<\/p>\n

The driver slept under a tarp, apparently unwilling to stay in the RV perched on the dirt road. \u201cIt was kind of unstable, the vehicle was,\u201d Barger said.<\/p>\n

The driver apparently got onto Lime Creek Road road near the south side of Molas Pass and traveled south about 5\u00bd miles before becoming stuck. He was trying to get to a campground on the south end of Lime Creek Road, Barger said.<\/p>\n

\"A
A view up the valley where a 38-foot RV pulling a sedan became stuck on Lime Creek Road for about a week north of Durango in the San Juan Mountains. (Courtesy of Brad Klipping)<\/span>Courtesy of Brad Klipping<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

\u201cIt would be easier just to stay on (U.S. Highway) 550, but he didn\u2019t know that,\u201d Barger said.<\/p>\n

Barger said it was an unusual sight to see a vehicle of that size on such a narrow alpine road. Had the RV not gotten stuck where it did, he would have run into problems about a half-mile farther up the road where boulders had come crashing down.<\/p>\n

Barger said he had to remove the 3-foot by 3-foot boulders just to access the RV with his tow truck.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe would have never made it past anyway because of the rocks in the middle of the road,\u201d Barger said.<\/p>\n

\"A
A 38-foot RV pulling a sedan became stuck on Lime Creek Road for about a week north of Durango in the San Juan Mountains. The vehicle was finally towed and freed about noon Sunday. (Courtesy of Brad Klipping)<\/span>Courtesy of Brad Klipping<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Barger said he pulled the RV about 5 feet, just enough to get it back on the road. He then told the driver to follow his wheel tracks as they continued south, past the fallen rocks and to safety.<\/p>\n

The driver was apparently upset about miscommunication between the San Juan County Sheriff\u2019s Office, the U.S. Forest Service and a previous tow operation, but \u201conce I got there and talked to him like, \u2018Hey sorry for the miscommunication but we\u2019re here to get you out,\u2019 he seemed most appreciative,\u201d Barger said.<\/p>\n

Upon being freed, the driver called his daughter from the Needles area where he finally had cellphone reception to tell her he was OK.<\/p>\n

Barger, who has been towing vehicles for three years in Silverton, ranked Sunday\u2019s tow job among the top five of most crazy rescues he has done.<\/p>\n

\u201cJust a vehicle of that size, I think, would put it there,\u201d Barger said. \u201c\u2026 The size and the very narrow road. And it was about a 400-foot drop from where he was at. It was very dangerous, and there\u2019s nowhere to turn around, so his only option was to keep on going.\u201d<\/p>\n

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

to negotiate a corner on narrow alpine road<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":46252,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[28,976,1562,810,421],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-46251","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-headlines","tag-outdoor-recreation","tag-san-juan-county-colorado","tag-tourism-recreation","tag-tourism-and-leisure"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46251","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=46251"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46251\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":86807,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46251\/revisions\/86807"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/46252"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46251"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=46251"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=46251"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=46251"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}