Sheriff’s office has a warning for leaf peepers about parking

The Summit County Sheriff’s Office is issuing a warning to Coloradans coming up to the high country to see the changing leaves: park in designated parking spots or pay the price.
 That’s after they issued 33 parking tickets in September, half of that being in the last two weeks while leaf peeping tourism has boomed.
Sgt. Mike Schilling with the Summit County Sheriff’s Office said it’s more than just trying to keep people from parking wherever they please, should they find a good view of some trees.
“We respond on the trails all the time … anything from cardiac arrest to a sprained ankle and really anything in between,” Schilling said of emergency medical service providers. “So any sort of illegal parking just prevents us from getting there quickly.”
That’s in reference to the potentially clogged backcountry roads where so many folks flock to for a good view or photo. Schilling compares the issue to a snowball, compounding on itself the bigger it gets.
“The more people that are in town, the more likely it is that we need to respond to some sort of an emergency incident,” he said. “The more likely that the roads are blocked.”
While this year was especially challenging for law enforcement to keep visitors following local rules, the sheriff’s office is not trying to discourage people from coming up to the mountains. It just wants people to do it the right way. It’s partially why deputies are not ticketing every single person they see breaking the rules.
“Oftentimes people will see an officer, or a deputy show up and start writing a ticket and they’ll all come running out of the woods and move their car,” Schilling said with a laugh. “At the end of the day, maybe we wrote one ticket, but we had the effect that we’re looking for.”