The Mountain Thread | Estes Park Newsletter | July 22, 2026 |
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BEFORE THE COFFEE GETS COLDMoe asked if I'd run out of things to say about that flood yet. "Not even close," I said. "Last week was about the river. This week's about a person."
He didn't say anything to that. Just topped off his coffee and waited. "You see that lightning Tuesday night?" I said. "Went on for hours, one bolt after another, and not a drop fell at my place the whole time."
"Glen Haven made out better than us, then," Moe said. "Heard they got soaked good."
"That's this valley for you," I said. "Ten miles down the road and it's a whole different sky."
SIT DOWN. THIS ONE'S GOOD. |
Terry Belair, now Terry Belair-Hassig, had graduated from Berthoud High School that spring. On the evening of July 31, 1976, she headed up the Big Thompson Canyon with her friend Connie for a work party, the kind of ordinary summer plan nobody double-checks the weather for. A thunderstorm had parked itself over the canyon and wasn't moving, and by the time they realized it, the choice was already narrowing.
As the storm intensified, the creek beside the road rose faster than either of them expected, and the car began taking on water. Belair's own words, looking back on it since: "If you open the door and the water's hitting the tires and it's still raining really really hard, don't stay in the car." They got out, with the water still climbing behind them.
Partway up the canyon wall, they found a ledge wide enough to hold them and stopped climbing. They spent the rest of that night there, soaked through, listening to a flood tear through the canyon below in the dark, with no way of knowing yet how much of the canyon, or who in it, wouldn't be there in the morning.
There wasn't a way down until there was light to see by. Morning came slow, but it came. A small helicopter found them first Read More... |
Trivia Question❓According to survivor Terry Belair-Hassig, what's the one thing you should never do if your car starts taking on water in a flood? Answer at the bottom of the newsletter |
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RMNP UPDATE
Trail Ridge Road is open to through travel. Timed entry reservations are required between 9 a.m. and 2 p.m. for general park access, and between 5 a.m. and 6 p.m. for the Bear Lake Road Corridor. July 4th weekend is one of the busiest stretches of the entire year in the park. Go before 9 a.m., or plan to return after 2 p.m. Both strategies work.
Old Fall River Road opened to vehicles for the season on July 4 and runs one-way uphill from the West Alluvial Fan area to Endovalley. Verify current status at nps.gov/romo or call 970-586-1222 before heading up. The phone line is updated more reliably than the website.
Stage 2 Fire Restrictions are in effect throughout the Estes Valley and in Rocky Mountain National Park. No campfires, no charcoal or wood grills, no open flames of any kind. Afternoon thunderstorms are now the daily summer pattern above treeline. Start early and be off exposed ridgelines before early afternoon.
Late July is one of the better windows all year for moose sightings on the park's west side, especially around the Kawuneeche Valley, the Holzwarth Historic Site Trail, and behind Timber Creek Campground, where willow wetlands keep them fed through the summer. |
DID YOU KNOW?
The official toll from the 1976 flood stands at 144 deaths, more than 250 injuries, and 5 people never found. (Source: NOAA)
The federal review of that night found the warning system itself failed in real ways: a broken equipment link kept weather images from reaching Denver for days, and the flash flood warning that finally went out came hours after the water had already risen. (Source: NOAA)
Modern flash-flood alerts that hit a phone as a text and an audio alarm through the Wireless Emergency Alert system trace part of their origin to the lessons learned from this flood. (Source: NOAA / National Weather Service)
Late July puts Rocky Mountain National Park's moose in some of their most visible feeding patterns of the year, concentrated in willow wetlands on the park's west side before the fall rut changes their range. (Source: National Park Service) |
Joke Of The Day |
I tried to start a business in Estes Park, but it kept failing. Turns out, every time I had a great idea, I'd step outside and a elk would just stare at me until I forgot what I was doing. Apparently, 8,000 feet of elevation isn't the only thing in Estes Park that takes your breath — and your train of thought — away. |
💡 Answer to Trivia Question: Don't stay in the car. That's the exact advice Terry Belair-Hassig gives, based on her own experience the night of July 31, 1976: if the water's hitting the tires and the rain isn't letting up, get out and get to higher ground. (Source: 9NEWS) |
UNTIL NEXT WEEK Moe asked me if two people really fit on a ledge three feet by one foot. I told him they did, because it was that or the river, and that they sang and cussed through the whole night just to keep from losing their nerve.
Trail Ridge is open, the market's running today, and moose are showing up along the west side rivers this time of year. Check the fire restriction status before you plan around any of it.
Stay smart, stay safe, and leave the mountains with one more story worth telling. . .- Buck Timber The Mountain Thread themountainthread.com/signup
This account draws from 9NEWS's reporting on flood survivor Terry Belair, a 2017 Denver Post interview, and National Park Service records of the 1976 Big Thompson Canyon flood. The broad facts are solid. The ledge really was three feet by one foot. - Buck |