Wolf Creek Pass could reopen by 15 November, but the ski area stays closed

Skiers among snow-covered trees at the top of Wolf Creek Ski Area in December 2010, not the 2026 season. Photo: Zach Dischner via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0

US 160 over Wolf Creek Pass in southwest Colorado has been closed since floods hit the region in late October and early November 2026. On Tuesday 10 November the Colorado Department of Transportation said it is on track to let limited traffic over the pass "by this weekend", which means Saturday 14 or Sunday 15 November, weather permitting. Wolf Creek Ski Area opened on 31 October and closed the next day. It says it stays closed for now.

• CDOT aims to open Wolf Creek Pass to one-lane alternating traffic by 14–15 November, if the weather allows.
• Wolf Creek Ski Area opened on Saturday 31 October with three lifts and closed from Sunday 1 November.
• The ski area gives no reopening date; it waits until the communities on both sides of the pass recover.
• The Piedra River Bridge west of Pagosa Springs stays closed until about mid-January 2027.
• Wolf Creek's last snow report, on 2 November, listed 39 inches (99 cm) of snowfall for the season.

Two floods hit the region within two weeks. Heavy rain began on 22 October, and a second storm followed on 1 and 2 November. On 27 October CDOT had reopened US 160 between Pagosa Springs and South Fork with single-lane traffic. The second storm then damaged new sections along the 26-mile (42 km) mountain corridor, with washouts east of the summit and mud and rockslides on the west side.

CDOT's release of 10 November expects the pass to open within a week, depending on the weather, with one-lane alternating traffic through several work zones. Executive director Lew said: "The team is currently on track to get limited traffic on Wolf Creek Pass open by this weekend, with CO 151 open before Thanksgiving." Crews still have to stabilise shoulders, mitigate rockfall and install barriers before the road is safe.

At a briefing in Durango, regional transportation director Constan described debris of 6 to 8 feet (1.8–2.4 m) of rock and mud on the west side of the pass. "It's not going to be your normal trip across Wolf Creek Pass, but at least we'll be able to get people through and across," he told The Colorado Sun. The Durango Herald staff report in The Journal adds that CDOT hopes for two-lane traffic by winter, and that some sections will shrink from four lanes to two.

CDOT says that the reopened CO 151 will cut the drive between Durango and Pagosa Springs from about 3.5 hours to about 1.5 hours. The Colorado Sun reports that travellers now have to take a route through New Mexico.

Wolf Creek opened the 2026-27 season on Saturday 31 October. Its snow report of that morning lists three lifts, about 30 % of the terrain and 480 skiable acres. That evening the ski area announced that it would close from Sunday 1 November, as a precaution while a mandatory evacuation order was in force in Archuleta County. The county lifted all evacuation orders on Monday 9 November, the Pagosa Springs Sun reported.

The ski area now ties its reopening to the region, not to the road. Its home page says it will "remain temporarily closed until communities on both the West and East sides of Wolf Creek Pass can recover from the impact of recent events". The governor's office wrote on 10 November that the pass opening would allow the ski area "to reopen", but wolfcreekski.com gives no date as of 12 November.

The ski area's own crews help to clear the road. Chief executive Davey Pitcher told CBS Colorado that they removed "somewhere around 20,000 tons of mud that was blocking both lanes" with the resort's heavy equipment. Rosanne Haidorfer-Pitcher, vice president of marketing and sales, told Denver7 on 9 November that Wolf Creek will open this season "for sure". She would only call herself optimistic about an opening before Thanksgiving.

The snow came with the storms. Wolf Creek's last report, updated on Monday 2 November, shows:

There is no newer report as of 12 November, because the ski area is closed. On opening day, 31 October, the midway depth was 16 inches (41 cm). We covered the storm that closed the area in our report of 1 November.

The floods hit the towns below the pass hard. "So at this point, Pagosa Springs is pretty much isolated," Constan said at the briefing on 10 November, as The Journal reported. Denver7 reports that The Springs Resort in Pagosa Springs lost more than $350,000 from late October into November. CDOT puts the damage on five highways at about 15 emergency work zones.

When Wolf Creek reopens, skiers find a base that stood at 26 inches (66 cm) at midway on 2 November, plus any snow that falls until then. That suits a wider all-mountain ski: a waist of about 103–106 mm floats in soft snow and still holds on a groomed run.

The figures are the makers' own. Check the CDOT road status and the ski area's site before you drive, because neither has given a fixed date. To compare more freeride and all-mountain skis by your level, use the Pick-a-Ski ski finder.