The closed road to Devil’s Slide Trestles in CO

Devil’s Slide Trestles is a narrow gage unstable railroad, located near the infamous Rollins Passin Boulder County, in the U.S. state of Colorado. It was built to allow the the defunct Denver & Salt Lake Railroad to cross the Continental Divide via Rollins Pass.

Devil’s Slide Trestles

On Devil’s Slide Trestles there’s a vertical drop of 960 ft. It was allowed to drive a car over the trestles until the early 1980’s. There are two trestles making up Devils Slide. They were built on the edge of the cliff and seem to be clinging to the wall over open air.

Set high in the Rocky Mountains of north-central Colorado, much of the right-of-way is still intact, although some of the trestles have collapsed the last years. During 44 years, between 1955-1979, Rollins Pass worked as a complete road over the mountain pass for automobiles until a rock fall in Needle's Eye tunnel in 1979 closed the path over the pass. After some works and studies, the road opened again in 1988, but finally, in 1990, it was closed permanently.
Pic: John Carter