Darwin Award

You can ask my wife: Every time I drive up Clear Creek Canyon west of Denver, I rant at the people parked under the road cuts and steep, rocky hillsides near the canyon's climbing crags. "What kind of idiot would park under all that loose rock?" I'll shout, as my wife rolls her eyes. Well, now my question has been answered, as an unfortunate guy last weekend had his car flattened by a giant boulder as he was off climbing. I say unfortunate—actually he was really lucky no one was in the car.

I know just the spot where he parked his Toyota. In the old days, people parked down the road about 150 yards in a huge, paved pull-off. But ever since the moderate sport climbs at the High Wire Crag were developed a few years ago, lazy climbers have taken to parking on the dirt by the side of the busy highway, 100 yards closer to the cliff, underneath a road cut with a huge, steep hillside above it. Don't they notice the rocks littering the road after every storm? Didn't he realize it had been raining hard for the past week? I do feel bad for the guy, but jeez! At least maybe now some people will wake up and start using the decent lot down the road. But it's probably only a matter of time until the next knucklehead gets nuked.