A group of high schoolers learned a lesson about respecting road closures in recent days, after getting a vehicle stuck in deep snow in the Summit County high country.

According to the Summit County Sheriff’s Office, a group of seven teenage girls were let out of high school early and decided to go for a drive in the area of Georgia Pass Road. This is a four-wheel-drive road that passes the town site of Parkville ghost town, the main mining camp in Summit County during the gold rush of the 1860s. It’s located east of Breckenridge near Bald Mountain. At this time of the year, the road is closed to standard vehicles, only open to over-the-snow travel, such as in a snowmobile.

As might be expected given the current conditions in the high country, the vehicle got “very stuck” in the snow. After another juvenile male on the scene attempted to get them moving and failed, the Sheriff’s Office was needed.

The Sheriff’s Office Special Operations team used a tracked UTV to give the passengers of the stuck vehicle a ride back to the road, where a friend met them to take them back to school.

The driver of the vehicle, a 16-year-old girl, was cited for driving on a closed roadway and driving with unlawful passengers given her age. She was picked up by her father.

The father, who owned the vehicle, was able to get it out of the snow with help from a Good Samaritan.

This case goes to show how important it is to respect road closures in Colorado. Hazards can exist at any time of the year on some routes, including but not limited to deep snow, mud, and rockfall or avalanche risk. Thankfully, this situation ended with no injuries.