Popular lake closes up because of mass of visitors

BAILEY - Stay-cations are partly to blame as the reason one Colorado campground is calling it quits this winter.

Wellington Reservoir, located 11 miles south of Bailey, has seen so many visitors that owners of the private recreational area are afraid visitors are wearing it out.

They closed it up, along with Castle Mountain, shocking those who work and vacation there. The general manager of the property says the board would like to re-evaluate how the area is used this winter and look at reopening in the spring.

That's not much comfort to the 20-or-so people who live there full time.

Over the past few years, Doug Dunham, Lorrain Straily and Karen Woodward say they found friendship and raised their children at Wellington Lake.

"You come up here and it's the most peaceful place in the world," Woodward said.

"The families learned this week that the lake and campsites were closing. Typically, Wellington Lake is open year round and the families had no plans of packing up just yet.

"We just got served with a notice we have to get everything out, so that's what we are doing," Straily said.

"There's no mention of why, no reasons given," Tex Cummings, an employee, said.

Cummings is one of three employees who live on the site. He got a letter from the property's board of directors, stating his mobile home must be gone in 30 days.

"It's sad," he said. "I can't really state it any other way."

"What do you tell people when you have to tell them they are fired and you don't know why?" Della Powell, the lake manager, said.

Powell gets to keep her job, but she isn't enjoying her job right now.

"What do you tell people when they have weddings or reunions and they can't come here? I don't know what to tell them," she said.

Powell says she doesn't know what the future holds for Wellington Lake. Over the years she watched it become more and more popular and profitable.

That makes it harder for the people who have to leave.

"I can't imagine not having this view," Woodward said.