Late Snow Could Hurt Colorado Tourism

9News: It is nearly June and Colorado's mountains still look as though we're at the beginning of March. "This is what it looks like all winter out here," Pat Randall, a store owner in Grand Lake, said. The snow that has kept falling in the high country has made for a different spring.

Independence Pass opened Thursday, but Mt. Evans Road is only halfway open and Trail Ridge Road is still closed because of all the late snow. Arapahoe Basin and Aspen are still open for skiers. "It is a pretty big weekend in the scheme of things, definitely," Randall said.

The snow is certainly not what Randall and his family were hoping for this holiday weekend. They need customers, lots and lots of customers, to kick off the summer season. "They call it 'the kick-off to the summer' here," Randall said.

But the snow is kicking that idea to the curb.

"I think we're going to lose a lot of campers," Randall said. With Trail Ridge Road closed, some figure Grand Lake will lose out on hundreds, if not thousands, of usual holiday visitors.  "I think we'll lose a lot of folks from Northern Colorado. They're not going to want to drive all the way through Denver and come back up," Randall said.

The one guarantee: Out of state folks who don't care, like Kandi Lawson who drove to Grand Lake from Texas. "We've come 1,200 miles to be here this weekend," she said.

Regardless of the Trail Ridge Road closure, she and her family usually find other things to do. "The shopping is fantastic, the food is superb, the people are nice. Even though it's cold, it's still beautiful," Lawson said.

If only there were more people like Lawson around this weekend, business owners say things would be a whole lot sweeter. "It's still nice to have our sleepy town," Lawson said.

It's unclear how long it will take for Trail Ridge Road to open. Some folks in the Park Service say the second week of June. It's just one of those wait-and-see situations.