Blue Creek Canyon

The highway through the canyon is narrow and winding. Because of this, many accidents have occurred there. The U.S. Department of Transportation and various other agencies plan to make safety improvements to the 3.8 mile section of the highway in Blue Creek Canyon (which U.S. DOT websites refer to as Little Blue Creek Canyon). The work is scheduled to begin in spring 2021 and last through fall 2022. The construction — which will involve widening the highway, widening and paving the shoulders, replacing guardrail, and adding new signage and striping — will require frequent and long-duration closures of the highway.[3][4]

Inside the canyon, Little Blue Creek[1] and Big Blue Creek[5] merge to form Blue Creek.[6] The confluence is adjacent to the intersection of Highway 50 and Alpine Plateau Road, next to the bridge. Immediately after the confluence, Blue Creek flows under the bridge, flows north along the highway's west side, and then separates from the highway heading northwest and eventually empties into Morrow Point Reservoir at the Curecanti Needle.

The canyon walls are made of metamorphic rocks and are filled with big and small pegmatite dikes. Some of the dikes contain large, intergrown crystals of feldspar and pink quartz.[7]