Grand Mesa Landslide | Collbran | Colorado 4k Drone Footage

In this video we explore a little further up Plateau Valley in the eastern reaches of Mesa County, Colorado. The video starts with a peaceful flight above the town of Collbran, Colorado. Collbran is a small town about 10 miles east of the town of Mesa, Colorado, and sits along Plateau Creek. This part of Mesa County is referred to as Plateau Valley, and contains the towns of Collbran, Molina and Mesa, as well as the rural surrounding areas which feature small to large acreage properties, farms and ranches. This area (Plateau Valley) gets its name from Plateau Creek, a perennial stream that drains the northern slopes of Grand Mesa and the southern slopes of Battlement Mesa. The town of Collbran sits at the confluence of Plateau Creek and Buzzard Creek. Buzzard Creek is a main tributary of Plateau Creek and also gets its start high up on Grand Mesa. At this time of year (early June) snow melt is at its peak and the creeks are flowing at capacity. Just east of Collbran is a long and narrow mesa known as The Peninsula. It separates Buzzard and Plateau Creeks, rising from 150 to 200' above the creeks, directly in between them. At its widest it is about 1/4 mile wide, and at the narrowest it is just 500' across. The Peninsula has been worked by man for nearly 100 years now and consists of mostly flat, irrigated farm land on the top of this narrow feature. Just above the town of Collbran, and at the western edge of The Peninsula is the confluence of Buzzard Creek with Plateau Creek. The difference in the color of the waters of these creeks is drastic and easily noticeable. Plateau Creek is seen to have a lighter, more silty color than Buzzard Creek. This is due to the sediment in the water from the Salt Creek Landslide in 2014. The Salt Creek drainage empties into Plateau Creek just a few miles east of Collbran. The drainage is still a baren scar from a large landslide nearly 10 years ago. The immense power of this slide is still evident from the debris piles and the scarred landscape.