Massive boulder that rolled onto Colorado highway is too expensive to move, will now be a tourist attraction

On Memorial Day weekend, this 8.5-million-pound boulder rolled off a cliff and destroyed part of a highway between Cortez and Telluride, Colorado. Blowing it up to clear the way would cost the state $200,000 so instead Governor Jared Polis turned the bug into a feature.

The 'house-sized' boulder is now named Memorial Rock and is a designated tourist attraction. From UPI:

'We expect that for generations to come, people will have the opportunity to observe this geological masterpiece that we're calling Memorial Rock,' Polis said at a news conference earlier this week...

The highway will be widened with additional shoulder and a new guardrail will be installed near the rock, Lisa Schwantes, the transportation department's southwest Colorado spokeswoman, told UPI.

Fixing the two-lane highway will cost about $1.3 million, Polis said, but most of that money will come from emergency funds from the Federal Highway Administration.

image: Colorado Department of Transportation