New roads already cut on the hillside above Stoor Drive and Mountain Drive
What the layers mean: Steep slopes · Water · Zoom out to the neighborhood
Zoom with + and −, a double-click, ctrl + scroll, or two fingers. Drag to move around when zoomed in.
Beta: this 3D model is a first version and will be updated over the next 7 days. Right now it covers only the main climb (B) and the entrance, built from 230 drone photos taken Oct 18, 2026, and the forest canopy hides much of the road. A sharper model of the whole hillside is coming.
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These roads were cut before the Town Council has voted on the annexation, and before any development plan has been approved. The Planning & Zoning Commission “did not approve a final development plan” (Town annexation report). Here is what that means for the homes below.
Bare dirt on a steep slope, with no drainage controls in sight. Rain and snowmelt on this hillside head downhill toward the homes below. The entrance itself follows a natural drainage path right down to the street. Where the water goes
If homes are ever built up there, fire engines need wider roads, gentler grades and wider turns than these. The road surface is 12–15 ft wide; fire roads are normally 20 ft. The two switchbacks are about 23 and 27 ft in radius, while many fire districts expect roughly 48 ft on the outside of a turn. The two switchbacks
Parts of this hillside are 30° or steeper, the angle where avalanches can start. Timber that helped hold the slope has been cleared along the road. Steep slopes
In plain terms: Town water, Town sewer and Town zoning are what make more homes possible on this hill. County rules would hold it to a handful of large lots.
Costs the report doesn't put a number on. These are questions, not estimates:
Turley can still build under county rules. But those rules are much stricter on density (roughly 9 large lots on wells and septic) and on roads (8% maximum grade, and curves no tighter than 100 ft in radius on mountain roads). The roads already cut are far steeper and tighter than that, so a county subdivision would need them redone. (Source: Lincoln County Chapter 6)
County limits are better for existing residents than a dense annexation.
Check times and places at alpinewy.gov.
The ask: tell the Town Council to deny the Turley annexation at the Oct 28 hearing.
Can't attend? Email clerk@alpinewy.gov before the hearing. Include your name, your address and a few sentences, and ask that your comment be entered into the record for the Turley annexation hearing.
Meeting reminders and new photos about the Turley annexation. Only a few emails, and only about this.
Your email is used only for these updates. It's never shared or sold.
Neighbors post updates, meeting reminders and photos between meetings in the Protect Alpine, Wyoming Facebook group.
Simple questions you can ask, as questions, not accusations:
A second flight the next day, around 12:52–12:56 PM by the camera clock, found a small tracked excavator grading the cut between the two houses. The muddy ruts from Oct 13 are now a leveled strip running from the street up to the main climb.
A close-up from the same photo, taken about 85 ft above the takeoff point. It isn't north-up and the camera is angled. What it shows:
Construction stormwater rules generally expect dirt tracked onto paved streets to be prevented or cleaned up, usually with a gravel pad at the entrance. Whether those rules apply here, and whether they're being met, is for Wyoming DEQ and the Town to decide.
Three problems the photos and terrain data show. Tap one to read more.
In two places the road doubles back on itself in a hairpin turn. These close-ups are cropped from the drone photos and turned so north is up. The measurements are give or take about 6 ft.
Too tight for a fire engine under the usual standard. A second dirt track runs alongside, just east of the turn, which suggests an earlier or abandoned route.
The sharpest turn on the road. The ground on either side runs roughly 13–27% grade, and the bare dirt banks on both sides show fresh digging and fill.
How these compare. Many Western fire districts ask for roughly 28 ft on the inside and 48 ft on the outside of a turn, so a fire engine can make it. Both switchbacks fall well short. Lincoln County's road rules don't allow curves tighter than 100 ft in radius on new mountain subdivision roads. This matters if the road is meant to serve homes or emergency access. A wider bend on D (101°, about 83 ft radius) is not a hairpin and isn't listed.
For the technical reader: the International Fire Code leaves turning radius to the local fire official (IFC D103.3). Radius is measured to the traced centerline, ±2 m. * Grades are sampled every 10 m from elevation data collected before the road was built; a tight turn packs too much curve into 10 m for that to give a reliable grade through the turn itself.
The blue lines on the map show where rain and snowmelt would naturally run down this hillside. Thicker lines carry water from more ground uphill. This is a computer model, not a hydrology study. It shows the paths water takes downhill, not how much water flows in a given storm.
What it shows about the road. Several parts of the new road sit on or across natural drainage paths:
| Where | What the map shows | Ground draining to that spot |
|---|---|---|
| X · Straight line on the west side (not counted as road) | Lies along a drainage path for nearly its whole length (about 580 ft). This is one reason to think it is a natural drainage or an old track, not part of the new road. | ≈ 20 acres |
| H1 · North switchback | Sits in the bottom of a ravine | ≈ 10 acres |
| D · South loop, near the H2 switchback | Crosses a drainage path about 355 ft along D | ≈ 6.7 acres |
| A · Entrance between the houses | Follows a drainage path its whole length, down to the street between the houses | ≈ 5.5 acres |
| B · Main climb above the houses | Crosses a drainage path about 340 ft along B | ≈ 5.4 acres |
| C, D, E · Upper roads | Smaller crossings (C about 70 ft in, D about 660 ft in, E about 210 ft in) | ≈ 1–2 acres each |
Six more crossings each drain less than an acre.
Why it matters. A road cut across a slope catches water running downhill and carries it along the road until it finds a way off. Where a road runs straight down a drainage path, as the entrance does, the road itself can become the channel. No culverts, drainage dips or silt fence are visible in the photos. Below the hill, the water paths run north, toward the homes. Whether the road needs drainage work, and whether it was required to have it, is for the Town, the County and Wyoming DEQ to look at.
Ground elevations come from USGS 3DEP 1 m lidar (2020, before the road), over an area about 1.9 km × 1.6 km around the road. They match USGS point elevations within 0.12 m. Small pits were filled. Each cell drains to its steepest downhill neighbor (the standard "D8" method), and the uphill area draining through each cell was added up. Lines are drawn where at least half an acre drains through. Because the elevation data predates the road, the model shows how water ran before the road. The road's cuts and ditches will now redirect some of it. On flat ground in town (the zoomed-out map), streets, ditches and culverts decide where water actually goes, and the model can't see them, so treat the lines there as rough.
The colored shading on the map marks ground steep enough for avalanches to start. This is not an official avalanche hazard map. I couldn't find one published for this hillside. It shows slope angle only, the same shading backcountry skiers use to spot avalanche terrain. It does not account for snowpack, weather or trees.
Why slope angle matters. Most slab avalanches start on slopes between 30° and 45°, most often around 35° to 40°. Once moving, a slide can run well past the bottom of the steep ground onto flatter land below, called the runout. A home can be in a runout zone without being on a steep lot.
What the numbers say. About 10.9 acres of the area in these photos is 30° or steeper, including about 2.6 acres at 35° or more. The new road cuts across that steep ground in several places:
| Road section | Crosses 30°+ ground | Crosses 35°+ ground | Steepest ground crossed |
|---|---|---|---|
| A · Entrance | 0% | 0% | 6° |
| B · Main climb | 15% | 7% | 40° |
| C · Upper switchbacks | 48% | 16% | 40° |
| D · South loop | 22% | 0% | 35° |
| E · East spur | 0% | 0% | 28° |
| X · West straight line (not counted) | 4% | 0% | 32° |
These numbers describe the hillside the road crosses, not how steep the road itself is. A road can run fairly level across a 35° slope.
Why the road could matter. Dense timber anchors snow, and cutting a road clears a strip through it. Cut banks on steep slopes also remove support from the snow and soil above them. Whether that changes the avalanche or slope-stability risk to the homes below is a question for a qualified avalanche or geotechnical professional, and it's worth asking before any decision on the annexation.
Ground elevations come from USGS 3DEP 1 m lidar, flown in 2020 before the road was built, via the USGS 3DEP elevation service. They match USGS point elevations within 0.2 m on a 16-point check grid. Slope is measured over a 10 m baseline at each map pixel, then aligned to the photo map using the same GPS control points as the road traces. Current avalanche conditions for this area: Bridger-Teton Avalanche Center.
These are possible problems the photos show, written as questions. A photo can't confirm a violation. Each one depends on permits, zoning and property lines that the Town, the County or the State would have to check. I'm not a lawyer or an engineer.
The upper roads (C, D, E) average about 13–16%, with stretches of 35–38%. Alpine's code limits driveways to 10%, the fire code limits fire-access roads to 10% unless the fire official approves more, and Lincoln County limits private roads to 8%. If this road is meant to reach homes or lots, could it meet any of these?
Fresh cut banks and fill show at the switchbacks, especially the V-shaped one in the middle of the hill. Digging up roughly 2–3 acres on slopes over 15% usually needs a grading or development permit from Lincoln County or the Town. Was one issued? And was a permit needed to connect the new road to the town street?
About 2–3 acres puts this in Wyoming DEQ's construction-stormwater program (1–5 acres counts as "small construction"), which calls for erosion and sediment controls. Lincoln County's rules also say work that disturbs an acre or more needs a DEQ stormwater permit before construction. No silt fence, drainage dips or culverts are visible from the air, and the cut runs straight downhill in places. Could that lead to gullies and runoff onto the homes below?
The 12–15 ft road surface is narrower than the 20 ft the fire code calls for on fire-engine roads. The two switchbacks are about 23 ft and 27 ft in radius, well under the roughly 48 ft outside radius an engine typically needs. This matters only if the road is meant to serve homes or count as emergency access.
Much of the upper road crosses ground at 30° or steeper, and trees have been cleared along it. The Town's annexation report lists geotechnical and slope studies among those required before development is approved. Should they come before the annexation vote?
Rows of downed trees and slash line the cut, most visibly along section B above the houses. Do local wildfire-fuel or debris rules apply, and were any felled trees on a neighbor's land?
The entrance falls inside Alpine town limits. Most of the hill falls just outside, in Lincoln County. Does the road stay within the property lines? The national forest map shows this ground as private, not Forest Service land.
For the technical reader: Alpine LUDC §4-603(d) (driveways max 10% grade, min 10 ft wide); IFC Appendix D, D103.1–D103.3 (20 ft width, 10% max grade, turning radius set by the fire official); Lincoln County Land Use Regulations Chapter 6 (private roads max 8%, mountain-terrain exception to 10%; 1+ acre disturbance needs a DEQ stormwater permit); Wyoming DEQ construction stormwater (1–5 acres = small construction). Links are under Rules referenced.
The drone photos only cover the road. This map puts them on top of satellite imagery so you can zoom out and see the neighborhood, the town and where water heads off the hill. Use the box in the corner to turn layers on and off. Drag to move around and use + and − to zoom.
Base maps: USGS The National Map (public domain). The drone photo is placed using the drone's own GPS, so it may sit a few meters off the satellite image. The water and avalanche layers cover a wider area than the photos (the dashed "Analysis area"). Parcel lines come from Lincoln County's public GIS and are approximate; hover over (or tap) any parcel to see its owner, acreage and parcel number. Town limits come from the U.S. Census Bureau (TIGERweb, current boundary for Alpine town, GEOID 5601695). The Town's own official map governs if they differ.
Road traced from the drone photos, georeferenced using each frame's GPS, altitude and heading, plus USGS 1 m lidar elevation data (2020). Lengths are along the ground, including the slope.
| Segment | Length | Elevation | Avg grade | Steepest 20 m | Length over 10% | Over 20% |
|---|
Click a row to highlight that segment on the map.
Grade is how much the road climbs for every 100 feet it covers across the ground: rise ÷ horizontal run × 100. A road that rises 10 ft over 100 ft of level distance is a 10% grade. (For scale, a 45° slope is 100%.) Everything below can be checked by hand from the sample points, which are also in a spreadsheet file (CSV).
Caveat. The elevation data was collected in 2020, before this road existed, so it shows the original hillside. Where the road was dug into the slope or built up with fill, its real surface can be gentler than the ground it crosses. Grades here may be overstated by a few points in those places. Also, the road runs across a steep hillside, so a traced line that sits a few meters off the true centerline lands on steeper or gentler ground. A clinometer or a phone inclinometer app on the steepest stretches would confirm the numbers on site.
Download all sample points (grade-samples.csv) · one row per point: segment, distance, latitude, longitude, elevation in meters and feet, and the run, rise and grade of the step leading to it.
Equipment and flights. Aerial survey 13 Oct 2026 with a DJI Mavic 3 (Hasselblad L2D-20c camera): 9 frames, 143–514 m AGL. Follow-up flight 14 Oct 2026 (photos DJI_0387, DJI_0388, DJI_0396).
Scale. Each photo's height above the ground comes from its takeoff-relative altitude and USGS terrain heights. The camera's scale was checked against the GPS distance between overlapping photos. Where photos overlap, they agree to within 2–6 m.
Length. The centerline was snapped to the bare-dirt stripe in the stitched image, smoothed, and measured with the terrain slope included. The tolerance is about ±10%. Treat 4,600 ft as "roughly 4,100 to 5,000 ft."
Width. The surface was measured across about 600 cross-sections. Twelve to fifteen feet is the driven dirt. The wider figure includes cut banks, berms and cleared shoulders.
Grade. Grades come from USGS 1 m lidar (flown in 2020, before the road), sampled every 10 m along the traced line. See How the grades were worked out for every sample point. That data shows the original hillside, so where the road was cut in, the true grade may be a few points gentler. A $30 clinometer or a phone inclinometer app on the steepest stretches would confirm it.
Correction, 13 Oct 2026. An earlier version of this page gave higher grades (for example 19–22% averages on C, D and E, and stretches up to 42%). Those couldn't be reproduced from the elevation data, so they were replaced with the rechecked figures above. Lengths changed by less than 2%. The straight line on the west side (X) was briefly counted as part of the road, then taken back out.
Not counted. The straight line running north–south on the west side (gray, dashed, X) is not counted in the totals. It lies along a natural drainage path (see Water flow) and looks more like a drainage or an older track than part of the new road.
Town limits. The pink dashed line is Alpine's boundary from the U.S. Census Bureau. About 80% of the entrance (A) lies inside town limits. Segments B through E lie outside, in unincorporated Lincoln County. Census boundaries can lag recent annexations, and the Town's official map governs.
Parcel lines. From Lincoln County's public GIS ("Parcels (Approximate)"). Red outlines are parcels owned by the annexation petitioners (Steve Turley, Alpine Property Holdings Group, LLC, Premier Realty Investments, LLC, Stoor Properties, LLC). Hover over (or tap) any parcel to see the owner of record, acreage and parcel number from the county. Lines can be off by several feet, so for anything legal use a survey or the recorded plat.
Off the photos. Segment E runs out of the photos to the east, so its true length may be longer.
Rules referenced. Town of Alpine Land Use & Development Code · IFC Appendix D, fire apparatus access roads · Lincoln County Zoning Resolution · Lincoln County Land Use Regulations, Chapter 6 (road standards) · Town of Alpine annexation report, Sept 28, 2026 · Town Council minutes, May 21, 2019
All 9 frames from the 13 Oct 2026 flight. Heights are above the takeoff point. The ground on the hill is 50–110 m higher than takeoff.
Want to stay in the loop? Join the Protect Alpine, Wyoming Facebook group for updates and meeting reminders.
About this page. The measurements on this page are a private resident's estimates, made from drone photos and public data. They are not a professional survey or an engineering or legal finding. The section "Annex or stay in the county?" is advocacy by a resident; the facts in it are linked to their sources. Nothing here accuses anyone of breaking the law. Whether any rule applies, and whether to annex, is for the Town of Alpine, Lincoln County and the State to decide. Full disclaimer.
Estimates, not findings. This page was put together by a private resident of Alpine, Wyoming. The measurements are estimates made from consumer drone photos and public elevation data, with the error ranges stated on this page. They are not a licensed land survey, engineering study, appraisal or inspection, and they may contain mistakes.
Advocacy. The section "Annex or stay in the county?" and the call to deny the annexation are the author's advocacy about the pending Turley annexation, offered as a resident taking part in a public decision. The facts they rely on are linked to their sources: the Town's annexation report, Lincoln County's land-use rules and Town Council minutes.
No accusation of wrongdoing. Nothing here states or implies that any person or company has broken a law, code or permit condition, or acted improperly. Items listed as "possible" issues are questions for the responsible agencies to look into. Permits, approvals, exemptions or facts the author doesn't know about may fully explain what the photos show.
Not legal advice. References to the Town of Alpine code, the International Fire Code and Wyoming DEQ rules are the author's reading of public documents, given for context only. They are not legal advice, and whether any rule applies here is for the Town, Lincoln County and the State to decide.
Sources. Photos were taken by the author on 13 and 14 Oct 2026 from a drone flown over the area. Elevations come from the U.S. Geological Survey. Everything here is presented in good faith, as a matter of public interest in a pending land-use decision.
Corrections welcome. If anything here is wrong, including by the property owner or anyone with better information, email ginosesto@gmail.com and it will be reviewed and corrected promptly.