UPDATE: Evacuated Boy Scouts Back In Camp

About 100 Boy Scouts are back at their southern Colorado camp after being evacuated because of flooding.

The scouts left the Spanish Peaks Scout Ranch on school buses and sheriff’s vehicles before dawn Tuesday after rain caused a creek on the property near Walsenburg to rise.

They went to a Red Cross shelter in Walsenburg and authorities cleared them to return around midday. Scout executive Michael Stewart says the scouts, most of them from southwestern Kansas, were camping in tents above Bear Creek and weren’t in immediate danger.

Scouts there were also forced to evacuate last year by a wildfire, which has made the land more prone to flooding.

The scouts have been getting a real-life lesson in conservation by planting trees and grass to prevent erosion and flooding.

ORIGINAL: A Boy Scout camp frequented by Kansas scouts is evacuated for the second summer in a row. About 100 Boy Scouts are working on merit badges in town after being evacuated from their southern Colorado camp because of flooding.

The scouts left the Spanish Peaks Scout Ranch on school buses and sheriff’s vehicles around 4 a.m. Tuesday after rain caused a creek running through the property near Walsenburg to rise.

They went to a Red Cross shelter set up in Walsenburg’s community center and could be allowed back later in the day, depending on the prospects for more rain. Scout executive Michael Stewart says the scouts, most of them from southwestern Kansas, were camping in tents above Bear Creek and weren’t in immediate danger.

Scouts there were also forced to evacuate last year by a wildfire, which has made the land more prone to flooding.