Video of the slide by Jeffry Simmons.

Crescent City resident Jeffry Simmons had a front row seat to the slide that shut down Highway 101 at Last Chance Grade yesterday morning, and his camera was rolling.

Simmons told the Outpost that his van was stopped at a traffic-controlled area of Last Chance Grade when he noticed something was wrong.

“I was heading to Klamath but I was right there when it happened,” Simmons said. “I saw some Rocks sliding down once the last semi-truck passed the mountain. That’s when it happened.”

Simmons’s video shows a trickle of dirt falling from the hillside, followed by a rush of debris that spilled into a concrete barrier below, knocking it back several feet.

Caltrans eventually opened the highway back up to one-way traffic control. But, Simmons said that he was stuck at the closure for at least an hour and a half.

Starting Sunday, Caltrans will enforce nightly closures of Highway 101 at Last Chance Grade between 8 p.m. and 6 a.m. The overnight closures will end on January 23.