Memorial Day weekend serves as the kickoff to summer travel, with thousands of travelers expected to hit Colorado’s highways and head west. 

“Memorial Day is an exciting time because it’s the end of mud season,” said Skyler McKinley, AAA’s public affairs director in Colorado. “We are now entering the summer months, where there’s world-class hiking and biking and fishing, and we get our summer tourists back after they left for the winter.”

Across the country, AAA is expecting a record-setting 45.1 million people to travel this weekend. Around 39.4 million of them will be traveling by car, McKinley reported.

“As it relates to the homefront, we know that Denver itself is No. 9 in top travel destinations among AAA travelers booking airline trips,” McKinley said. “Now, they’re not staying in Denver. When people travel to Denver International Airport, they do so as the gateway to the American West. Those folks will be headed to and through the High Country.” 

As the first of the summer long weekends, Memorial Day tends to be one of Colorado’s least busy holidays for occupancy, traffic and travel. 

Heading west, travelers should anticipate the heaviest traffic along Interstate 70, according to Austyn Dineen, the regional public information officer for the Colorado Department of Transportation. 

“We expect to see choke points,” McKinley said. 

According to data from the Colorado Department of Transportation, Friday was the busiest road travel day during the 2024 Memorial Day weekend for those heading to the High Country. Over 24,000 vehicles drove on westbound I-70. On Saturday, just under 21,000 vehicles went westbound on the interstate. 

Heading back toward Denver, the busiest day on eastbound I-70 was Monday, followed by Sunday. 

“In 2024, Memorial Day weekend — Friday to Monday — saw more than 154,000 cars driving through the Eisenhower-Johnson Memorial tunnels,” Dineen said. “In comparison with other holidays, Memorial Day is the least traveled holiday through (the tunnels), but still a significant travel period for the I-70 Mountain Corridor.” 

I-70 travelers looking for someone else to take the wheel can check out CDOT’s Bustang options, which provide services between Denver and Grand Junction, or through Pegasus shuttle vans between Denver and Avon. 

Other mountain roadways, including U.S. Highways 24, 34, 36, 50 and 160, should also expect increased traffic, Dineen said. 

CDOT will be suspending all construction and maintenance projects from Friday through Tuesday to improve traffic flow. Once the weekend lifts and summer construction season gets underway, the state agency has created a map of active construction projects along the I-70 Mountain Corridor from Golden to the Utah border for motorists.  

“Memorial Day is one of these great American traditions. It’s one of the last things in American culture that we all do together … We’re all excited for summer,” McKinney said. “But the flip side of that is sometimes you are going to be with your neighbors in a traffic jam, and we’re going to get through it. And look, I’ve been in traffic jams across the country, and there’s no place I’d rather be in one than in the Colorado High Country.” 

No summer kickoff would be complete without the lifting of winter closures on mountain passes like Independence Pass and Cottonwood Pass between Gunnison and Chaffee counties — both of which are slated to open for the season on Thursday, May 22. Guanella Pass in Clear Creek County between Georgetown and Grant is expected to open Friday. 

Some remain closed, like Kebler Pass, between Paonia and Crested Butte. Colorado State Highway 5 near Mount Blue Sky will be closed until next summer for construction. 

There is some good news for those road-tripping this weekend: “​​We’re looking at the cheapest Memorial Day gas prices we’ve seen in years,” McKinley said. 

“In Colorado, we’ll be in the neighborhood of 20 to 25 cents cheaper than last year,” McKinley added. 

According to AAA’s gas price tracker, the average price per gallon in Colorado is $3.20. Prices are the highest in Colorado’s northwest and mountain counties, ranging from around $3.50 in multiple counties, including Eagle and Garfield counties, to $4.56 in Pitkin County (the highest in the state). 

“Travelers need to be strategic, the service station in your neighborhood will have some of the cheapest gas you’re going to see on your journey,” McKinley said. “The service station on I-70 where there’s not a lot of competition and there’s a whole heck of a lot of travelers will have some of the state’s most expensive gas. This is going to be true throughout your journey.” 

Bookings hold strong despite economic headwinds

Memorial Day weekend tends to be one of the calmer weekends for lodging. 

Tom Foley, senior vice president of Business Intelligence for Inntopia, reported that industry-wide, bookings for the weekend tend to average around 47%. Occupancy is expected to be the highest on Friday and Saturday, according to data from Inntopia Business Intelligence and DestiMetrics. 

Currently, bookings are up slightly for the holiday weekend from last year in Colorado.

“Comparing Memorial to itself in prior years is usually a good indication of consumers’ mood because it’s the first ‘event’ after the snow incentive is gone, when bookings are most indicative of how consumers are feeling overall,” Foley said. 

Foley added that the increase from last year was slightly surprising “given the pullback in consumer confidence over the past few months.”

Consumer confidence and the current consumer expectations index — which tracks how people feel about economic conditions around employment, wages, inflation and spending — has been on decline this year, hitting its lowest point since 2009, Foley noted

“Over the past 20 years of DestiMetrics reporting, we’ve been able to clearly tie declines like that to softness in bookings and rate,” Foley said. “So, with confidence doing what it’s done, and industry-wide booking pace down for 5 consecutive months, we’re surprised at any gain for the holiday.”

McKinney said that with a lot of “doom and gloom” around economic conditions, experts expected some Americans not to travel and save money. However, there appears to be a different trend. 

“Instead, we’re seeing a record number of Memorial Day travelers,” McKinney said. “Americans are not cutting back on travel. They’re just changing the way they travel if they have economic concerns. You might drive 50 miles to go see a friend in the High Country. You might drive to Moab and do some camping under the stars. You might enjoy one of Colorado’s national parks.”