Record-breaking Christmas and New Year’s travel likely to be felt in Colorado’s mountains 

Less than a month after slogging through a record-breaking holiday travel period during Thanksgiving, Colorado motorists are gearing up for it again. 

Nationally, 119.3 million people are projected to travel 50 miles or more from home during the weeks of Christmas and New Year’s, according to a new report from AAA. That represents a 3 million increase from last year and a new all-time high. 

“This year, with Christmas Day falling on a Wednesday, we’re anticipating record-breaking travel numbers the weekend before and the weekend after the holiday,” said AAA Vice President of Travel Stacey Barber, in a statement. 

AAA, one of the largest travel organizations in the United States, pairs economic data with individual bookings made through the agency to make its travel projections. Denver International Airport ranks in the top destinations for car rental demand during the holidays, according to data from AAA car rental partner Hertz.

“I guarantee you most of those folks who are renting a car are not driving anywhere except the High Country where they are going to ski and dine and drink in our world-class ski environments,” said AAA regional spokesperson Skyler McKinley. 

“As a function of that, there’s going to be a lot of inexperienced drivers on our roadways at a time when many of us are just trying to get down for Christmas.”

On Interstate 70, heavy traffic will likely come in two main waves, with the weekends before Christmas Day and New Year’s Eve expected to be the busiest. Sunday, Dec. 22, could be the height of the travel period, McKinley said. 

Last year, a total of 396,060 cars traveled through the Eisenhower-Johnson Memorial Tunnels between Dec. 22 and Dec. 31, representing one of the busiest travel periods of the year, according to the Colorado Department of Transportation.

While out-of-state visitors may stay parked in one place for both Christmas and New Year’s, in-state residents are more likely to spend their time in different locations for both holidays — with Christmas spent seeing family and New Year’s enjoyed closer to home. 

This means there may be more westbound I-70 traffic leading up to Christmas and more eastbound traffic before New Year’s Day. The major days associated with the holidays — Dec. 24, 25 and 31 as well as Jan. 1 — are likely to be the quietest travel days, McKinley said. 

The state transportation department plans to limit travel delays caused by ongoing I-70 projects during the holiday period. The department said there would be no scheduled traffic impacts related to the Floyd Hill project from Saturday, Dec. 2,1 until Monday, Jan. 6. 

The 8-mile stretch of highway between Evergreen and Idaho Springs has, at times, been subject to traffic holds of up to 45 minutes on weekdays as crews engage in rock blasting efforts and construction work. 

While motorists were inundated with harsh winter conditions during this past Thanksgiving travel period, weather is expected to remain dry until at least Christmas Day. Long-term forecasts, however, are uncertain. 

“Sometime around the weekend of Dec.28-29 we could see another system, or perhaps this will be two systems, or multiple days of snow, and could extend into the final week of the year,” wrote OpenSnow founding meteorologist Joel Gratz in a Wednesday blog post. 

“This longer-range forecast is encouraging,” he continued, “and while it’s still too far out to know many details, I am rather optimistic that we’ll see snow to close out the year, and that there will be at least some powder to enjoy during a few days.”

Driving remains the most popular mode of transit this holiday season, with nearly 90% of travellers driving to their destinations nationally, according to AAA. With 107 million people projected to hit the road, the number of motorists is 2.5 million higher than last year but slightly less than 2019’s record of 108 million.

Air travel, however, is expected to set records, with 7.85 million passengers, beating out the previous record of 7.5 million last year.

At Denver International Airport, Transportation Security Administration officials are bracing for more than 1 million travelers to pass through security checkpoints between Dec. 19 and Jan. 1. 

While pessimistic economic sentiments still linger nationally, the rise of remote work and increase in low-budget airline routes — such as Frontier Airlines’ expansion at Denver International Airport — has helped carry a surge in travel interest, McKinley said. 

For Colorado’s tourism-driven mountain resort areas, “this is a huge influx that’s going to be meaningful to our hospitality workers, our transportation workers — just about everybody,” McKinley said. 

“It’s going to be busy up there over the holidays. But it is the lifeblood of the High Country economy.”

The I-70 Coalition posts a weekend travel forecast every Thursday at GoI70.com/travel. The coalition’s website also includes winter driving tips available in English and Spanish and information on vehicle traction laws. 

Drivers can check the latest travel alerts by going to COTrip.org and sign up for text and email alerts for the I-70 mountain corridor. The latest weather conditions can be found at Weather.gov.