Tips to avoid the worst of Presidents Day weekend ski traffic on Interstate 70

Posted on : 02/13/2022
Tips to avoid the worst of Presidents Day weekend ski traffic on Interstate 70
Travel 

Next weekend is apt to be one of the busiest of the season for skiers and snowboarders braving the rigors of Interstate 70, so if you plan to take advantage of the four-day Presidents Day break, it might help to have an informed game plan for avoiding the worst of inevitable traffic hassles.

Presidents Day weekend was the seventh-busiest of 2021 as measured by vehicles passing through the Eisenhower-Johnson Tunnels (152,999) and was the third-busiest of the ski season behind New Years weekend and Martin Luther King Day weekend. Thanksgiving weekend ranked first (196,792) for 2021. Others ranked ahead of Presidents Day weekend were Fourth of July weekend, Labor Day weekend and Memorial Day weekend.

Although snow came late to most ski areas this season, traffic has been running ahead of last season. Vehicle totals in December and January exceeded 2.19 million, an increase of 4.7% over last season.

Based on tunnel traffic over Presidents Day weekend last year, here are some numbers to help skiers and riders avoid the worst of it:

  • Friday was the busiest day of the weekend with 42,806 vehicles passing through the tunnels. Of that, 26,112 were westbound and 16,694 were eastbound.
  • Monday was the second-busiest day of the weekend (39,881), with 23,807 eastbound and 16,074 westbound.
  • The heaviest westbound traffic of the weekend occurred on Friday from 11 a.m. to 12 p.m. and from 4 to 6 p.m.
  • The best day to head up from the Front Range was Sunday, with only 14,351 westbound vehicles, but Sunday traffic back to the Front Range hit 20,163, the second-highest total for eastbound traffic.
  • The heaviest eastbound traffic occurred on Monday from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. and from 5 to 6 p.m., with the worst of it occurring between 2 and 3 p.m. Eastbound traffic also was heaviest on Saturday and Sunday from 2 to 3 p.m.
  • Other heavy traffic periods included Friday eastbound from 5-6 p.m., Saturday westbound from noon to 1 p.m., and Monday westbound from 8 to 10 a.m.

It’s still early to reliably predict snowfall for next week, but it looks like the mountains will at least get a “respectable” amount of snow in the middle of next week, according to OpenSnow founding meteorologist Joel Gratz. OpenSnow is an independent snow tracking and forecasting service.

“Our next chance for a meaningful storm will be during the middle of next week,” Gratz reports. “It appears that we could see a few flakes on Tuesday, with the best chance for snow around Wednesday and into Thursday. Most models continue to show that this storm will dive to our south with a lot of its energy tracking through New Mexico. If this happens, a wind from the south and east should favor our southern and eastern mountains, but there’s also a chance that some additional storm energy will move directly across Colorado, and this could help other mountains see at least decent snow totals.”

Gratz says the mountains are likely to be mostly dry over the Presidents Day weekend, with another storm system possible right after Presidents Day.

CDOT’s weekend Snowstang bus service will be expanded to include Presidents Day. Roundtrip fares from Denver to Loveland, Arapahoe Basin and Copper Mountain cost $25. Roundtrip service to Steamboat Springs costs $40 and requires an overnight stay.

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