The idea started back in February when co-workers and friends Holly McCollough and Floyd Pierce discovered the Colorado Passport Program, which, in part, challenges people to get to all 64 counties of Colorado by the end of the year. For them, that wasn’t challenging enough.
They decided, instead, to drive through all 64 counties of Colorado in 64 hours.
The idea stayed as a question mark in McCollough’s calendar until Leilani Osmundson joined them, and a date was set. After planning all through the month of June, the three adventurers’ road trip was set.
On July 24, they embarked on a 2½-day journey across the state, and their end time was 62 hours, 24 minutes and 35 seconds, with just about an hour and a half remaining.
“I truly thought it was going to be a 50-50 chance,” Pierce said in an interview following their return home.
Amid potential traffic, construction, mudslides, fires and weather, he said, there were a lot of variables out of their control. However, they mapped out a strict spreadsheet beforehand, allowing them to perfectly time each stop.
They allowed between three and seven minutes per county for a photo op and possible tour of either the welcome center or local museum, with a 2½-hour buffer between all three days. Each stop was based on the passport program, which outlined the locations one had to visit in each county.
“Every second counted for the whole time,” McCollough said.
They each also had rotating roles during the time: One person slept, one person drove and one person worked on the social media aspect of the trip, which proved to be worth it as their online presence of over 400 followers on Instagram allowed them to connect with locals from each county.
For Eagle County, they had only about three minutes available and met with the town of Vail’s Welcome Center manager, Amanda Zinn.
“Sixty-four counties in 64 hours is a wonderful way to celebrate Colorado’s 150th. We were happy to be an early stop and to send them off with a good photo,” Zinn said.
McCollough said Zinn was the first community member they had the opportunity to meet up with.
“The epitome of what the trip was meeting people who sacrificed their own time to support and encourage us, and showed so much pride in their work and their county,” Osmundson said.
The three of them dubbed Vail Village’s gondola cabin display as the best photo op of the journey, but found it hard to say which place was their favorite, since it felt unfair to the counties they visited at night. However, Costilla County and Otero County were ranked higher, with some of the most memorable parts because of the insight they got into the local lifestyles and history of the areas, including the town of San Luis’ 175th birthday.
Other than stops for the occasional motion sickness, they faced little issue. Only a road closure into Silverton from the north side at 10 p.m. forced them to reroute their trip.
“We didn’t know how much time it was going to add,” Pierce said. “But it was our only option.”
It wasn’t until about five counties left when they realized they were going to be able to make it in under 64 hours.
“We were trying to soak it in, really stay humble and stay disciplined because a lot was still out of our control in those last critical hours,” said McCollough.
“Seeing that we only had an hour and a half to spare, to me, makes it even more epic,” Pierce said. “It shows that we really took on something that we didn’t know was possible, that is hard, and we made it happen.”
Although the journey was brief, it left all three travelers with a deep sense of place and deeper connection to Colorado. It also taught them to really learn about the places you visit, McCollough said.
“I feel excited to encourage other people to visit different parts of the state and not just go hike a 14er in Eagle County and then leave, but go and meet people from the place,” she said. “Go to the Welcome Center; learn what amazing work is happening in the community, maybe what struggles are going on there. Like, how can you inform yourself as a human; build relationships in other parts of the state; help yourself be more informed.”
McCollough said a friend of her father recently asked her, “How can you say you’re from a place if you haven’t walked it?” After this journey, she said, she feels that she has done just that.
“I just feel like I have a love for, like, every part of the state,” Osmundson said.
Pierce shared a similar sentiment.
“I am ready to defend every corner of Colorado,” he said.
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