At midnight on a Friday in July, three coworkers set out in a Dodge Durango packed with snacks, games and other essentials with an ambitious goal: visit all 64 Colorado counties in 64 hours.

To commemorate Colorado’s 150th anniversary as a U.S. state, Leilani Osmundson, Floyd Pierce and Holly McCollough began their trip in Denver, traveling across the Western Slope, Eastern Plains and Rockies before finishing in Clear Creek County.

They beat their goal by more than an hour and a half, completing the challenge in 62 hours, 25 minutes and 35 seconds.

---

---

In each county, they stopped to take a picture in front of a significant local landmark and documented their progress on Instagram.

Grand County was their 11th stop, and the trio said driving through the county felt like a movie.

---

---

“The drive through Byers Canyon on the drive from Leadville to Hot Sulphur Springs was absolutely jaw-dropping and was one of the most beautiful drives of our trip,” the group said in an email to Sky-Hi News.

The idea to visit all 64 counties in under 64 hours began with a conversation around the lunch table at work, according to Pierce.

McCollough told Pierce that she discovered the 64 County Challenge through the Colorado Passport Program. The America 250-Colorado 150 Commission created the passport program to commemorate Colorado’s 150th anniversary as a state, and America’s 250th anniversary as a nation.

To complete the 64 County Challenge, participants must check in at landmarks across all 64 counties to win prizes.

Pierce mentioned he had watched a series about someone visiting all 50 states in 50 days. From there, they merged the two challenges to create the 64 counties in 64 hours challenge, according to Pierce.

The plan was to drive nonstop to all 64 Colorado counties, taking only three to five minutes in each county to take pictures for social media and a 10-minute bathroom break every five hours, Osmundson said.

Every step had to be intentional. The trio calculated that adding just one extra minute to each county stop would add more than an hour to the trip.

“It was actually kind of wild to live minute by minute,” Pierce said.

They devised three roles for the drive: the driver, the navigator/social media poster and the sleeper. Every five hours or so, they rotated roles, giving each person an opportunity to rest.

Their plan included a 2 1/2-hour buffer in case they encountered unexpected obstacles. That cushion became valuable when a mudslide on the Million Dollar Highway threatened their route to Silverton after the first 24 hours of the trip.

A few bumps in the road

Late in the evening on the second day of their journey, Osmundson was driving toward San Juan County from Ouray County.

The plan was to stop in Silverton, but Pierce received an alarming message from a friend: a mudslide had hit the Million Dollar Highway.

At that moment, the group thought they might not complete the challenge within the 64-hour time frame, according to Pierce.

The mudslide happened only a few hours before their planned trip to Silverton, forcing the group to reconsider its route. Pierce said the situation was nerve-wracking.

“It was a little dangerous too. We were thinking, “‘Should we even be here?'”

While McCollough was asleep in the back seat, Osmundson and Pierce changed their plan. Instead of continuing toward Silverton on their original route, they decided to take the long way around, traveling through San Miguel and La Plata counties before approaching the remote mountain town from the south around 3 a.m.

The mudslide was not the only surprise during the 64-hour drive. Three hours into the journey, Osmundson became motion sick. But despite the motion sickness and the complications caused by the mudslide, she said she never had a bad moment on the trip.

“Every part was so beautiful,” she said. “We never did this to like get the prize. We only just wanted to do it, to do it.”

Friends along the way

Beyond the obstacles and the scenery, the group said they were surprised by the connections they made with people throughout the challenge.

Their Instagram account drew significant attention, with their content receiving more than 200,000 views and reaching more than 37,000 accounts, according to an email the group sent to Sky-Hi News. Osmundson said the overwhelming online support surprised her.

“People were constantly commenting or messaging, or reaching out to us, which was really cute,” she said. “Some people would be tuning in at like 3 a.m. to watch us.”

The trio was also featured on CBS News Colorado the day before the challenge began.

Along with the connections they made on social media, the America 250-150 Commissions introduced the trio to county members to help them feel more connected to Colorado.

For Osmundson, one of the most memorable interactions came in Otero County, where the group met Eric Leonard, superintendent of High Plains Group. When they arrived around 9:30 p.m., Leonard gave them a tour of Bent’s Old Fort National Historic Site, even though the site had already closed for the day.

They left with souvenirs, including a replica Mexican silver coin from Leonard and his wife, according to Osmundson.

Other connections happened more spontaneously.

Mayor Tiffany Gallegos invited the trio to celebrate the 175th anniversary of San Luis in Costilla County, according to McCollough.

“That was really amazing to like, be invited into that community celebration also — to see the best that the community had to offer,” she said.

For Pierce, those interactions gave the challenge a significance beyond simply reaching every county.

“Being able to see these communities on the ground and seeing some of these people and understanding we’re all part of the same state was really incredible,” Pierce said.

A new appreciation for Colorado

When asked what they took away from the journey, all three agreed that the experience gave them a newfound appreciation for Colorado’s people and landscapes.

Osmundson said even some of the state’s less recognized regions, including the Eastern Plains, deserve more attention.

“I didn’t have a single bad view that entire trip, which yeah, I think people underestimate what Colorado offers in every single corner,” Osmundson said.

The speed required to complete the challenge also left the group wishing they had more time to experience the places they visited.

“I’m super motivated to go back and visit every location on the passport that we visited,” McCollough said. “I would also really encourage people to go check out their local tourism office or county history museum because there’s a lot of amazing history that people don’t know all the time captured in those places.”

For Pierce, the biggest takeaway was simpler: An idea that initially sounds slightly impossible may be worth pursuing.

“Whenever you have this idea that seems crazy and slightly impossible, but it’s still fun and also for a good cause, just go for it,” Pierce said.