On a weekend how long does it really take to drive to Keystone from Denver?

Denver to Keystone...realistically...2.5 hours. If you are a night owl you can make the trip late in 1.5 hours if I-70 is dry

Weekend traffic can be as bad in the summer as the winter, sometimes worse with all the campers dragging up the hills. On weekends, we typically start the drive after dinner to avoid the heavy congestion. With traffic, plan for a stressful 2-3 hours (if it's dry). Without traffic, it's an easy 60 minutes to Denver, 75 to Boulder.

2 - 3 hours depending on what part of Denver you are starting from. If I go up on a weekend day, which I try not to do, I like to get up and leave early sometime aroung 5:30 - 6:00 am to beat the traffic and then sit down at one of the local restaurants for a leisurely breakfast. On the way back, either plan on heading back by 2:30 - 3:00 pm or stay later and have dinner someplace and then get on the road after 7:30 pm.

Morning or afternoon? If you're driving home after a day of skiing, plan on a lot longer trip than if you were driving against the skier traffic going up in the morning. Traffic goes up the mountain in the morning, and down the mountain at night. And yes, much worse on Sunday night.

Wade's right. The traffic can be a bear during skiing season. I personally think the worst is coming down the highway on Sunday evenings, as everyone is trying to get home then.

from Downtown Denver to Keystone it is about 75 miles and should take you about 1 hour and fifteen minutes if little traffic. During the weekend mornings in the winter there is a lot of ski traffic and thus you should add another 30 mintues to your drive to be safe. Also, The Colorado Department of Transportation has a new plan to smooth traffic on Interstate 70, where the Eisenhower Tunnel often clogs on ski weekends. CDOT will try converting the eastbound highway near the tunnel from two lanes into to four on heavy-traffic days by using the existing shoulders. This should help a little.

make that around instead of aroung