Prepare for heavy traffic Friday, southwestern Colorado, as spectators gear up and head out for the Saturday morning solar eclipse.
Only that corner of the state, including Cortez, Mancos and Dove Creek, will experience annularity starting at around 10:31 a.m. Saturday and lasting over three minutes, according to Mesa Verde National Park. A partial eclipse will still be visible across most of Colorado.
The Colorado Department of Transportation expects to see higher traffic on U.S. 160, U.S. 491 and Colorado 184 as tourists head to maximum visibility locations. Three National Park locations in Colorado are in the path of the eclipse: Mesa Verde, Yucca House and Hovenweep.
Brian Bartlett, director of the tourism group Mesa Verde Country, said Tuesday he expects 50,000 to 75,000 people to pass through the area for the eclipse. All lodging and campgrounds have been sold out for over six months.
People are still calling in every day to see if they can snag a spot, said Mesa Verde Motel co-owner Matt Dziedzic.
“We haven’t really seen this demand before,” he said. “It’s pretty new.”
Mesa Verde National Park will hold events before, during and after the eclipse with free eclipse glasses. The park will hold viewing events Saturday morning, hosted by NASA scientists and National Park Service rangers, at Mesa Verde Museum, Far View Parking Lot and Morefield Campground Amphitheater.
Additionally, NASA staff and National Park Service rangers will present at the amphitheater Friday and Saturday evening beginning at 7 p.m., followed by a star party with telescopes for stargazing.
The Cortez Airport’s annual Fall Fly-In event also takes place Saturday — a complete coincidence, Bartlett said. Planes will fly in, but air traffic will be paused from 10:25 to 10:45 a.m. to enjoy the eclipse. The event also features a car show, food trucks and free eclipse glasses.
Tourists aren’t just staying for the eclipse, Bartlett said, with the average length of stay in the Mesa Verde area lasting three nights. Local businesses are doubling or tripling their supplies to meet demand. He expects all parking to be “loaded to the hilt,” and to ramp up municipal services like trash collection to handle the foot traffic.
He’s been telling tourists to treat it like hiking through a park: leave no trace. His only concern, he said, is that visitors won’t respect private property in their rush to get around.
Still, Bartlett said locals are excited for the energy the eclipse is bringing to the area. “We hope it’s something that people talk about for a long time, and visit again in the future,” he said.
Here’s what you need to know, courtesy of The Associated Press, about the ring of fire eclipse, where you can see it and how to protect your eyes.
What kind of eclipse is this?
What’s called an annular solar eclipse — better known as a ring of fire — will briefly dim the skies over parts of the western U.S. and Central and South America.
As the moon lines up precisely between Earth and the sun, it will blot out all but the sun’s outer rim. A bright, blazing border will appear around the moon for as much as five minutes, wowing skygazers along a narrow path stretching from Oregon to Brazil.
The celestial showstopper will yield a partial eclipse across the rest of the Western Hemisphere.
It’s a prelude to the total solar eclipse that will sweep across Mexico, the eastern half of the U.S. and Canada, in six months. Unlike Saturday, when the moon is too far from Earth to completely cover the sun from our perspective, the moon will be at the perfect distance on April 8.
What’s the path?
The eclipse will carve out a swath about 130 miles wide, starting in the North Pacific and entering the U.S. over Oregon around 8 a.m. PDT Saturday. It will culminate in the ring of fire a little over an hour later. From Oregon, the eclipse will head downward across Nevada, Utah, New Mexico and Texas, encompassing slivers of Idaho, California, Arizona and Colorado, before exiting into the Gulf of Mexico at Corpus Christi. It will take less than an hour for the flaming halo to traverse the U.S.
From there, the ring of fire will cross Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula, Belize, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Panama, Colombia and, finally, Brazil before its grand finale over the Atlantic.
The entire eclipse — from the moment the moon starts to obscure the sun until it’s back to normal — will last 2.5 to 3 hours at any given spot. The ring of fire portion lasts from three to five minutes, depending on location.
Where can it be seen?
In the U.S. alone, more than 6.5 million people live along the so-called path of annularity, with another 68 million within 200 miles, according to NASA’s Alex Lockwood, a planetary scientist. “So a few hours’ short drive and you can have over 70 million witness this incredible celestial alignment,” she said.
At the same time, a crescent-shaped partial eclipse will be visible in every U.S. state, although just barely in Hawaii, provided the skies are clear. Canada, Central America and most of South America, also will see a partial eclipse. The closer to the ring of fire path, the bigger the bite the moon will appear to take out of the sun.
Can’t see it? NASA and others will provide a livestream of the eclipse.
Best way to protect your eyes
Be sure to use safe, certified solar eclipse glasses, Lockwood stressed. Sunglasses aren’t enough to prevent eye damage. Proper protection is needed throughout the eclipse, from the initial partial phase to the ring of fire to the final partial phase.
There are other options if you don’t have eclipse glasses. You can look indirectly with a pinhole projector that you can make yourself, including one made with a cereal box.
Cameras — including those on cellphones — along with binoculars and telescopes need special solar filters mounted at the front end.
Where’s the total eclipse in April?
April’s total solar eclipse will crisscross the U.S. in the opposite direction. It will begin in the Pacific and head up through Mexico into Texas, then pass over Oklahoma, Arkansas, Missouri, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, the northern fringes of Pennsylvania and New York, and New England, before cutting across Canada into the North Atlantic at New Brunswick and Newfoundland. Almost all these places missed out during the United States’ coast-to-coast total solar eclipse in 2017.
It will be 2039 before another ring of fire is visible in the U.S., and Alaska will be the only state then in the path of totality. And it will be 2046 before another ring of fire crosses into the U.S. Lower 48. That doesn’t mean they won’t be happening elsewhere: The southernmost tip of South America will get one next October, and Antarctica in 2026.