Rocky Mountain Balloon Rides 2024 Flying season.
Rocky Mountain Balloon Rides offers flights May- November when the conditions are best to maximize the experience of flying in beautiful Denver Colorado. In winter the jet stream dips down from Canada and centers over our state bringing faster winds and snow storms. This make us cancel flights most of the time. This creates an unstable atmosphere with faster winds reaching the surface more frequently. Since balloon baskets don’t have wheels that land on runways, we want slower winds to fly in. This is why the main balloon season in Colorado is May through November.
As the spring passes the jet stream returns back over Canada and we get a more consistent pattern of stable winds with slower speeds. As the sun rises, the heat begins to bounce off the earth and make the atmosphere unstable and that is the reason we fly so early in the day. Our flying window usually last for a few hours after sunrise. This is the main reason Hot Air Balloons in Colorado fly just after sunrise. When you make a reservation with Rocky Mountain Balloon Rides, your pilot is watching the weather forecast very closely for those early morning hours.
We start so early in the morning, you may want to bring a jacket that you can remove as the morning warms up. I always recommend dressing in layers because it is common to be a few degrees warmer up to a couple thousand feet off the ground. This is common and known ask a temperature inversion. We typically fly anywhere above the trees, lakes, and rivers, up to a few thousand feet above the surface. This makes for a great experience for both viewing wildlife and also feeling the aeronaut experience from the sky. For many years we would schedule balloon flights in Colorado all year long.
In wintertime we would cancel the flights so often, we decided to pick the best weather conditions to conduct our flights. May through November is when the weather patterns for flying balloons are at their best. The grass is greener and the temperatures more pleasant. Usually, from Memorial Day to Labor Day you will find me taking to the air in a short sleeve shirt. The coolest part of the experience is when you get out of the car as we prepare the balloon for flight. Most of my passengers are really surprised by how pleasant the temperatures are during the flight. Your photos will be amazing, as you float across the sky on your majestic Rocky Mountain Balloon Ride Experience.
