I live north of Boulder and I make the trip up to Pawnee about once a month for various long range shooting. It really is not that bad of a drive, and there are some pretty good places that you can get 1000+ if that is your thing. As far as avoiding the weekends go, I have had no problems. It is more crowded yes, but it is nothing like Carnage Canyon aka Lefthand. Other than that I have searched for the last two years that I have been here; if you don't know the land owner, you will be paying to shoot there and none of them are cheap.