An event is useful because it gives the trip a fixed point.
You know where to be and roughly when to be there. That leaves the rest of the Night Ride free to grow around it.
Put the event on the calendar first
Use the Stars Above Aspen event page for the current date, time and organizer link. If that night is the reason for the trip, lock it in first.
Then build outward.
Find out what the sky is doing
Open the August Colorado sky guide and the what can you see in the night sky guide.
Knowing one or two things to look for changes the experience. A bright point stops being “a star” and becomes a planet you were waiting for. A pale band stops being background and becomes the Milky Way you chose the night for.
Give the event a landscape
The Aspen Mountain Sundeck stop file treats the setting as more than an address. From there you can branch into other Aspen-area observing, photography or a longer drive.
Keep going west if the trip has another night in it
The Western Slope & Gunnison Country region opens the map into canyon country, Dark Sky Communities, observatories and several completely different mountain-night experiences.
That is the Night Ride in miniature: event to place, place to sky guide, sky guide to another road.
The direct event link stays where you need it. Everything else is an invitation to keep going.