What I can say is I visited the Grand Canyon before I was diagnosed with COPD and prescribed oxygen therapy, and it brought me to my knees!

I would recommend oxygen for higher altitudes, I was in Yellowstone and Jackson Hole Wyoming, 10,500 ft. I would not be able to do that without oxygen, it can help one lead a fairly normal life.

My daughter lived in Flagstaff, 7000ft., ad I'm in Yuma, just above sea level. Before I was on oxygen, I could barely walk around there and drank a lot of fluids and then needed to drag myself to the rest room. I have not tried to go back since then, she moved out of state anyway. The Incas and other so. American peoples at high elevations have large lungs. They do not have the problem with the alveoli as I understand it, so they must be able to take in more oxygen, but more importantly, they can exhale the co2. I don't think COPD is compatible with altitude.

My dad lives in Phoenix and can't handle high altitudes at all. He loved traveling but can't handle the high altitudes.

There really isn't anything you can do, and one thing you should expect is that you may need to use supplementary O2 at higher altitudes. It depends on how high you're talking and really depends on you. Some people can manage higher altitudes much better than others. I'd go for a week or two and see how you feel and what happens. I'd bet that you'll know in two weeks how it's going to go.