Higher ground turns first, so the slopes above the road lead the valley by a few days.
Weather Hard frost Saturday night. Peak may come early and go fast.
No new reports from the ground here this week.
Still greenStartingNearly peakPeakPast peakNo fall canopy we forecastInside the line, each band of elevation is painted on its own date.
Around Arapaho and Roosevelt National Forests Larimer County holds most of the forest and is peak color today. That’s the county as a whole, which peaks 5 days earlier than the forest’s own stands: the forest is nearly peak. Boulder County, to the east, is 1 day behind. Clear Creek County, to the south, is 2 days ahead.By elevation The forest runs from about 7,254 to 11,727 feet. That’s 21 days of season between the top and the bottom: the high stands peak around Sep 17, the low ground holds until about Oct 4, and the color comes downhill in between. The date at the top of this page is the 8,000 to 9,000 foot band.
11,000–12,000 ftJust past peakpeak Sep 1711%
10,000–11,000 ftJust past peakpeak Sep 1516%
9,000–10,000 ftJust past peakpeak Sep 2125%
8,000–9,000 ftNearly peakpeak Sep 2827%
7,000–8,000 ftStarting to turnpeak Oct 416%
SepOctNov
Height off 3DEP inside the forest’s own boundary; each band carries the date our model gives that elevation, corrections and all. The percentage is how much of the forest stands in it.
See it now PhenoCam Network, Rocky Mountain National Park CASTNET camera, 16 km away, captured Sep 25.
That’s 3 days later than our model alone would say. This September has been running warm, which shifts peak color.
Set the days you can be here. Everything under them answers for those days, not for peak.
Sunday 27 September to Monday 28 September
You’ll find it just past peak up high, nearly peak lower down.
Up at 11,000 feet the stands peak around Sep 17; down at 8,000 feet they hold on until about Oct 4. Pick your elevation for the day you come.
11,000–12,000 ftJust past peakpeak Sep 17
10,000–11,000 ftFadingpeak Sep 15
9,000–10,000 ftJust past peakpeak Sep 21
8,000–9,000 ftPeak colorpeak Sep 28
7,000–8,000 ftNearly peakpeak Oct 4
Where to drive
Bear Lake Road, about 9 miles · Trail Ridge Road (US 34), about 9 miles · Peak to Peak Scenic Byway (CO 7, 72 and 119), about 20 miles
What turns
quaking aspen, Gambel oak, narrowleaf cottonwood, willow, bigtooth maple
What turns, and when
quaking aspen48%
Gambel oak13%
narrowleaf cottonwood13%
willow9%
bigtooth maple6%
serviceberry6%
Also named across Colorado, outside what the canopy read measures here: Rocky Mountain Maple, Alder.
Colorado aspens are the main event, turning entire mountainsides gold and amber while Gambel oaks add russet and orange at lower elevations and cottonwoods line the rivers in yellow.
This forecast is built from the species that stand here, their elevation and this September’s weather, and corrected in season by cameras, foresters and our own crew. Out here we score it against NASA's satellite record of when the canopy shuts down, read inside each unit’s own boundary: two dates in three land within 12 days of it. How this map is made
