When is peak fall color at Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park?

Our forecast puts peak color at Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park around 17 Oct. The four days to aim for are 16 to 19 Oct. We publish our error rate.

Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park Fall Foliage: 2026 Peak Color Forecast

Q: What trees turn color at Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park?

Quaking Aspen, Narrowleaf Cottonwood, Gambel Oak, 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.

Peak color17 OctAim for 16 to 19 Oct

In the park today, Sep 25Still green

Higher ground turns first, so the slopes above the road lead the valley by a few days.

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 Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park Nearly all of the park is in Montrose County, which is starting to turn today. That’s the county as a whole, which peaks 13 days earlier than the park’s own stands: the park is still green.

By elevation The park runs from about 6,202 to 8,493 feet. That’s 17 days of season between the top and the bottom: the high stands peak around Oct 2, the low ground holds until about Oct 16, and the color comes downhill in between. The date at the top of this page is the 6,000 to 6,500 foot band.

8,500–9,000 ftNearly peakpeak Oct 25%
8,000–8,500 ftStarting to turnpeak Oct 429%
7,500–8,000 ftStarting to turnpeak Oct 629%
7,000–7,500 ftStarting to turnpeak Oct 914%
6,500–7,000 ftStarting to turnpeak Oct 1314%
6,000–6,500 ftStarting to turnpeak Oct 166%

Height off 3DEP inside the park’s own boundary; each band carries the date our model gives that elevation, corrections and all. The percentage is how much of the park stands in it.

Today from the nps-blca-gunnison-point camera, inside Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park — See it now National Park Service, Gunnison Point webcam, inside the park, captured Sep 25.

That’s 3 days later than our model alone would say. This September has been running warm, which shifts peak color.

The place

The Gunnison River drops an average of 95 feet per mile through this canyon. For context, the Colorado through the Grand Canyon drops 7.5. The walls are up to 2,722 feet deep and in places only 40 feet apart at the river, so narrow that parts of the bottom get only 33 minutes of direct sunlight a day. You stand at the rim and look straight down into 2-billion-year-old rock and your body tells you to step back.

Established 1999. About 336,000/year visitors.

Plan this trip

If you can only come on certain days

Set the days you can be here. Everything under them answers for those days, not for peak.

ArrivingLeaving

Friday 16 October to Saturday 17 October

You’ll find it fading up high, just past peak lower down.

Up at 8,000 feet the stands peak around Oct 4; down at 7,000 feet they hold on until about Oct 13. Pick your elevation for the day you come.

8,000–8,500 ftFadingpeak Oct 4
7,500–8,000 ftJust past peakpeak Oct 6
7,000–7,500 ftJust past peakpeak Oct 9
6,500–7,000 ftJust past peakpeak Oct 13

Where to drive: Owl Creek Pass, about 28 miles · Dallas Divide (CO 62), about 34 miles · Grand Mesa Scenic Byway (CO 65), about 37 miles
What turns: Gambel oak, bigtooth maple, serviceberry, quaking aspen
Entrance: $25

What turns, and when

Gambel oak53%
bigtooth maple18%
serviceberry18%
quaking aspen12%

Also named across Colorado, outside what the canopy read measures here: Narrowleaf Cottonwood, 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

All of Colorado