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.
2 reports came in from Summit County this week, 2 of them at peak. Our date held. See the county on the map.
Still greenStartingNearly peakPeakPast peakNo fall canopy we forecastInside the line, each band of elevation is painted on its own date.
Around Camp Hale - Continental Divide National Monument Summit County holds most of the monument and is just past peak today. Eagle County, to the northwest, is 4 days behind.By elevation The monument runs from about 9,163 to 12,748 feet. That’s 6 days of season between the top and the bottom: the high stands peak around Sep 22, the low ground holds until about Sep 25, and the color comes downhill in between. The date at the top of this page is the 12,000 to 13,000 foot band.
12,000–13,000 ftJust past peakpeak Sep 2216%
11,000–12,000 ftJust past peakpeak Sep 2034%
10,000–11,000 ftJust past peakpeak Sep 1827%
9,000–10,000 ftPeak colorpeak Sep 2520%
SepOctNov
Height off 3DEP inside the monument’s own boundary; each band carries the date our model gives that elevation, corrections and all. The percentage is how much of the monument stands in it.
See it now PhenoCam Network, West St Louis Creek camera, 20 km away, captured Sep 25.
That’s 4 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.
Monday 21 September to Tuesday 22 September
You’ll find it peak color up high, nearly peak lower down.
Up at 12,000 feet the stands peak around Sep 22; down at 10,000 feet they hold on until about Sep 25. Pick your elevation for the day you come.
12,000–13,000 ftPeak colorpeak Sep 22
11,000–12,000 ftPeak colorpeak Sep 20
10,000–11,000 ftJust past peakpeak Sep 18
9,000–10,000 ftNearly peakpeak Sep 25
Where to drive
Boreas Pass Road, about 12 miles · Kenosha Pass (US 285), about 23 miles · Guanella Pass, about 28 miles
What turns
quaking aspen, narrowleaf cottonwood, willow, water birch
What turns, and when
quaking aspen58%
narrowleaf cottonwood21%
willow14%
water birch7%
Every one of these turns yellow or gold here. The shades only tell the species apart.
Also named across Colorado, outside what the canopy read measures here: 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.
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
