Higher ground turns first, so the slopes above the road lead the valley by a few days.
4 reports came in from Larimer County this week, 3 of them still green and 1 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 Comanche Peak Wilderness Nearly all of the wilderness is in Larimer County, which is peak color today. That’s the county as a whole, which peaks 2 days later than the wilderness’s own stands: the wilderness is just past peak.By elevation The wilderness runs from about 8,003 to 11,514 feet. That’s 15 days of season between the top and the bottom: the high stands peak around Sep 16, the low ground holds until about Oct 1, and the color comes downhill in between. The date at the top of this page is the 9,000 to 10,000 foot band.
11,000–12,000 ftJust past peakpeak Sep 1616%
10,000–11,000 ftJust past peakpeak Sep 1431%
9,000–10,000 ftJust past peakpeak Sep 2031%
8,000–9,000 ftNearly peakpeak Sep 2717%
7,000–8,000 ftNearly peakpeak Oct 15%
SepOctNov
Height off 3DEP inside the wilderness’s own boundary; each band carries the date our model gives that elevation, corrections and all. The percentage is how much of the wilderness stands in it.
Latest daylight frame PhenoCam Network, Rocky Mountain National Park CASTNET camera, 16 km away, captured Sep 24.
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 20 September to Monday 21 September
You’ll find it just past peak up high, nearly peak lower down.
Up at 11,000 feet the stands peak around Sep 16; down at 9,000 feet they hold on until about Sep 27. Pick your elevation for the day you come.
11,000–12,000 ftJust past peakpeak Sep 16
10,000–11,000 ftJust past peakpeak Sep 14
9,000–10,000 ftPeak colorpeak Sep 20
8,000–9,000 ftNearly peakpeak Sep 27
Where to drive
Cache la Poudre Canyon (CO 14), about 7 miles · Trail Ridge Road (US 34), about 12 miles · Bear Lake Road, about 18 miles
What turns
quaking aspen, narrowleaf cottonwood, Gambel oak, willow, bigtooth maple
What turns, and when
quaking aspen22%
narrowleaf cottonwood21%
Gambel oak20%
willow14%
bigtooth maple8%
serviceberry8%
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
