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.
1 report came in from Eagle County this week, 1 of them still green. 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 Holy Cross Wilderness Eagle County holds most of the wilderness and is peak color today. Pitkin County, to the southwest, is 3 days behind. Lake County, to the southeast, is 7 days ahead.By elevation The wilderness runs from about 8,731 to 12,454 feet. That’s 10 days of season between the top and the bottom: the high stands peak around Sep 21, 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.
12,000–13,000 ftJust past peakpeak Sep 2114%
11,000–12,000 ftJust past peakpeak Sep 1938%
10,000–11,000 ftJust past peakpeak Sep 1728%
9,000–10,000 ftPeak colorpeak Sep 2413%
8,000–9,000 ftNearly peakpeak Oct 17%
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.
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.
Tuesday 22 September to Wednesday 23 September
You’ll find it peak color.
That's the day our forecast puts peak color here.
12,000–13,000 ftPeak colorpeak Sep 21
11,000–12,000 ftJust past peakpeak Sep 19
10,000–11,000 ftJust past peakpeak Sep 17
9,000–10,000 ftPeak colorpeak Sep 24
Where to drive
Independence Pass (CO 82), about 23 miles · Boreas Pass Road, about 29 miles · Maroon Creek Road, about 33 miles
What turns
quaking aspen, narrowleaf cottonwood, willow, thinleaf alder, water birch
What turns, and when
quaking aspen80%
narrowleaf cottonwood8%
willow6%
thinleaf alder3%
water birch3%
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.
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
