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 Hunter-Fryingpan Wilderness Nearly all of the wilderness is in Pitkin County, which is nearly peak today. That’s the county as a whole, which peaks 8 days later than the wilderness’s own stands: the wilderness is just past peak. Lake County, to the east, is 10 days ahead.By elevation The wilderness runs from about 9,277 to 12,632 feet. That’s 9 days of season between the top and the bottom: the high stands peak around Sep 21, the low ground holds until about Sep 24, and the color comes downhill in between. The date at the top of this page is the 11,000 to 12,000 foot band.
12,000–13,000 ftJust past peakpeak Sep 2121%
11,000–12,000 ftJust past peakpeak Sep 2037%
10,000–11,000 ftJust past peakpeak Sep 1828%
9,000–10,000 ftPeak colorpeak Sep 2411%
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.
See it now PhenoCam Network, SNOD-MA camera, 19 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.
Saturday 19 September to Sunday 20 September
You’ll find it peak color up high, nearly peak lower down.
Up at 12,000 feet the stands peak around Sep 21; down at 10,000 feet they hold on until about Sep 24. Pick your elevation for the day you come.
12,000–13,000 ftPeak colorpeak Sep 21
11,000–12,000 ftPeak colorpeak Sep 20
10,000–11,000 ftPeak colorpeak Sep 18
9,000–10,000 ftNearly peakpeak Sep 24
Where to drive
Independence Pass (CO 82), about 8 miles · Maroon Creek Road, about 18 miles · Cottonwood Pass (CO 306), about 29 miles
What turns
quaking aspen, narrowleaf cottonwood, willow, water birch, thinleaf alder
What turns, and when
quaking aspen68%
narrowleaf cottonwood13%
willow9%
water birch4%
thinleaf alder3%
Gambel oak2%
Also named across Colorado, outside what the canopy read measures here: 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
