Higher ground turns first, so the slopes above the road lead the valley by a few days.
Weather Hard frost Tuesday 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 James Peak Wilderness Gilpin County holds most of the wilderness and is peak color today. That’s the county as a whole, which peaks 7 days later than the wilderness’s own stands: the wilderness is just past peak. Clear Creek County, to the south, is 4 days ahead. Grand County, to the northwest, is 5 days ahead.By elevation The wilderness runs from about 9,440 to 12,263 feet. That’s 2 days of season between the top and the bottom: the high stands peak around Sep 21, the low ground holds until about Sep 23, and the color comes downhill in between. The date at the top of this page is the 10,000 to 11,000 foot band.
12,000–13,000 ftJust past peakpeak Sep 219%
11,000–12,000 ftJust past peakpeak Sep 1942%
10,000–11,000 ftJust past peakpeak Sep 1736%
9,000–10,000 ftPeak colorpeak Sep 2313%
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, West St Louis Creek camera, 20 km away, captured Sep 23.
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.
Thursday 17 September to Friday 18 September
You’ll find it peak color.
That's the day our forecast puts peak color here.
12,000–13,000 ftNearly peakpeak Sep 21
11,000–12,000 ftPeak colorpeak Sep 19
10,000–11,000 ftPeak colorpeak Sep 17
9,000–10,000 ftNearly peakpeak Sep 23
Where to drive
Guanella Pass, about 18 miles · Peak to Peak Scenic Byway (CO 7, 72 and 119), about 20 miles · Kenosha Pass (US 285), about 31 miles
What turns
quaking aspen, narrowleaf cottonwood, willow, water birch
What turns, and when
quaking aspen85%
narrowleaf cottonwood8%
willow5%
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, 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
