When is peak fall color at Lizard Head Wilderness?

Our forecast puts peak color at Lizard Head Wilderness around 29 Sep. The four days to aim for are 28 Sep to 1 Oct. We publish our error rate.

Lizard Head Wilderness Fall Foliage: 2026 Peak Color Forecast

Q: What trees turn color at Lizard Head Wilderness?

Quaking Aspen, Narrowleaf Cottonwood, 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.

Peak color29 SepAim for 28 Sep to 1 Oct

In the wilderness today, Sep 25Nearly peak

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 Lizard Head Wilderness San Miguel County holds most of the wilderness and is nearly peak today. Dolores County, to the southwest, is on the same day.

By elevation The wilderness runs from about 9,574 to 12,651 feet. That’s 6 days of season between the top and the bottom: the high stands peak around Sep 25, the low ground holds until about Sep 28, 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 ftPeak colorpeak Sep 2511%
11,000–12,000 ftPeak colorpeak Sep 2327%
10,000–11,000 ftJust past peakpeak Sep 2244%
9,000–10,000 ftNearly peakpeak Sep 2816%

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.

Plan this trip

If you can only come on certain days

Set the days you can be here. Everything under them answers for those days, not for peak.

ArrivingLeaving

Monday 28 September to Tuesday 29 September

You’ll find it just past peak up high, peak color lower down.

Up at 12,000 feet the stands peak around Sep 25; down at 10,000 feet they hold on until about Sep 28. Pick your elevation for the day you come.

12,000–13,000 ftJust past peakpeak Sep 25
11,000–12,000 ftJust past peakpeak Sep 23
10,000–11,000 ftJust past peakpeak Sep 22
9,000–10,000 ftPeak colorpeak Sep 28

Where to drive: Last Dollar Road, about 13 miles · Million Dollar Highway (US 550), about 18 miles · Dallas Divide (CO 62), about 19 miles
What turns: quaking aspen, Gambel oak, narrowleaf cottonwood

What turns, and when

quaking aspen95%
Gambel oak3%
narrowleaf cottonwood2%

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

All of Colorado