When is peak fall color at Medicine Bow-Routt National Forest?

Our forecast puts peak color at Medicine Bow-Routt National Forest around 30 Sep. The four days to aim for are 29 Sep to 2 Oct. We publish our error rate.

Medicine Bow-Routt National Forest Fall Foliage: 2026 Peak Color Forecast

Q: What trees turn color at Medicine Bow-Routt National Forest?

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 color30 SepAim for 29 Sep to 2 Oct

In the forest today, Sep 25Nearly peak

Higher ground turns first, so the slopes above the road lead the valley by a few days.

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 Medicine Bow-Routt National Forest Albany County holds most of the forest and is just past peak today. That’s the county as a whole, which peaks 13 days earlier than the forest’s own stands: the forest is nearly peak. Routt County, to the southwest, is 12 days behind. Carbon County, to the northwest, is 8 days behind.

By elevation The forest runs from about 5,555 to 10,420 feet. That’s 33 days of season between the top and the bottom: the high stands peak around Sep 13, the low ground holds until about Oct 16, and the color comes downhill in between. The date at the top of this page is the 7,000 to 8,000 foot band.

10,000–11,000 ftJust past peakpeak Sep 1311%
9,000–10,000 ftJust past peakpeak Sep 2025%
8,000–9,000 ftPeak colorpeak Sep 2633%
7,000–8,000 ftNearly peakpeak Oct 119%
6,000–7,000 ftStarting to turnpeak Oct 75%
5,000–6,000 ftStarting to turnpeak Oct 167%

Height off 3DEP inside the forest’s own boundary; each band carries the date our model gives that elevation, corrections and all. The percentage is how much of the forest stands in it.

Today from the glees camera, 5 km from Medicine Bow-Routt National Forest — See it now PhenoCam Network, Glacier Lakes Ecosystem Experiments Site camera, 5 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.

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

Tuesday 29 September to Wednesday 30 September

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

Up at 10,000 feet the stands peak around Sep 13; down at 8,000 feet they hold on until about Oct 1. Pick your elevation for the day you come.

10,000–11,000 ftFadingpeak Sep 13
9,000–10,000 ftJust past peakpeak Sep 20
8,000–9,000 ftJust past peakpeak Sep 26
7,000–8,000 ftPeak colorpeak Oct 1

Where to drive: Snowy Range Scenic Byway (WY 130), about 30 miles · Cache la Poudre Canyon (CO 14), about 55 miles · Trail Ridge Road (US 34), about 58 miles
What turns: quaking aspen, Gambel oak, bigtooth maple, serviceberry, narrowleaf cottonwood

What turns, and when

quaking aspen69%
Gambel oak13%
bigtooth maple5%
serviceberry5%
narrowleaf cottonwood4%
willow3%

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