When is peak fall color at Pike-San Isabel National Forests?

Our forecast puts peak color at Pike-San Isabel National Forests around 5 Oct. The four days to aim for are 4 to 7 Oct. We publish our error rate.

Pike-San Isabel National Forests Fall Foliage: 2026 Peak Color Forecast

Q: What trees turn color at Pike-San Isabel National Forests?

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 color5 OctAim for 4 to 7 Oct

In the forest today, Sep 25Starting to turn

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 Pike-San Isabel National Forests Park County holds most of the forest and is peak color today. That’s the county as a whole, which peaks 12 days earlier than the forest’s own stands: the forest is starting to turn. Chaffee County, to the northwest, is 4 days behind. Teller County, to the northeast, is 6 days behind.

By elevation The forest runs from about 6,620 to 12,272 feet. That’s 29 days of season between the top and the bottom: the high stands peak around Sep 23, the low ground holds until about Oct 11, and the color comes downhill in between. The date at the top of this page is the 8,000 to 10,000 foot band.

12,000–14,000 ftPeak colorpeak Sep 238%
10,000–12,000 ftJust past peakpeak Sep 1932%
8,000–10,000 ftNearly peakpeak Sep 3040%
6,000–8,000 ftStarting to turnpeak Oct 1118%

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.

That’s 4 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

Sunday 4 October to Monday 5 October

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

Up at 10,000 feet the stands peak around Sep 19; down at 8,000 feet they hold on until about Oct 11. Pick your elevation for the day you come.

10,000–12,000 ftFadingpeak Sep 19
8,000–10,000 ftJust past peakpeak Sep 30
6,000–8,000 ftNearly peakpeak Oct 11

Where to drive: Kenosha Pass (US 285), about 39 miles · Cottonwood Pass (CO 306), about 40 miles · Boreas Pass Road, about 42 miles
What turns: quaking aspen, Gambel oak, narrowleaf cottonwood, bigtooth maple, serviceberry

What turns, and when

quaking aspen59%
Gambel oak14%
narrowleaf cottonwood8%
bigtooth maple6%
serviceberry6%
willow5%

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