When is peak fall color at Powderhorn Wilderness?

Our forecast puts peak color at Powderhorn Wilderness around 28 Sep. The four days to aim for are 27 to 30 Sep. We publish our error rate.

Powderhorn Wilderness Fall Foliage: 2026 Peak Color Forecast

Q: What trees turn color at Powderhorn 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 color28 SepAim for 27 to 30 Sep

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 Thursday 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 Powderhorn Wilderness Nearly all of the wilderness is in Hinsdale County, which is peak color today. That’s the county as a whole, which peaks 3 days earlier than the wilderness’s own stands: the wilderness is nearly peak.

By elevation The wilderness runs from about 9,820 to 12,321 feet. That’s 2 days of season between the top and the bottom: the high stands peak around Sep 25, the low ground holds until about Sep 27, and the color comes downhill in between. The date at the top of this page is the 9,500 to 10,000 foot band.

12,000–12,500 ftPeak colorpeak Sep 2516%
11,500–12,000 ftPeak colorpeak Sep 2522%
11,000–11,500 ftJust past peakpeak Sep 2120%
10,500–11,000 ftJust past peakpeak Sep 2019%
10,000–10,500 ftPeak colorpeak Sep 2313%
9,500–10,000 ftNearly peakpeak Sep 279%

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

Sunday 27 September to Monday 28 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 27. Pick your elevation for the day you come.

12,000–12,500 ftJust past peakpeak Sep 25
11,500–12,000 ftJust past peakpeak Sep 25
11,000–11,500 ftJust past peakpeak Sep 21
10,500–11,000 ftJust past peakpeak Sep 20
10,000–10,500 ftJust past peakpeak Sep 23
9,500–10,000 ftPeak colorpeak Sep 27

Where to drive: Owl Creek Pass, about 23 miles · Million Dollar Highway (US 550), about 32 miles · Dallas Divide (CO 62), about 40 miles
What turns: quaking aspen, narrowleaf cottonwood

What turns, and when

quaking aspen97%
narrowleaf cottonwood3%

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

All of Colorado