Higher ground turns first, so the slopes above the road lead the valley by a few days.
2 reports came in from Summit County this week, 2 of them at peak. They moved our date 1 day earlier. See the county on the map.
Still greenStartingNearly peakPeakPast peakNo fall canopy we forecastInside the line, each band of elevation is painted on its own date.
Around Ptarmigan Peak Wilderness Summit County holds most of the wilderness and is just past peak today. That’s the county as a whole, which peaks 7 days earlier than the wilderness’s own stands: the wilderness is nearly peak. Grand County, to the north, is 1 day ahead.By elevation The wilderness runs from about 9,695 to 11,951 feet. It turns together: there isn’t enough relief here for the color to come down in stages.
12,000–12,500 ftJust past peakpeak Sep 224%
11,500–12,000 ftJust past peakpeak Sep 2215%
11,000–11,500 ftJust past peakpeak Sep 1721%
10,500–11,000 ftJust past peakpeak Sep 1623%
10,000–10,500 ftJust past peakpeak Sep 1922%
9,500–10,000 ftJust past peakpeak Sep 2215%
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.
Sunday 27 September to Monday 28 September
You’ll find it peak color.
That's the day our forecast puts peak color here.
11,500–12,000 ftJust past peakpeak Sep 22
11,000–11,500 ftJust past peakpeak Sep 17
10,500–11,000 ftJust past peakpeak Sep 16
10,000–10,500 ftJust past peakpeak Sep 19
9,500–10,000 ftJust past peakpeak Sep 22
Where to drive
Guanella Pass, about 19 miles · Boreas Pass Road, about 21 miles · Kenosha Pass (US 285), about 25 miles
What turns
quaking aspen
What turns, and when
quaking aspen100%
Also named across Colorado, outside what the canopy read measures here: 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.
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
