When is peak fall color at Rawah Wilderness?

Our forecast puts peak color at Rawah Wilderness around 21 Sep. The four days to aim for are 20 to 23 Sep. We publish our error rate.

Rawah Wilderness Fall Foliage: 2026 Peak Color Forecast

Q: What trees turn color at Rawah 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 color21 SepAim for 20 to 23 Sep

In the wilderness today, Sep 25Just past peak

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

4 reports came in from Larimer County this week, 3 of them still green and 1 of them at peak. Our date held. 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 Rawah Wilderness Larimer County holds most of the wilderness and is peak color today. That’s the county as a whole, which peaks 2 days later than the wilderness’s own stands: the wilderness is just past peak. Jackson County, to the west, is 2 days behind.

By elevation The wilderness runs from about 8,269 to 11,514 feet. That’s 11 days of season between the top and the bottom: the high stands peak around Sep 16, 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 9,000 to 10,000 foot band.

11,000–12,000 ftJust past peakpeak Sep 1613%
10,000–11,000 ftJust past peakpeak Sep 1431%
9,000–10,000 ftJust past peakpeak Sep 1935%
8,000–9,000 ftNearly peakpeak Sep 2721%

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 20 September to Monday 21 September

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

Up at 11,000 feet the stands peak around Sep 16; down at 9,000 feet they hold on until about Sep 27. Pick your elevation for the day you come.

11,000–12,000 ftJust past peakpeak Sep 16
10,000–11,000 ftJust past peakpeak Sep 14
9,000–10,000 ftPeak colorpeak Sep 19
8,000–9,000 ftNearly peakpeak Sep 27

Where to drive: Cache la Poudre Canyon (CO 14), about 19 miles · Trail Ridge Road (US 34), about 24 miles · Bear Lake Road, about 33 miles
What turns: quaking aspen, narrowleaf cottonwood, willow, water birch, thinleaf alder

What turns, and when

quaking aspen62%
narrowleaf cottonwood17%
willow11%
water birch6%
thinleaf alder5%

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.

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