Before you drive inA timed-entry permit is required to drive into the park. Bear Lake Road included, into mid-October. Permits go on sale in advance on Recreation.gov and a share is released the evening before. The park’s own page on it.
Where to lookBear Lake Road is the best fall color in the park.
Higher ground turns first, so the slopes above the road lead the valley by a few days.
Weather Wind to 35 mph Saturday. Color may come down before it turns.
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.
- 12,000–13,000 ftJust past peakpeak Sep 187%
- 11,000–12,000 ftJust past peakpeak Sep 1628%
- 10,000–11,000 ftJust past peakpeak Sep 1433%
- 9,000–10,000 ftJust past peakpeak Sep 2121%
- 8,000–9,000 ftNearly peakpeak Sep 2711%
Height off 3DEP inside the park’s own boundary; each band carries the date our model gives that elevation, corrections and all. The percentage is how much of the park stands in it.
That’s 3 days later than our model alone would say. This September has been running warm, which shifts peak color.
The place
Trail Ridge Road climbs to 12,183 feet, the highest continuous paved road in the country, and crosses the Continental Divide with the kind of exposure that makes passengers grip their armrests. Nearly a third of Rocky Mountain National Park sits above treeline. Up there it is tundra, wind, and 200-mile views into Wyoming. Down below, elk outnumber tourists by October.
Established 1915. About 4.3 million/year visitors.
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.
Monday 21 September to Tuesday 22 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 21
- 8,000–9,000 ftNearly peakpeak Sep 27
- Where to drive
- Trail Ridge Road (US 34), in the park · Bear Lake Road, in the park · Peak to Peak Scenic Byway (CO 7, 72 and 119), about 21 miles
- What turns
- quaking aspen, narrowleaf cottonwood, willow, thinleaf alder, water birch
- Entrance
- $35
What turns, and when
- quaking aspen79%
- narrowleaf cottonwood9%
- willow6%
- thinleaf alder3%
- water birch3%
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