Higher ground turns first, so the slopes above the road lead the valley by a few days.
Weather Hard frost Saturday 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 Uncompahgre Wilderness Hinsdale County holds most of the wilderness and is peak color today. That’s the county as a whole, which peaks 5 days later than the wilderness’s own stands: the wilderness is just past peak. Ouray County, to the west, is 5 days behind. Gunnison County, to the northeast, is 3 days behind.By elevation The wilderness runs from about 9,258 to 12,689 feet. That’s 10 days of season between the top and the bottom: the high stands peak around Sep 24, the low ground holds until about Sep 28, and the color comes downhill in between. The date at the top of this page is the 10,000 to 11,000 foot band.
12,000–13,000 ftPeak colorpeak Sep 2428%
11,000–12,000 ftPeak colorpeak Sep 2332%
10,000–11,000 ftJust past peakpeak Sep 2123%
9,000–10,000 ftNearly peakpeak Sep 2814%
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.
That’s 3 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.
Saturday 19 September to Sunday 20 September
You’ll find it peak color.
That's the day our forecast puts peak color here.
12,000–13,000 ftNearly peakpeak Sep 24
11,000–12,000 ftNearly peakpeak Sep 23
10,000–11,000 ftPeak colorpeak Sep 21
9,000–10,000 ftNearly peakpeak Sep 28
Where to drive
Owl Creek Pass, about 8 miles · Million Dollar Highway (US 550), about 18 miles · Dallas Divide (CO 62), about 23 miles
What turns
quaking aspen, Gambel oak, narrowleaf cottonwood
What turns, and when
quaking aspen94%
Gambel oak4%
narrowleaf cottonwood2%
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
