Higher ground turns first, so the slopes above the road lead the valley by a few days.
17 reports came in from Gunnison County this week, 5 of them past peak and 4 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 West Elk Wilderness Nearly all of the wilderness is in Gunnison County, which is nearly peak today.By elevation The wilderness runs from about 7,938 to 11,565 feet. That’s 17 days of season between the top and the bottom: the high stands peak around Sep 21, the low ground holds until about Oct 8, and the color comes downhill in between. The date at the top of this page is the 8,000 to 9,000 foot band.
11,000–12,000 ftJust past peakpeak Sep 2115%
10,000–11,000 ftJust past peakpeak Sep 2030%
9,000–10,000 ftPeak colorpeak Sep 2631%
8,000–9,000 ftNearly peakpeak Oct 218%
7,000–8,000 ftStarting to turnpeak Oct 86%
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.
See it now PhenoCam Network, SNOD-MA camera, 19 km away, captured Sep 25.
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.
Friday 2 October to Saturday 3 October
You’ll find it just past peak up high, peak color lower down.
Up at 11,000 feet the stands peak around Sep 21; down at 9,000 feet they hold on until about Oct 2. Pick your elevation for the day you come.
11,000–12,000 ftJust past peakpeak Sep 21
10,000–11,000 ftFadingpeak Sep 20
9,000–10,000 ftJust past peakpeak Sep 26
8,000–9,000 ftPeak colorpeak Oct 2
Where to drive
Kebler Pass Road (County Road 12), about 13 miles · McClure Pass (CO 133), about 28 miles · Maroon Creek Road, about 31 miles
What turns
quaking aspen, Gambel oak
What turns, and when
quaking aspen97%
Gambel oak3%
Also named across Colorado, outside what the canopy read measures here: Narrowleaf Cottonwood, 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
