Higher ground turns first, so the slopes above the road lead the valley by a few days.
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 Cruces Basin Wilderness Nearly all of the wilderness is in Rio Arriba County, which is starting to turn today.By elevation The wilderness runs from about 8,919 to 10,634 feet. That’s 12 days of season between the top and the bottom: the high stands peak around Sep 26, 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 9,000 to 9,500 foot band.
10,500–11,000 ftPeak colorpeak Sep 2610%
10,000–10,500 ftNearly peakpeak Sep 2838%
9,500–10,000 ftNearly peakpeak Oct 135%
9,000–9,500 ftStarting to turnpeak Oct 411%
8,500–9,000 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.
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.
Saturday 3 October to Sunday 4 October
You’ll find it just past peak up high, peak color lower down.
Up at 10,500 feet the stands peak around Sep 26; down at 9,500 feet they hold on until about Oct 4. Pick your elevation for the day you come.
10,500–11,000 ftJust past peakpeak Sep 26
10,000–10,500 ftJust past peakpeak Sep 28
9,500–10,000 ftJust past peakpeak Oct 1
9,000–9,500 ftPeak colorpeak Oct 4
Where to drive
Cumbres and La Manga passes (CO 17), about 10 miles · Wolf Creek Pass (US 160), about 47 miles · Enchanted Circle (NM 38, 522 and 64), about 53 miles
What turns
quaking aspen, narrowleaf cottonwood, Gambel oak
What turns, and when
quaking aspen95%
narrowleaf cottonwood3%
Gambel oak2%
Also named across New Mexico, outside what the canopy read measures here: Rocky Mountain Maple, Bigtooth Maple.
Aspens turn gold in the Sangre de Cristo and Jemez mountains, Gambel oaks go russet and orange at lower elevations, and cottonwoods line the Rio Grande bosque in butter 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
