Higher ground turns first, so the slopes above the road lead the valley by a few days.
8 reports came in from Santa Fe County this week, 3 of them patchy color and 3 of them still green. They moved our date 3 days later. 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 Santa Fe National Forest San Miguel County holds most of the forest and is starting to turn today. That’s the county as a whole, which peaks 10 days earlier than the forest’s own stands: the forest is still green. Rio Arriba County, to the northwest, is 4 days ahead. Sandoval County, to the west, is on the same day.By elevation The forest runs from about 6,141 to 10,508 feet. That’s 17 days of season between the top and the bottom: the high stands peak around Oct 6, the low ground holds until about Oct 17, and the color comes downhill in between. The date at the top of this page is the 6,000 to 7,000 foot band.
10,000–11,000 ftStarting to turnpeak Oct 66%
9,000–10,000 ftStarting to turnpeak Oct 912%
8,000–9,000 ftStarting to turnpeak Oct 1224%
7,000–8,000 ftStarting to turnpeak Oct 1531%
6,000–7,000 ftStill greenpeak Oct 1721%
SepOctNov
Height off 3DEP inside the forest’s own boundary; each band carries the date our model gives that elevation, corrections and all. The percentage is how much of the forest 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.
Monday 19 October to Tuesday 20 October
You’ll find it peak color.
That's the day our forecast puts peak color here.
9,000–10,000 ftJust past peakpeak Oct 9
8,000–9,000 ftJust past peakpeak Oct 12
7,000–8,000 ftJust past peakpeak Oct 15
6,000–7,000 ftJust past peakpeak Oct 17
Where to drive
Alpine Loop (NM 475), about 26 miles · High Road to Taos, about 28 miles · Sandia Crest Road (NM 536), about 50 miles
What turns
quaking aspen, Gambel oak, narrowleaf cottonwood, willow, bigtooth maple
What turns, and when
quaking aspen42%
Gambel oak15%
narrowleaf cottonwood15%
willow10%
bigtooth maple6%
serviceberry6%
Also named across New Mexico, outside what the canopy read measures here: Rocky Mountain 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
