When is peak fall color at Wheeler Peak Wilderness?

Our forecast puts peak color at Wheeler Peak Wilderness around 6 Oct. The four days to aim for are 5 to 8 Oct. We publish our error rate.

Wheeler Peak Wilderness Fall Foliage: 2026 Peak Color Forecast

Q: What trees turn color at Wheeler Peak Wilderness?

Quaking Aspen, Narrowleaf Cottonwood, Gambel Oak, 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.

Peak color6 OctAim for 5 to 8 Oct

In the wilderness today, Sep 25Starting to turn

Higher ground turns first, so the slopes above the road lead the valley by a few days.

Weather Hard frost Thursday night. Peak may come early and go fast.

1 report came in from Taos County this week, 1 of them still green. 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 Wheeler Peak Wilderness Nearly all of the wilderness is in Taos County, which is starting to turn today. Colfax County, to the east, is on the same day.

By elevation The wilderness runs from about 9,207 to 12,389 feet. That’s 11 days of season between the top and the bottom: the high stands peak around Sep 29, the low ground holds until about Oct 5, and the color comes downhill in between. The date at the top of this page is the 9,000 to 10,000 foot band.

12,000–13,000 ftNearly peakpeak Sep 2913%
11,000–12,000 ftNearly peakpeak Sep 2833%
10,000–11,000 ftNearly peakpeak Sep 3032%
9,000–10,000 ftStarting to turnpeak Oct 520%

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.

Plan this trip

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.

ArrivingLeaving

Monday 5 October to Tuesday 6 October

You’ll find it just past peak up high, peak color lower down.

Up at 12,000 feet the stands peak around Sep 29; down at 10,000 feet they hold on until about Oct 5. Pick your elevation for the day you come.

12,000–13,000 ftJust past peakpeak Sep 29
11,000–12,000 ftJust past peakpeak Sep 28
10,000–11,000 ftJust past peakpeak Sep 30
9,000–10,000 ftPeak colorpeak Oct 5

Where to drive: Enchanted Circle (NM 38, 522 and 64), about 2 miles · High Road to Taos, about 43 miles · Highway of Legends (CO 12), about 56 miles
What turns: quaking aspen, narrowleaf cottonwood, willow

What turns, and when

quaking aspen86%
narrowleaf cottonwood9%
willow6%

Every one of these turns yellow or gold here. The shades only tell the species apart.

Also named across New Mexico, outside what the canopy read measures here: Gambel Oak, 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

All of New Mexico