When is peak fall color at Snowy Range Recreation Area?

Our forecast puts peak color at Snowy Range Recreation Area around 13 Sep. The four days to aim for are 12 to 15 Sep. We publish our error rate.

Snowy Range Recreation Area Fall Foliage: 2026 Peak Color Forecast

Q: What trees turn color at Snowy Range Recreation Area?

Quaking Aspen, Narrowleaf Cottonwood, Rocky Mountain Maple, Water Birch, Willow. The Tetons rising above the golden cottonwoods of the Snake River flats is one of the most famous fall landscapes in the American West, and the aspen groves at elevation add hillsides of gold.

Peak color13 SepAim for 12 to 15 Sep

In the recreation area today, Sep 25Just past peak

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

Weather Wind to 40 mph Saturday. Color may come down before it turns.

Weather Hard frost Tuesday 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 Snowy Range Recreation Area Carbon County holds most of the recreation area and is peak color today. That’s the county as a whole, which peaks 12 days later than the recreation area’s own stands: the recreation area is just past peak. Albany County, to the northeast, is 8 days ahead.

By elevation The recreation area runs from about 10,079 to 11,341 feet. It turns together: there isn’t enough relief here for the color to come down in stages.

11,000–11,500 ftFadingpeak Sep 109%
10,500–11,000 ftFadingpeak Sep 955%
10,000–10,500 ftFadingpeak Sep 1231%

Height off 3DEP inside the recreation area’s own boundary; each band carries the date our model gives that elevation, corrections and all. The percentage is how much of the recreation area stands in it.

Today from the glees camera, 5 km from Snowy Range Recreation Area — See it now PhenoCam Network, Glacier Lakes Ecosystem Experiments Site camera, 5 km away, captured Sep 24.

That’s 2 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

Saturday 12 September to Sunday 13 September

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

Up at 11,000 feet the stands peak around Sep 10; down at 10,500 feet they hold on until about Sep 12. Pick your elevation for the day you come.

11,000–11,500 ftJust past peakpeak Sep 10
10,500–11,000 ftJust past peakpeak Sep 9
10,000–10,500 ftPeak colorpeak Sep 12

Where to drive: Snowy Range Scenic Byway (WY 130), about 3 miles · Cache la Poudre Canyon (CO 14), about 61 miles · Trail Ridge Road (US 34), about 73 miles
What turns: narrowleaf cottonwood, quaking aspen, willow, water birch, thinleaf alder

What turns, and when

narrowleaf cottonwood31%
quaking aspen28%
willow21%
water birch10%
thinleaf alder10%

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

Also named across Wyoming, outside what the canopy read measures here: Rocky Mountain Maple.

The Tetons rising above the golden cottonwoods of the Snake River flats is one of the most famous fall landscapes in the American West, and the aspen groves at elevation add hillsides of gold.

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 Wyoming