Fall Color in Colorado

As everyone says the middle of the mountains or west slope area would be your best color. How ever if you are just doing the front range area, Rocky Mountain National Park, The Peak to Peak highway west of Boulder, Gunella Pass always has excellent color. It is by Georgetown on I-70 west of Denver. Poudre Canyon west of Fort Collins. Down Colorado Springs way. So many places to see the "GOLD". The last couple of weeks in September would be your best bet. Maybe first week in October.

33 year resident of Colorado... Every year is different. As IDman said, it is a combination of moisture and temps. However, the primary factor is hours of sunlight. Moisture and temps have much more to do with how long the leaves will hold on an mid and lower elevations. Some years we get an early hard freeze and the leaves turn black and fall off. It's a******shoot. Bet on late in the third week of September for prime color. By the mid to end of the fourth week of September most/all of the leaves at the higher elevations will be gone.

The Salida, Buena Vista, Aspen and Gunnison areas are great. We'll spend two weeks camping, Jeeping, ATVing, hiking and chasing the color this year. Aspen ridge in BV is amazing. Also found an equally large aspen grove near Bonanza, but you will need high ground clearance.

If you are limited on time, etc. You can always go up to Estes Park. However, be forewarned, it is absolute gridlock in Rocky Mountain National Park during color season. I know, I lived there for 30 years. Guess why I live in Buena Vista. Before we lived here we stayed at Snowy Peaks in BV.

Last few weeks in September
Take 285 to BV from Denver
Enjoy

you might find better color if you get over the first range of mountains. we went to Salida one year and then drove the jeep up to Aspen and we sure saw a lot of gold.

The aspens dominate the west slope.

Every year is different, depending on the amount of rain received, the nightly low temps, and elevation. There are usually several websites for "aspen watch" or similar. You could also call the C of C for some of the towns you might be interested in and they can give you an estimate of how things are looking.

We just came back from high country north of Creede and a few aspens were already changing a little bit. I think it will be an early cold autumn this year!