Natural History Wanderings

The Rocky Mt. Nature Photographers Forum has a many new color reports over the last few days. Fall color is still early in most spots. Here are  highlights posted between September 28 and 30. Go to Rocky Mt. Nature Photographers Forum to see photo and more reports.

• 9/30  At Maroon Bells this morning. Where there was brilliant color just a few days ago now shows gray. Lake was glass until the dawn – then the mirror image scrubbed away within minutes.
• 9/30  Just spent the weekend running all over the Wasatch Mountains. Overall, there’s still a whole lot of green aspens and oak. The maples are mostly looking good. In a few areas they’re nearly done while in others they’re still green. The general rule is: go up! The higher you go, the better things are looking.
  On Saturday morning the aspens on Solider Summit were mostly green. On Sunday night I saw a whole lot of fantastic color. It was as if Ma Nature just went through with a paint brush overnight. Really, that big of a difference.
  Nebo Peak Scenic Drive has some nice aspens up high. Probably still a few days to find some color in the aspens. A few maples looking good but a lot of green leaves.
  Big Cottonwood Canyon and Little Cottonwood Canyon are still showing lots of green leaves. There are spots of color in all the varieties of foliage but there are no mountainsides totally blanketed in yellow/red/orange. I’m guessing 5-7 days and things will be looking good.
  Provo Canyon is still pretty green. There’s a little red here and there in the maples but it’s still looking pretty later summer-y.
  American Fork Canyon is where it’s at right now. There’s lots of good color in the aspens, cottonwoods and maples. Oaks are still pretty green. The dirt roads that extend out from Tibble Fork Reservoir are all showing some great color. There’s still a few days left to get in on the party, though. Aspens above Silver Lake are looking good but they’re probably only 40% right now. In a few days that area will go off BIG.
• 9/29  Peak colors this weekend in the Winter Park, Frasier and west entrance to RMNP areas.
• 9/29  Aspen from Durango via 550 and Grand Mesa.
  The cold and the storm did some damage. It could also be just past Peak in certain areas. Silverton and Red Mountain Pass, looking bright yellow when I can through on Friday was getting very rust colored. I only found a few decent spots around Ironton. In Silverton from the Gas Station I could see some gray un-leaved areas.
  I did not spend much time investigating Ridgway. From the 550, there were more bright yellow stands up on Owl Creek Pass but as a whole this is still days away – if it survives the cold.
  On Grand Mesa, the top area yellows are equally “burnt” and turning rusty. On the more northern end there were a a few good hillsides but generally not ready.
• 9/29 Capitol Peak. It really is just starting to turn. On the way, many of the aspens were turning brown around Twin lakes and most of the way up to Independence Pass. There were only a few small pockets of brilliant color. Same can be said for oaks in the lower valleys around Aspen. Higher up they are just starting to turn.
• 9/28  Drove the Flat Tops Scenic Byway today…Dunkley Pass area 95+% green. Ripple Creek Pass area about 50% gold, some nice pockets of red and gold. Road from the turnoff to Trappers Lake west to Buford, has some really nice willow and cottonwood in full color along the river. Went to Capital Peak overlook in Aspen for sunset, I’d guess it’s a week to peak. Prince Creek Road will be there in 3-4 days
• 9/28   Mt Sopris off the Prince Creek road. The view is big. I’m guessing the color is about 30% here. However the scrub oak seems further along vs the aspen trees. Ill guess i need another 3-4 days for thus view of Sopris to really shine.
• 9/28  Drove the Peak to Peak Byway from Blackhawk to Estes Park a couple of times over the past week. Color was very spotty driving up on Sunday, but there was one particular aspen stand just north of Nederland that looked great. When driving down on Thursday it was amazing to see how quickly the color changed, a lot more yellow up there. Things should look really nice all this weekend. The road is good all the way, just be careful of a few potholes and shoulders that have disappeared especially on Highway 7 approaching the Allenspark area due to the floods. Evidence of the floods and rock slides is definitely visible in the area Camp Saint Malo and Wind River Ranch, but the most of the rest of the byway (except for any still-closed side roads down the canyons) appears unaffected.
• 9/28/13   Boreas Pass. Don’t bother for now. Very spotty yellow and only up higher on the road. The hillside the road runs through above Como is 70-80% green. And, the yellows that have turned don’t look very bright except for just a few. Only a very slight dusting on Mt. Silverheels, so all in all not worth the trip. Tripped the shutter 4 times. On top of lousy conditions the wind was relentless. There were a lot of trees blown down and broken off. Some even on the road. Both aspen and pines were blown down. I would say the area needs 5-7 days to be near peak, and if the wind doesn’t quit, there may be no leaves to turn.
  Oh yeah, Kenosha was the same, very spotty and a few days to go for peak color.