Natural History Wanderings

The Rocky Mt. Nature Photographers Forum has a number of color reports and photos for the last few days.  Overall several people feel it is not a good year and some areas are starting to turn brown, but there are still color to be seen in some areas. Here are a few highlights posted the yesterday and today.

•  10/7/13 Crosho Lake road in the Flat Tops. The Boat puts on quite a show.
• 10/7/13 you all missed the “Boat” by not coming out to the Steamboat area this weekend. With the fresh fallen snow, it was nothing short of spectacular
• 10/7/13 CO12 from LaVeta to Cuchara, and it’s not a great year. Other than some small patches of nice color, everything is a mix of past prime and falling leaves or green and falling leaves
• 10/6/13 he best color the past 2 days was at the end of CR5. On the drive past Telluride, the aspens below Wilson had plenty of green, but looked like they were turning brown quickly. The trees along the San Miguel River near Sawpit looked nice, just past peak.
• 10/6/13 Marshal Pass yesterday. There was some nice, healthy aspen stands on the east side. Some nice groves on the west but not the vistas. Dallas divide was the worst I’ve ever seen. The oak brush on the Cimmaron ridge are turning brown, not on fire like normal.
• 10/6/13  San Juans. Not a great year at all. 25%-50% from Dolores to Telluride (still!).
  No greater than 50%-75% on Last Dollar, CR 5 & CR 7 roads. Pretty mediocre, actually. As Morris noted, a few areas are really great, but you have to search for them.
  Worth seeing if you live close by, but certainly not worth driving a long way.
• 10/6/13 the colors are done for the year except for the rare group that may still have color. I thought that Ohio Pass and Silver Jack had the best colors for what I saw from Thursday until yesterday.
  Don’t bother going south of Red Mountain Pass as everything looks bad. Cuchara is still green and going brown. Dallas Divide area is probably toast by now.
  All in all not a good year for the color in Colorado, but there are always those areas that are breathtakingly beautiful.
• 10/6/13 After driving Last Dollar Road, County Rd. 7, Owl Creek Pass (best pics of the day) and FR727 yesterday looking for good color and places to camp that did not have snow, I’d have to say that fall colors in CO is pretty well done. 😦
  There are pockets of good color here & there, but not easy to get to and burning fuel to hunt ’em down isn’t cost effective. I will say that Cimarron Ridge provided some spectacular shots (in my opinion) yesterday.

Go to Rocky Mt. Nature Photographers Forum to see photos and more reports.