Circle Sept. 20 on your calendar for peak fall colors in Colorado mountains

Fall colors apparently will peak in the northern mountains the weekend of Sept and this year s show likely will pale in comparison to the past two years according to forest expert Dan West West an entomologist for the Colorado State Forest Amenity who annually spends late-summer weeks evaluating the healthcare of forests around the state from the air and on the ground believes leaf peepers may be disappointed this year at least in comparison to the past two was a banner year West disclosed It was wonderful Everywhere you went in the state aspens had the fullest crowns going into the fall lots of leaves no maladies no issues was a good year but certainly not as good as I think is going to be an OK year but not great We all have short memories West continued Over the last couple of years it s been so good This year there could be a bit of a letdown because specific of the colors are going to be muted West expects colors in the central mountains Summit County Eagle County and the Interstate corridor to peak the weekend of Sept - The southern mountains should see their peak early in October So far there has been little color change West has observed only hints of what is coming The coldest areas river bottoms selected of the willows chosen of the cottonwoods along riparian areas are just now starting to turn West commented Up north off Highway on the way to Steamboat things are just now starting A few trees are showing colors that West attributes to drought damage rather than the seasonal fall color shift that signals winter is coming Related Articles Are Colorado leaves already changing We separate fact from fiction Guanella Pass could face temporary closures during leaf-peeping weekends to avert tragedy Breckenridge adding wildflower advisories online to keep people up to date At this point it s kind of hard to tease out what is yellow from brown West mentioned You ve got to get out of your car and look Everything I got out and looked at that looked fairly yellow it was pretty much several kind of drought damage Despite the prospect of fall foliage falling short of the brilliance seen in current years West says it will be worth the gasoline for road trips this fall As far as the I corridor is concerned I still feel like there is going to be plenty of show West explained Chosen stands still look green as you re driving through a few look a little off color if you re looking really closely But for the the majority part it s just starting to get into the swing of things It s now time to start planning your trips For the second year the Breckenridge Tourism Office is ramping up Leaf Brief an online activity that will offer weekly photo updates tracking the progress of fall colors in and around Breckenridge Updates will be posted on the tourism office s website gobreck com and at gobreck on Instagram Leaf Brief also will offer tips and trail recommendations The Town of Breckenridge will offer free guided foliage hikes West believes it might be a good year to consider checking out fall colors on the eastern plains and in riparian areas east of Interstate Large swaths of eastern Colorado have evaded the drought plaguing majority of the state west of They ve had above-average precipitation West commented The cottonwoods look really beautiful Unfortunately there is an unsettling hue in specific Front Range forests the color of rust in trees that don t take part in seasonal fall foliage changes the evergreen pines Conifers along the Front Range are really suffering West reported If you ve driven I or over Kenosha Pass you cannot help notice the pockets of dead trees from the mountain pine beetle Are Colorado leaves already changing We separate fact from fiction This file is auto-generated function d l use strict l querySelector d addEventListener undefined typeof URL d wp d wp d wp receiveEmbedMessage d wp receiveEmbedMessage function e var t e records if t t secret t message t value a-zA-Z - test t secret for var s r n a l querySelectorAll 'iframe data-secret ' t secret ' ' o l querySelectorAll 'blockquote data-secret ' t secret ' ' c new RegExp https i i i