{"id":16321,"date":"2025-10-01T01:07:00","date_gmt":"2025-10-01T01:07:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/late-summer-rain-sets-stage-for-stunning-fall-display\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T03:56:21","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T03:56:21","slug":"late-summer-rain-sets-stage-for-stunning-fall-display","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/late-summer-rain-sets-stage-for-stunning-fall-display\/","title":{"rendered":"Late-summer rain sets stage for stunning fall display"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"A
A faint rainbow arcs across the San Juan Mountains on Sunday. \u201cWe\u2019re setting up for a real vibrant year,\u201d said David Casey, a supervising forester for the San Juan National Forest, about the peak season of Southwest Colorado\u2019s vibrant fall color display. \u201cThe heavy, wind-blowing rains didn\u2019t occur. It\u2019s already here, and I think we\u2019re in good shape this year,\u201d he said. (Aaron Lewis\/Special to The Journal)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

This autumn, the color display across the San Juan Mountains is turning out to be something from a storybook, with peak change still around the corner.<\/p>\n

Colorado\u2019s famed aspens are putting on a brilliant show. Mountainsides are forming a striking patchwork of vibrant yellows against the deep-blue conifers, and their shimmering leaves appear like paint strokes.<\/p>\n

Along Colorado Highway 145 and through Montezuma, Dolores, San Miguel counties, the bursts of color are eye-catching, a display that draws travelers to the mountain highways and trail heads to catch the fleeting fall show \u2014 or even paint it.<\/p>\n

David Casey, a supervising forester with the Dolores Ranger District, said the vivid gold that aspens are known for will grow bolder and more sweeping early next week<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"On
On Sunday, golden leaves frame Glasgow Avenue in Rico. Fall colors peaked along stretches of Colorado Highway 145, especially where the historic mountain town is located in higher elevation. (Aaron Lewis\/Special to The Journal)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

\u201cWe are set up for a vibrant peak year,\u201d Casey said. Key places to visit, he noted, include the Roaring Fork area accessible through Bear Creek, Cayton Campground and Trout Lake, a local favorite famous for its \u201cmirror effect\u201d when golden aspens reflect in the water in the morning.<\/p>\n

Spectacular places to drive for prime viewing include stretches along Colorado 145 near Lizard Head Pass and north toward Telluride where high-elevation aspens pop in gold against darker, surrounding pines.<\/p>\n

\u201cThings are slowly changing, with an abrupt change around Matterhorn Campground outside Telluride. From there, the leaves are at least a week ahead of the stuff to the south,\u201d Casey said. \u201cIndividual aspen clones are going off, but we are about a week to 1\u00bd weeks out from peak.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"The
The clouds are opening on a blue sky Sunday after a short and light rain shower. Along Colorado Highway 145, Trout Lake is a popular stopping point for people glimpsing golden aspens reflecting in the water. (Aaron Lewis\/Special to The Journal)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

The Dolores River corridor adds its own layer of color. Gambel oak are popping in red. Bright golden narrowleaf cottonwoods line the bends of the river, their leaves flickering in the wind before falling in heaps on trails and streams.<\/p>\n

Casey said bursts of color aren\u2019t always guaranteed.<\/p>\n

Each year, the display hinges on an intricate mix of weather and the long-term health of trees. For instance, a weak snowpack and a warm, dry spring stressed many aspens and other trees in parts of the state<\/a>, dulling their usual glow and leaving the leaves looking browner.<\/p>\n

Lately, early fall showers and late summer rain have been ideal conditions in the San Juans and Uncompahgre National Forest, keeping soil moist for aspens and reducing stress to allow the forest to stay healthy.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s been a couple years where it\u2019s been dry all summer. We didn\u2019t get the late summer rains or very little monsoon. That\u2019s going to transpire into leaves falling off earlier or to dry up earlier,\u201d Casey said.<\/p>\n

Even in good years, fall color can be cut short by sudden storms \u2013 early snow, heavy rainfall or high winds \u2013 that strip the branches before the peak or leave hillsides looking ragged.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s the longer-term picture that is more sobering. Foresters have been tracking aspen decline since the early 2000s. This is especially apparent at lower elevations and on southern-facing slopes where soil dries out faster, Casey said. Prolonged drought, hotter summers and shrinking snowpacks are all contributors to tree stress, leaving the trees more susceptible to pests, uncharacteristic fires or slow regeneration.<\/p>\n

\u201cAreas that are lacking water \u2013 lower elevations and southern-facing slopes \u2013 those aspens are declining faster. I\u2019m seeing low-elevation clones declining to the point where they\u2019re not growing back,\u201d Casey said.<\/p>\n

Casey said those shifts alter the very characteristics of mountainsides, as aspens or pine trees die off and are replaced by brushy Gambel oak. This complexity, attributed in part to the extended drought, remains a focus for foresters at the San Juan National Forest Service, Casey said, where scientific journal reports and drought studies direct priorities involving land management and research.<\/p>\n

Crowds take in fall<\/div>\n

At Trout Lake on Sunday, a bride\u2019s white dress sharply popped against the darker rocks and slate-blue waters. The air smelled of pine, cool and clean. Under clear blue skies, travelers moved steadily along Highway 145, turning at pull-offs to take in the fall colors with their eyes, cameras and easels.<\/p>\n

The couple, one from Dolores and one from Telluride, decided to marry Sunday along the scenic route as a homage to both places and their \u201cchance meeting.\u201d<\/p>\n

A little farther up the highway, at a San Juan Mountain Scenic View pull-off, people touted wide-lens cameras to get panoramic views of rain sweeping across Mount Sneffels before the last of the good light dimmed. Racing to capture the glowing landscape in oil, Grand Junction artist Monica Esposito kept being pulled from the canvas by her barking dog to quiet him before resuming her strokes.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe whole point is to come and study the light. I knew the colors were good this weekend, so I came out,\u201d Esposito said.<\/p>\n

\"Monica
Monica Esposito, an artist from Grand Junction, paints with oils Sunday from the Dallas Divide in an area overlooking Mount Sneffels. Esposito rushed to paint a rough idea of the sunlight before it died out. (Aaron Lewis\/Special to The Journal)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

\"Lee
Lee Xu zooms in on a rain shower over Mount Sneffels that is visible from the Dallas Divide. The area featured colorful rolling hills, red underbrush and views of the prominent 14er. (Aaron Lewis\/Special to The Journal)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Lee Xu, a retired financier from New Jersey, said he meticulously researched and planned a two-week vacation during this time to take in fall colors in its full glory. A photography enthusiast that prefers to capture animals, he was mesmerized by the look of fall in the morning light.<\/p>\n

\u201cAfter rain, the color reflects itself in the water. I\u2019ve been to quite a few places, Telluride, Ouray, and the leaves are changing rather quickly,\u201d Xu said. \u201cI saw a moose near a stream in Silverton.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said gets up every morning and rushes outside without bothering to have breakfast.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Mountains near peak aspen color, drawing leaf-peepers to Colorado Highway 145<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":16322,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[44,28,60,29,199,97,414,88],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-16321","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-dolores","tag-headlines","tag-montezuma-county","tag-newsletter","tag-san-juan-national-forest","tag-telluride","tag-weather","tag-weather-news"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16321","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16321"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16321\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20776,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16321\/revisions\/20776"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16322"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16321"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16321"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16321"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=16321"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}