{"id":44778,"date":"2021-09-10T00:09:00","date_gmt":"2021-09-10T06:09:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/southwest-colorado-can-expect-vibrant-fall-foliage-displays\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T03:21:19","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T09:21:19","slug":"southwest-colorado-can-expect-vibrant-fall-foliage-displays","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/southwest-colorado-can-expect-vibrant-fall-foliage-displays\/","title":{"rendered":"Southwest Colorado can expect vibrant fall foliage displays"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"As
As the aspen turn their golden fall colors, the 13,232-foot Hesperus Mountain turns white with snow, indicating the changing season in this file photo.<\/span>The Journal file photo<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

Slowly but surely, green is melting into gold as summer gives way to fall \u2014 and Southwest Colorado will be privy to some of the best displays in the state.<\/p>\n

The Four Corners region can expect \u201cparticularly better\u201d fall foliage this year in comparison to last year, according to AccuWeather\u2019s 2021 fall foliage forecast, released Wednesday.<\/p>\n

The North American Monsoon was more active this year than last, and the moisture it brought to the U.S. Southwest will translate into rich hues that grace the leaves of trees \u2014 particularly aspens, it said.<\/p>\n

The green leaves of aspen trees are known for glowing golden shades in the fall, with the normal peak occurring from mid-September through mid-October, AccuWeather reported.<\/p>\n

\"Horses
Horses graze in a pasture along the Dolores River in front of a stand of aspen trees in their fall colors.<\/span>The Journal file photo<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

The Rocky Mountains are divided this year, with the Four Corners region falling into the half that will be tinged with more striking fall tones, it said.<\/p>\n

The northern Rockies experienced less rainfall and more drought, likely leading to dimmer landscapes and early leaf drop, the report predicted.<\/p>\n

Locally, the first flushes of autumn are seeping into the scenery from Molas Pass to Silverton, according to this year\u2019s San Juan National Forest Fall Color Report<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Although leaves are in the very early stages of seasonal transition, the region so far has an estimated 1% color change.<\/p>\n

Green aspen leaves in the area are specked with tiny shimmers of yellow, it says.<\/p>\n

An interactive map<\/a> from the Smoky Mountains allows users to toggle between dates to see levels of projected fall foliage.<\/p>\n

While in the first part of fall, the Rockies will see ongoing hot and dry conditions, An Aug. 10 AccuWeather <\/a> report predicts that a swift switch in seasons may occur in October \u2014 although snow may dwindle in November before picking back up.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

summer\u2019s monsoon season paved the way for colorful fall scenes, according to foliage report <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":44779,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[28,167,29,414,88],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-44778","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-headlines","tag-local-news-lead","tag-newsletter","tag-weather","tag-weather-news"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44778","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=44778"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44778\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":86226,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44778\/revisions\/86226"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/44779"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44778"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=44778"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=44778"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=44778"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}