You don’t need to consult a map to know this is not New England where it’s ‘leaf-peeping’ season. And you also don’t need to hop on a plane to witness an amazing seasonal color show. Just take a ride to the mountains and witness nature’s annual gift giving.
While Colorado has plenty of options for this annual ‘changing of the guard,’ the transition from lush to leafless, there’s still plenty to see. But you need to hurry.
“This year is not over yet,” says Dr. Dan West of the state’s Forest Service. “South of Pueblo,” West suggests, is a good place to consider for experiencing nature in full regalia. “The area around Rye is still looking good.” So too, said West, is Cuchara and the Spanish Peaks.
West travels the state year-round to monitor forest health, the good, bad and ugly. On his checklist are things like drought and its impact, insect infestations and this time of year, the autumnal color show.
Because Colorado and the West have been in a prolonged drought, he’s calling 2025 a “mixed bag” for leaf peeping. Lack of moisture, he said, “affects the colors.” And the drought, he said, is statewide.
The lack of normal precipitation, West said, caused an earlier than normal turning of the leaves. “We started seeing early marginal browning (of leaves),” a traditional signal that not only seasons are changing but changing for a reason not entirely based on the calendar.
Also affecting fall mountain vistas are insects, especially pine beetles. The beetles have devoured hundreds of thousands of acres of Colorado high country and millions of miles of forest land across the West and into Alaska. While the West has been voraciously attacked by the beetles, no stretch of forest anywhere in the country has been immune.
The effect pine beetles have is easy to identify. They attack huge swaths of forest, sometimes leaving entire mountain sides ravaged and leaving behind prime kindling for lightning ignited fires. Many forestry experts attribute the beetle’s proliferation to climate change.
Because winter temperatures have not been dropping to the point where the insects would naturally freeze and die, they survive and multiply. When spring arrives, they’re ready for a fresh buffet of timber.
But while pine beetles, along with other insects connected to nature’s culling of the forest, are blamed for this scourge, foresters say they also should not be totally vilified.
Pine beetles actually play an important role in a forest ecosystem, West said. For one thing, they create space for new growth while providing food and shelter for other forest life.
A single tree targeted by pine beetles is not simply one more victim of these hungry insects, but an essential element for forest health. As dead trees break down, they turn back into the soil benefitting both plants and animals. Pine beetles also serve as a food source for other forest populations. In short, they are part of nature’s cycle of life, helping to maintain good ecological balance.
But this season, another variable has entered the equation. The federal government shutdown, which includes thousands of U.S. Forest employees has created something of an unforeseen challenge to not only Colorado’s forest management, but the entire country’s. How it plays out, said West, is yet to be determined. “I’m intertwined with federal partners…we have to work together,” he said. Land surveys—in Colorado that amounts to more than 24 million acres—are done collaboratively.
Because no one can predict how long the government shutdown will last, West said his job won’t change. He will continue doing what is best for Colorado. The focus, he said, “is to serve Colorado” and to steward the gift nature has given to its people.
