Every year, a tourism promotion website around Great Smoky Mountains National Park in North Carolina releases a fall foliage prediction map for the entire country.
The map is fun to play with as it shows a week-by-week prediction for each state between Sept. 2 and Nov. 18. It also breaks it down on a county-by-county basis, displaying estimates for the degree of color change, from minimal or patchy to near-peak and peak.
It’s “the ultimate visual planning guide to the annual progressive changing of the leaves,” the website says. “While no tool can be 100% accurate, this tool is meant to help travelers better time their trips to have the best opportunity of catching peak color each year.”
But as it turns out, the smokymountains.com map lines up pretty well with what Colorado State Forest Service expert Dan West told The Denver Post last week.
The map shows that north-central Colorado, including parts of Grand and Clear Creek counties, will get the action going first, with patchy colors starting around Sept. 16 and peaking about two weeks later. From there, the yellows and reds will expand out in all directions, with areas in Boulder and Jefferson counties beginning to show partial changes around Sept. 23.
By September 30, the state will light up like a fireworks show, according to the map, with colors throughout the northern and central parts of the state, including Summit, Eagle and Lake counties, as well as further south and west toward Park, Chafee and Gunnison Counties.
Between Oct. 7-14, the majority of the mountainous parts of the state will be peaking or near peak, including Ouray, Gunnison, San Juan, Chafee, San Miguel, Lake, Park, Pitkin, Eagle, Summit and Garfield counties. The Denver area should be in full foliage later in October.
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