The fall color season in Rocky is quickly wrapping up and losing steam. Each day that passes, more and more of our beautiful autumn palette falls to the ground, turns brown and is blown away. As I’ve repeated a numerous times over the past two months, its been a banner fall for color in Rocky Mountain National Park but as always, its somber to see it come and go so quickly.
The positive so far is that its been very mild in Rocky. We’ve had snow above 10,000 ft. a couple of times this fall, but we have not had a really hard freeze as of yet. This has kept some color in the grasses and caused the pace of the color change to occur slowly and evenly. The color that remains in the park at this point is isolated and located in the lower elevations of the park, below 8500 ft and it could be found in small patches.
Winds, which have mostly behaved themselves over the course of this years fall color season, have also begun to pickup with each new weather system that passes over RMNP. Obviously, as this late a stage in the fall season, high winds will quickly strip the remaining trees and ground cover of their leaves. If I had to take a guess, I would be most if not all of the fall color will be wrapped up by the middle of next with a possibility of some small intimate type scenes of leaves of the ground or an individual tree here or there.
While the wind is likely to finish up most of the color in the coming week, we have had a very mild fall with very moderate temperatures. This looks like this is going to continue through the next week which bodes well for keeping the lakes and streams of Rocky unfrozen and flowing. If that occurs, we should have a nice transition from autumn to the ‘Shoulder Season’, aka the ‘Brown Season’. That means hiking should remain relatively snow and ice free for a little while longer while also keeping water and streams open for reflection images during a time when we can get some dramatic morning and afternoon light.
So while I never like to say goodbye to fall, it’s always a bit of a relief when it wraps up. The intensity to not miss a day out in the field, the busy nature of the park this time of year, and the ability to shoot what nature is giving you instead of focusing on autumn themed images is freeing. While I’m looking forward towards changing seasons, winter and snow, I’m sure I’ll find a pocket or two of fall here and there in Rocky where autumn still lives on for yet another day.