Slowly I’ve been seeing a subtle change come over the landscape of Rocky Mountain National Park. A few weeks back while hiking on the west side of Rocky, subtle color changes were starting to unfold in the underbrush. Wild Geraniums, and roses were starting to turn orange and red. The alpine tundra was turning from green to golden brown and red. Elk bugles increased their interval and became more frequent when a herd was nearby. It was obvious, slowly summer was giving ground to summer in Rocky Mountain National Park.
Fast forward a couple of week and our subtle march towards fall is quickly gaining momentum around the park. Signs now are becoming much more obvious by the day. The elk rut is now ongoing, the underbrush is getting very colorful and even aspen trees are now starting to turn from green to gold in patches. Slowly is moving towards all at once steadily in Rocky.
Twenty-eight years of photographing Rocky, it always feels like peak fall color is going to be early, or late, bad or good based on early observations. With all that said, I find the reality is that the changeover to autumn and fall color more or less reverts back to the mean and the color change proceeds more or less the same each year. There is no doubt that some areas look better than others did in previous years but there are also locations that look better or pop more than the did in years prior in RMNP.
This year could be a little different than prior years in Rocky. While I would expect more of the same, our record warm and dry year along the Front Range of Colorado appears to be effecting the color change somewhat. By the end of summer one could easily observe how stressed some of the aspen trees in the park where from lack of moisture and increased exposure to warm days. Some of those trees have already turned their leaves brown or are exhibiting early color change.
While I cant predict exactly how the color change is going to occur this year in Rocky Mountain National Park, If I had to wager a guess, I would say it will be an average year and likely a bit on the early side. That being said, there will still be patches of awesome color and while some of the classic locations in the park me be duds, some other area of the park may exhibit spectacular color not observed in past years. As always, weather will play a role and snow, fog, rain can all help to create conditions for photographers that can take average color and take it to another level. Either way, I’ll try my best to keep everyone posted and of course will keep the blog updated as fall marches on in Rocky.