The 2017 Colorado Fall Foliage Tour
October 23, 2017

After such an incredible long weekend last Fall that was full of beautiful weather, vivid-yellow Aspen groves, and colorful sunrises and sunsets, I was unbelievably excited to hit the road again this fall to shoot the Colorado Fall foliage throughout the state. Unlike last year, I planned out specific places I wanted to hit up and shots I wanted to create. I kept an eye on Instagram to see how the foliage was doing and it seemed like it was hourly that I was refreshing the weather reports and resort web cams. From what I was seeing and hearing, the leafs seemed to be turning and the weather was looking good enough with 60% rain expected for only one day of the six plus days I had planned. It was go-time… I got the time off work, packed up, and as luck would have it, was even randomly contacted for a commercial shoot right along the route I was going anyway near Kebler Pass.

However, there turned out to be two huge flaws to my plan… First off, Colorado weather is waaaaaaay too unreliable. Within the span of 12-hours, I watched my one-day of a chance of rain turn into 40% plus chance every day with one day at 100% for the majority of the day. But whatever, that’ll mean snow on the peaks…

Secondly though, as much as I tried to read through the BS on Instagram to find “live” photos of the spots I was heading, the foliage was not peaking throughout most of the spots that I planned on hitting. I  jumped the gun. In general though, it seemed like a weird year for the leafs. In past years, there was a bunch of uniformity to the foliage where everything seemed to peak at the same time and an incredibly epic fashion, but this year, there was a lot of green left that was surrounded by other groves that were either already bare or just plain dead and brown.

So over 1200 miles, I saw way too much rain and snow, while shooting a bland foliage year.

I’m already excited for next year though.

Colorado Fall Foliage Wilson Mesa Telluride

Wilson Mesa, Telluride

Colorado Fall Foliage Wilson Peak Telluride

Sunset over Wilson Peak, Telluride

Colorado Fall Foliage Dallas Divide

Sunrise on Hayden Peak from the Dallas Divide

Colorado Fall Foliage Dallas Divide Sneffels

Sunrise on the Sneffels Range from the Dallas Divide

Red Mountain Pass Colorado

Red Mountain Pass

Colorado Fall Foliage Owl Creek Pass

Owl Creek Pass, Ridgeway

Colorado Fall Foliage

Hidden waterfall outside Telluride

Colorado Fall Foliage Ohio Pass Gunnison

Ohio Pass outside Gunnison

Colorado Fall Foliage Kebler Pass

Funky sunset over East Beckwith Mountain on Kebler Pass

Colorado Fall Foliage Lost Lake Kebler Pass

Lost Lake Slough on Kebler Pass

Colorado Fall Foliage Kebler Pass

East Beckwith Mountain on Kebler Pass

Colorado Fall Foliage Kebler Pass

Along Kebler Pass

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