Our guide to making the most of a Colorado fall, from leaf peeping to pumpkin patches, plus so much more.
By Nookhaven Staff | September 9, 2026
There’s a group of friends who’ve made the same plan every September for years now: a weekend camping near Guanella Pass, tents pitched somewhere along the aspen groves close to the Abyss Lake Trailhead. It started as a one-off trip and turned into a standing tradition, the kind of plan that only requires a text asking which weekend works. The hike up to Abyss Lake winds through some of the thickest aspen stands on the Front Range, and by late September the whole trail is lit gold, the kind of light that makes people stop mid-conversation just to look at it. Mornings are cold enough for coffee to matter and evenings are still warm enough to sit outside for it. It’s the kind of trip that convinces people fall is Colorado’s best season, not just its prettiest one.
Camping may not be for everyone, and it doesn’t need to be. There’s a whole season’s worth of ways to get the same feeling without a tent. Here’s our guide to making the most of a Colorado fall.
Chase the color while it’s here
It’s been a dry year, and that’s going to shape this fall’s colors more than usual. Colorado is in drought almost statewide right now, and trees under stress tend to turn earlier and move through their color faster than in a wet year. Think shorter windows, not duller ones. Here’s roughly when to go, moving south as the season progresses.
For anyone newer to Colorado, here’s what each region actually refers to:
- Northern Mountains — Steamboat Springs, Cameron Pass
- North-Central Mountains — Rocky Mountain National Park, Peak-to-Peak Highway, and the Boulder/Front Range foothills, including Guanella Pass
- Central Mountains — Aspen, Vail, Summit County
- Western & Southwestern Mountains — Gunnison, Crested Butte, Telluride, Ouray
- Southern Front Range — Pikes Peak, Colorado Springs, Trinidad
- Southern San Juans — Durango, Pagosa Springs
Given the dry summer, we’d nudge all of these a few days earlier than you might expect based on past years. Once color starts moving through an area, expect it to move fast this year. In other words, don’t wait if a weekend looks right.
Get lost in a maze, then find your pumpkin
This is the one part of fall that drought doesn’t touch. The Front Range has no shortage of pumpkin patches this year, and a few stand out for corn mazes specifically if that’s the main event for your group:
- Anderson Farms (Erie) — Colorado’s longest-running corn maze, 25 acres of it, open Sept. 23 through Oct. 31
- Denver Botanic Gardens at Chatfield Farms (Littleton) — a 7-acre maze open Fridays through Sundays, Sept. 18 through Nov. 1, plus their one-weekend-only Pumpkin Festival Oct. 9–11 (timed tickets required)
- Rock Creek Farm (Broomfield) — worth a special mention, since it’s not just a pumpkin patch; it has three corn mazes of its own, opening Sept. 26
Beyond those three, the patch list runs long and good: Fritzler Farm Park in LaSalle, Rocky Mountain Pumpkin Patch in Longmont, Mile High Farms in Bennett, Four Mile Historic Park right in Denver, and more out toward Kiowa and Monument if you’re up for a drive. Most run weekends through October, so there’s no need to rush. The closer-in spots do get busy on the nicest Saturdays, so you’ll want to plan ahead.
If you want your fall a little spookier, Denver Botanic Gardens runs two events worth building a night around: Ghosts in the Gardens (Oct. 9–10, 20, and 28–31) and Glow at the Gardens (Oct. 15–18 and 21–24). Some people treat these as a quiet evening stroll. Others show up every year with the same group of friends, full costumes, the whole thing. And by the third or fourth year, it’s a tradition that’s already on the calendar before anyone has to ask. Either way works, but if you’ve never gone all in on it, this is the year to try. Timed tickets tend to move fast, so it’s worth putting on the calendar now.
About apple picking this year
Here’s the honest version: it’s been a genuinely hard year for Colorado’s apple crop. A couple of hard freezes this spring hit orchards across the Front Range, and some of the region’s best-known U-Pick spots, including longtime favorite Ya Ya Farm & Orchard in Longmont, lost the bulk of their crop and aren’t offering U-Pick this season. It’s not every orchard, and it’s not permanent, just a rough year for the trees.
If you’re set on the U-Pick experience, call ahead before you drive out as availability is changing fast and farm-by-farm. And if U-Pick isn’t in the cards this year, most orchards and farm stands are still selling apples they harvested themselves, along with fresh cider and the usual fall treats, which is a fine way to bring the season home even without the ladder and the bucket.
Camping trip or not, this is the season worth building a weekend around. Get up to the mountains while the color’s good, find a pumpkin, or get lost in a maze on purpose. Enjoy everything a Colorado fall has to offer, you’ll be happy you did.
Inspired by writing in The Denver Post. All writing is original, re-voiced, and locally grounded for the Nookhaven community.
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