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By the second week of September the aspens above Cameron Pass have usually started going gold. Denver at that point is still turning out 80-degree afternoons and your kids are in shorts. Families who wait for the calendar to feel like autumn show up about three weeks after the best of it has blown off the trees.
None of this takes an alpine start or a long hike with a toddler on your back. Find somewhere worth driving to with a scenic road attached, and the color takes care of itself.
Below are five places covered by a GetOut Colorado membership that sit close to the season's earliest color, with something to do once the driving is over.
When Colorado's Fall Colors Start
Elevation runs the schedule. Aspens turn from the top down, so how early you see color comes down to how high you're willing to drive.
- Above 10,000 feet. Early to mid-September. Cameron Pass, Independence Pass, the top of Rampart Range Road.
- 8,000 to 9,500 feet. Mid to late September. Kenosha Pass, Nederland and the Peak to Peak Highway, the Wet Mountains above Pueblo.
- 6,000 to 7,500 feet. Late September into mid-October. Golden Gate Canyon, the lower Poudre, Gold Camp Road outside Colorado Springs.
- Front Range cities. October. Denver, Boulder, Fort Collins, Colorado Springs, Pueblo.
A warm stretch or one hard windstorm will move any of those windows by ten days, which is why the last Saturday of September looks nothing alike from year to year. If you're reading this early and the aspens are still green where you're headed, the late-summer version of this trip covers a lot of the same country with warmer afternoons and thinner crowds.
Check conditions before you commit to a route. Colorado Tourism runs a foliage report through the season, and forest service district pages post updates for specific areas. Searching a pass name on social media and sorting by recent posts will tell you more in half a minute than a long-range forecast does.
Colorado's aspens finish early. If your fall travel lands later in the year, the maples and oaks back east hold their color into the last week of October, and GetOut runs a New England membership for anybody making that trip.
5 Spots to Catch Colorado's First Fall Colors With the Kids
1. Colorado Railroad Museum, Golden
17155 W 44th Ave
The museum sits on fifteen acres under North Table Mountain, and the yard is full of old cottonwoods that go yellow around the end of September. Scattered among them are something like a hundred locomotives, cabooses and passenger cars, and your kids can walk right up to most of them.
It handles a wide age range better than most places manage. Little ones climb into cabs and ring bells, and the roundhouse pulls in the older kids, since restoration work happens out in the open where you can watch it. Reviewers keep bringing up the volunteers, a lot of them retired railroaders, who will stop and explain what a Galloping Goose was to anybody who asks. Train rides run some weekends. Look at the current schedule before you drive out.
Golden puts you at the mouth of two good early routes. Clear Creek Canyon on US-6 climbs fast and gives you creekside color for very little effort. Golden Gate Canyon State Park is another half hour uphill, with the aspen and a drive-up overlook at Panorama Point where a long stretch of the Continental Divide sits in front of you.
Closed Mondays, nine to five the rest of the week. Two or three hours is about right. Parking is free, which counts for a lot on a September Saturday.
2. Altitude Outdoor Adventures, Cedaredge
21161 Baron Lake Dr
This one is for families who would rather be out in the color than looking at it through a windshield. The shop sits at the foot of the Grand Mesa, which holds one of the largest aspen forests on the continent, and they rent kayaks and canoes along with UTVs for getting up into it.
The top of the mesa has more than 300 lakes at around 10,000 feet. Paddling one in late September puts you on flat water with gold running down to the shoreline and doubling in the reflection. Several reviewers mention that the crew will haul boats to whichever lake is best that day, which saves you a lot of guessing. Families with young kids have had good outings here.
CO-65, the Grand Mesa Scenic Byway, gets a fraction of the traffic that Independence Pass and Maroon Bells pull in the same weeks. Land's End Road runs west off the byway to an overlook that drops away toward Grand Junction.
Call ahead. It's a small operation with seasonal hours, and what's available depends on weather and water up top. Bring warmer clothes than the forecast in town suggests.
Cedaredge sits a couple of hours from the Utah line, close enough that families out this way often stack the weekend with a run into the canyon country. A GetOut Utah membership covers that side of the trip.
3. Old Town Putt, Fort Collins
244 N College Ave
Mini golf with indoor and outdoor holes, sitting in the middle of walkable downtown Fort Collins. It's on this list mostly for where it is. Fort Collins is where you start a drive up the Cache la Poudre, and Cameron Pass at the top of that canyon turns earlier than almost anywhere else you can reach in a day from the Front Range.
Order the day however suits you. Plenty of families drive the canyon in the morning while the road is quiet, then come back for lunch and eighteen holes so everyone can shake off the car. Going up in the afternoon works too, and the light is warmer. Parents rate the staff here for patience with small kids, and the course doesn't punish anybody who's bad at it.
CO-14 follows the river for miles through granite before climbing into aspen and spruce near the pass at 10,276 feet. There are pullouts the whole way, so you can stop the moment somebody announces they need a bathroom.
Doors open at noon most days. Earlier hours are calmer and better suited to kids than the evening crowd. Chipper's Lanes Horsetooth is also on the membership, ten minutes south, if the weather falls apart.
Northern Colorado pulls a lot of weekend traffic from the panhandle, and it goes the other way too. Families who drive east across I-80 with any regularity tend to find a GetOut Nebraska membership pays for itself on the return leg.
4. The Museum of Boulder
2205 Broadway
There's a rooftop patio here with the Flatirons right in front of it, and people bring it up in reviews even when the weather was grey. You get the view as part of the visit.
Downstairs, the Boulder history holds up better than that description makes it sound. There's a well-liked exhibit on the food culture of the area, plus a hands-on space for younger kids. The place is small enough that you can do it properly and still be somewhere else by two.
Boulder Canyon starts a few blocks away and climbs to Nederland in about forty minutes. From there the Peak to Peak Highway heads north through country that colors up reliably every year. Brainard Lake gives you the postcard version with almost no walking, assuming you can get a timed-entry reservation.
Closed Tuesdays. Monday hours run into the evening, which makes it a decent option on a long weekend. Broadway parking is metered, so put the app on your phone before you go.
5. Rocky Mountain Wildlife Park, Pagosa Springs
4821 US-84
Colorado's color season opens in the San Juans, and Wolf Creek Pass is how you get into them. If you're already down in the southwest corner of the state, or you'll make a weekend out of the drive, this is the earliest dependable color anywhere in Colorado.
The park keeps animals native to the Rockies, all of them rescues, in enclosures that visitors describe as clean and carefully put together. Time your visit around the feeding tour. A guide walks you through while the animals eat and tells you where each one came from, and parents say it holds attention better than a standard zoo lap does. Ninety minutes covers the whole place.
US-160 over Wolf Creek Pass tops out above 10,800 feet with aspen in every direction from mid-September on. Piedra Road north of town is quieter and thick with stands, and it gets you onto dirt without needing anything special to drive.
Open every day, nine to five. Bring cash for animal food and tips. It's a long way from Denver, so this works best as an overnight.
Pagosa is closer to Santa Fe than it is to Denver, and a good share of the traffic over Wolf Creek comes up from the south. Anybody driving that direction can put a GetOut New Mexico and West Texas membership to work on either end of the weekend.
Planning the Day
Leave earlier than feels necessary. Canyon roads and trailhead lots fill by mid-morning on weekends through September and October, and an eight o'clock start produces a completely different day from a ten o'clock one.
Denver can be 75 degrees while it's 45 and windy at 10,000 feet. From September through May, a spare jacket and a hat for each kid live in the trunk.
Altitude dries kids out faster than it does adults. Water and snacks, more than seems sensible.
Mountain weather turns fast, so sort out the rain plan before you leave the house. Knowing there's a bowling alley forty minutes away that's already covered takes the sting out of a washed-out afternoon. There's a longer list of indoor adventures for kids in Colorado worth keeping on your phone for the weekends when the forecast falls apart.
The fixed point in your day is the venue with opening hours. Let the scenic route move around it.
What the GetOut Colorado Membership Covers
One annual payment covers admission to more than eighty venues around the state. You redeem through the GetOut app by showing your phone at the front desk. The walkthrough on how to use your GetOut membership goes through the app side if you want to see it before you buy.
The Colorado list runs well past the five places above. Downtown Aquarium in Denver, the Pueblo Zoo, Boondocks, Slick City, Sky Zone, the Main Event locations along the Front Range, the Molly Brown House, the U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Museum in Colorado Springs. Admission to Elitch Gardens can be added at checkout. The roundup of outdoor activities for kids in Colorado goes deeper on the warm-weather side of the lineup, and a family day at a Colorado Rapids match is in there too once the leaves are down.
Memberships last twelve months and cover one person each. There's a 60-day refund guarantee. Most members find a visit or two covers what they paid.
Every market runs its own lineup. Snowbird families who spend part of the winter south of here usually keep a GetOut Arizona membership going alongside the Colorado one.
Colorado Fall Colors With Kids: Common Questions
When do the leaves change in Colorado? Aspens above 10,000 feet usually peak in early to mid-September. Between 8,000 and 9,500 feet, peak comes mid to late September. Foothills areas turn from late September into mid-October, and the Front Range cities peak in October.
Where can I see fall colors near Denver with kids? Golden Gate Canyon State Park and Clear Creek Canyon are both inside forty minutes of Denver and need little or no hiking. Add a stop at the Colorado Railroad Museum in Golden and you have a full day without a long drive.
What's the best fall color drive for families with young children? The Peak to Peak Highway out of Boulder and the Grand Mesa Scenic Byway near Cedaredge both have frequent pullouts, paved surfaces, and color you can see from the car. Either works with car seats and short attention spans.
Do I need to hike to see aspens in Colorado? No. Every route here delivers color from the road or a parking area. Panorama Point in Golden Gate Canyon and the Land's End overlook on the Grand Mesa are drive-up viewpoints.
What should we pack for a fall day trip in the mountains? Layers for everybody, more water than you'd bring at sea level, snacks, sunscreen, a full tank of gas. Cell service disappears in most canyons, so download your maps at home.
Is a GetOut membership worth it for fall activities? For families getting out regularly, yes. One visit to a larger venue often covers a meaningful share of the annual cost, and having eighty-odd options already paid for removes the friction that kills most weekend plans.
Go This Weekend
The window on Colorado's first color is shorter than most people plan for, and it won't wait for a convenient Saturday. Pick one of the five and look at the color report on Friday night.