Everyone knows the Rockies are famous for skiing in the winter and pleasant temps in the summer, but if you’ve never visited Colorado in the fall months of September or October when the aspens are changing, you are missing out on the spectacular beauty of our shortest season, all the more special because of its fleeting nature. White Aspen trunks topped in vibrant yellow against a bluebird sky creates a stunning scene. We’re going to tell you where and how to see the best fall colors in Colorado.

Aspen trees grow in groves. One grove is a single organism and each tree shares the same root system meaning that you’ll rarely see a lone aspen tree because they grow from the ground up in clusters. Instead of a flaming gold tree here and there, you’ll see large sections or even entire Colorado mountainsides covered in yellow.

Why a ATV/UTV Rental: Fall splendor is not a secret and you’ll be among the masses fighting traffic if you take the well-known scenic drives. Rocky Mountain Adventure Rentals can help you break away from the pack and make your gold-finding quest all the more fun with one of our ATV/UTV rentals.

We have multiple Rocky Mountain Adventure Rental outposts, one in Chaffee County and two in Eagle County to better serve our guests and provide a variety of scenery and terrain.

Ghost Town Tour: Take a tour south of our Buena Vista outpost and combine leaf peeping with a ghost town tour. Travel through a golden aspen tunnel to the “abandoned” town of St. Elmo and step back into 1890. St. Elmo was a mining town with a population of nearly 2000 until fires and the end of the mining era drove most residents away. With a remaining 43 original buildings still standing, St. Elmo is dubbed the best-preserved ghost town in the west, giving visitors an authentic look at life in the late 1800s.

Mt. Princeton, the chalk cliffs, roadside rivers and waterfalls are also part of the scenery on a trip to St. Elmo.

Vail Pass: Just outside of our Red Cliff outpost, Shrine Pass also transforms with incredible beauty from summer to winter. With visitorship being slower in the fall, you may find a mountainside all to yourself in the Shrine Pass area. As an off-road trail, this area remains off the radar for mainstream leaf peeping. There is an abundance of aspen groves in this area that are all the more breathtaking with the surrounding mountain range backdrops.

Leaf viewing can be a nice weekend getaway with our Eat, Sleep, Ride, Repeat Adventure Package which is available through fall until the snow flies and we transition to snowmobiles and Timbersleds for the winter season. Our guides love their jobs as much as they love Colorado. Don’t waste time with travel blogs or misinformation on social media pages. The Rocky Mountain Adventure Rental staff lives locally and loves to share insider tips with our rental guests. Call us today to set up ATV/UTV/RZR/side-by-side rentals for leaf viewing this fall. (719) 966-5233 for the Buena Vista area or (970) 471-8491 for the Vail area.