Aspen trees have begun turning gold at higher elevations across the Front Range, and while the colors remain patchy so far, experts believe the leaves will start to change en masse this weekend.

In Breckenridge, conditions are currently pre-peak, said Duke Barlow, Open Space & Trails Manager. However, the trees appear to be changing rapidly. For example, the Pence Miller trail near downtown seems to be the first spot to go for gold.

“The majority of our aspen leaves have yet to start changing color, but I bet that changes this weekend,” Barlow said. He estimates the next couple of weeks will offer prime leaf-peeping. (Those who want to visit the famed Aspen Alley will be required to take a free shuttle from the town ice rink, as the trailhead parking lot will be closed, he added.)

It¶¶Ňőap a similar story at Golden Gate Canyon State Park, northwest of Golden, where fall colors have started to crop up but are not widespread. Guanella Pass, another popular destination, has also started turning, though there’s plenty of green still on the mountainsides.

That hasn’t stopped law enforcement from ticketing vehicles they find parking illegally. Over Labor Day weekend, Clear Creek County Sheriff’s Office issued 136 parking violations along the pass, said spokesperson Jenny Fulton. Fines range $75 to $87.50 per violation.

Elsewhere, areas near Silverton have experienced patchy or minimal change, according to the . No other changes have been reported in the southern Colorado forest so far, though.

Do you have leaf-peeping plans? Illegal parking could mean a ticket or a tow

Leaf-peeping season is arriving early in Colorado this year due to drought, which triggers trees to shut down and prepare for winter on an accelerated timeline. In a typical year, aspens would change color from , but this year, "everything is slightly ahead of schedule just because of how stressed everything is,” said Dan West, forest entomologist with the Colorado State Forest Service.

West studies forest health by flying over wilderness in an aircraft and also by driving deep into the woods. Many aspen trees are showing signs of marginal necrosis, he said, meaning the leaves are turning brown along the edges and veins due to insufficient moisture. Those leaves tend to drop quickly.

"The colors just aren’t nearly as bright," West said. He's hopeful that if the state sees overnight temperatures cool off, that will help trap sugars in the leaves to produce purples and red pigments, and help salvage the color display.

And it¶¶Ňőap not just the aspens that are early. West said he has even seen some narrowleaf cottonwoods changing colors well in advance. Typically, those trees don’t lose their leaves until late in the season, he said.

That¶¶Ňőap not to say the season is a bust. Geographically, West said the northern part of the state is faring better with respect to drought, so those willing to travel may have great viewing near Steamboat Springs over the next couple of weeks.

"That seems to be the best statewide, as far as aspen going into the color season," West said. "That¶¶Ňőap not saying a whole lot because they're still stressed... but at least of everywhere I’ve traveled recently, that seems to be the better spot."

“As we get further west and south, the drought conditions seem to be getting worse and worse and worse," West added. "Some of the aspens had completely already dropped their leaves as I was getting south of Salida."

Closer to the Front Range, West advised venturing off main thoroughfares and onto back roads, where the trees may be less impacted by traffic and things like magnesium chlorate, which is used for ice mitigation in the winter and spring. He also suggested looking beyond aspen hotspots.

, for example, may be more likely to put on a show since they are by definition located near water, West said. Typical vegetation in those areas includes willows, gamble oak and cottonwood trees.

Wherever you go, West advises making plans soon.

"We’re getting to the point now that, if you live in the Denver area and you’re hoping to go for some drives, this upcoming weekend and maybe the weekend after would be a great weekend to aim for," he said. "And then, of course, as you go further south, that will be slightly more delayed."

Looking for leaf-peeping inspiration? Consider these scenic drives, our favorite fall hikes and road trips to dreamy autumn destinations.

On Monday, opened up sales to the general public, offering the promise of skiing access at more than 300 resorts worldwide for $419. By comparison, the Epic Pass currently goes for $829 to $1,119 and the Ikon Pass costs $1,019 to $1,449 depending on where you want to ski and if you want to avoid blackout dates.

The Indy Pass doesn’t offer access to the same resorts as those other passes, which are owned by giants Vail Resorts and Alterra Mountain Company, respectively. Instead, Indy Pass skiers get to shred two days at each of the independently owned mountains within its network. In Colorado, its 11 ski areas include Loveland Ski Area, Sunlight Mountain Resort in Glenwood Springs, Powderhorn near Grand Junction, and Howelsen Hill Ski Area in Steamboat Springs, among others.

The Indy Base Pass costs $419 for adults and $269 for kids, and provides two days or nights at each of its partner resorts, subject to blackout dates, plus 25% of a third day lift ticket. The Indy+ Pass, which has no blackout dates, costs $469 for adults and $299 for kids. Access to cross-country ski resorts only costs $99.

Launched in 2019 with access to a few dozen ski hills, Indy Pass has grown significantly since it first debuted. In addition to downhill skiing, its network includes cross-country ski areas like Granby Ranch. It can also be used in Canada and overseas in Europe, Japan and South America.

One of the perks is that indie mountains tend to be less crowded than their corporate counterparts.

“We must continue to grow our pass holder base thoughtfully while respecting capacity limits and preserving the uncrowded atmosphere our partner resorts are known for,” Indy Pass Director Erik Mogensen . “Our goal with this process is to make sure we can get as many people off the waitlist as soon as possible.”

The pass also has a guarantee that buyers will be able to access 300 resorts for the 2026-27 season, and if the company doesn’t have that many partners by Nov. 1, anyone who purchased the Indy Pass can request a refund by Dec. 1.

For more information and to see participating resorts, visit .

The person, an adult, was napping in a patio chair when they noticed the bear approaching, according to a Colorado Parks and Wildlife release. Not wanting to startle the bear, the person stayed motionless as the bear huffed and popped its jaw. The bear reached out and scraped the person’s knee. A neighbor then deployed bear spray to scare the bear away.

The person had minor injuries and didn’t seek professional medical treatment, the state wildlife agency said.

Bear encounters have spiked across the state this year as drought drives bears to more populated areas in search of food. Nearly 300 bears had been euthanized this year as of Aug. 31, more than triple those euthanized during the same period last year.

CPW did not say whether the bear in Thursday’s encounter had been euthanized.

Wildlife officials said the homeless man was sleeping in Rio Grande Park early Wednesday morning when a bear approached and began sniffing him before biting him on the head. He was treated for head and facial injuries and later released from the hospital.

Wildlife officers later located a bear matching the description from the Aspen attack. The adult female bear, which did not have cubs, was euthanized in accordance with CPW policy. The animal was sent to the agency’s Wildlife Health Lab in Fort Collins for a necropsy and DNA analysis.

In Steamboat Springs, a woman was injured early Monday after a bear forced its way into her home through a damaged sliding glass door near Fish Creek Falls Road. When she tried to chase the bear outside, it struck her in the face, causing cuts. She was treated at a hospital and released.

Read more at .

Some reservoirs have fallen so low that they instead look more like the rivers they once were. Boat ramps across the state no longer reach water. Where there should be rows of corn, the landscape is dotted by brown, fallowed fields.

Creekbeds have dried up weeks earlier than normal, while even larger rivers have dwindled to trickles. Rising water temperatures in those shrunken rivers are causing fish to suffocate. And for at least two dams, declining reservoir levels now threaten power production.

“Everybody’s got a story of woe,” said Steve Pope, the manager of the Montrose-based Uncompahgre Valley Water Users Association. “It¶¶Ňőap regionwide; nobody is escaping it.”

At a meeting of water managers last month, the head of Colorado’s Division of Water Resources compared the state to Mordor — the barren, ash-covered domain of the villain in J.R.R. Tolkien’s “The Lord of the Rings” trilogy. He then flipped through a series of graphs showing streamflow gauges across the state. Each one was at or near record lows.

“The monsoons will help — they will help reduce demand — but they won’t bring storage back up,” state engineer Jason Ullmann told his fellow water officials. “I think we’re all holding our breath to get through this year.”

It’s too early to say that this summer’s drought is the worst on record, Ullmann said in a later interview. Heavy rains from the monsoon that arrived in July could alleviate the worst of the suffering — if those come.

So far, rain has done little to lift the weight of drought.

As it has for months, nearly the entire state is enduring some level of dryness, according to by the U.S. Drought Monitor. It considers half of the state to be in extreme or exceptional drought — the two most severe categories used by the agency. The latest Colorado map barely changed from the one released the week prior.

Beyond the Front Range urban corridor, where many cities and utilities have imposed watering restrictions, the drought has caused millions of dollars in losses to Colorado’s farmers. It’s sapped reservoir storage and hamstrung river recreation — including rafting on many popular stretches of river. It has also spurred new collaborations between water users trying to survive.

“The whole state is feeling the pain and the strain of this year’s drought,” said Emily Adrid, a water planning and climate impacts specialist at the .

This winter’s record-low snowpack and continued record-high temperatures are signs of conditions that could become more probable as climate change advances, scientists have said. The 2026 water year — which began in October with snowfall and will end in September as summer irrigation ends — is thus far the warmest on record and the fourth-driest, .

The winter’s anemic snowfall yielded a snowpack that was 58% of normal, to the dismay of skiers, snowmobilers and water managers across the state. A record-warm spring season began melting the mountain snow weeks earlier than expected.

Spring runoff — the surge of water that refills reservoirs and irrigates farmers’ fields — yielded half the average amount this year. Statewide reservoir storage sits at 75% of average, though several reservoirs are less than half full.

“One of the lessons we all need to learn is that climate change is real,” said Andy Mueller, the general manager of the Colorado River District. “While this is a one-off year — we hope — we should anticipate more of these types of years in the future,” he said. “We need to adjust our expectations as a society to the availability of water.”

Thousands of acres of fallowed fields

In the Uncompahgre River Valley in southwestern Colorado, weeds are growing across thousands of acres of land that normally produce corn, beans and grains.

Farmers this spring were forced to fallow thousands of acres because they knew there wouldn’t be enough water, said Pope, from the valley’s water users association. For nearly a century, the association has delivered water from the Gunnison and Uncompahgre rivers to more than 83,000 acres of land in Montrose and Delta counties.

This year, the Uncompahgre River has provided almost no water.

At one point, one of the gauges on the river read 4 cubic feet per second, at a time when the riverbed should have had 400 cfs rushing over.

The association could provide only half of its normal amount of water this year, forcing hard choices in the valley as the organization relied primarily on the Gunnison River. Large farm operations cut their acreage by up to 60%, Pope said.

“The majority of our row crop farmers are pretty hard hit,” he said.

Water in Colorado is allocated based on when the water right was established. Older rights have seniority over those that came later.

In several basins, holders of water rights older than the state of Colorado — which just marked 150 years of statehood — are the only ones receiving it now, said Ullmann, whose office implements water curtailments. Those restrictions have also come earlier in the year. Some water users with senior rights are seeing their water allocations cut for the first time in history, he said.

While most municipal water users have reservoir storage to get them through lean times, agricultural users often do not, Ullmann said. So when they lose their water, they’re forced to cut back. That could mean growing less feed for their cattle, which then leads to selling off chunks of the herd.

Water users in the southwestern region, too, are struggling, said Andrew Straub-Heidke, the general manager of .

Monsoon rains this year and last year have helped the region. Heavy rainfall last year propped up reservoir levels before the dry winter began. In the past week, rains have eased water cuts.

“We’re hurting, like the rest of the state,” Straub-Heidke said. “I know people have been excited for the rains, and I hope they keep coming.”

For Pope, one silver lining of the season is that he was able to warn farmers that it would be a difficult water year before they bought supplies in the spring. But it could still take years for producers to recover, especially if more drought years follow.

“The reality is we’re at the mercy of Mother Nature up here,” he said. “We don’t have enough storage to have multiple years of carryover.”

Concerning reservoir levels

For the first time in 40 years, the turbines of Aspen’s hydropower plant on will soon stop spinning because the reservoir’s levels will fall too low.

The exact date isn’t clear, but the water level of the reservoir, which is on the Fryingpan River north of Aspen, will certainly drop below the minimum level to safely operate the Ruedi Hydroelectric Facility in the coming weeks, said Joshua Mattson, the city’s utilities resource and portfolio manager. The facility will then be powered down until at least the springtime, when runoff should boost the reservoir’s levels again.

When it shuts down, the city will lose 18% of its energy portfolio, forcing officials to pivot to purchasing power from another source. Utility managers estimate they will spend about $710,000 to buy power from the Municipal Energy Agency of Nebraska, according to a memo Mattson submitted to the City Council.

That power will come from renewable sources, Mattson said.

Low reservoir levels are causing concern across the state. Green Mountain Reservoir — on the Blue River north of Silverthorne — each day falls to a new low. On Wednesday, .

Falling water levels have stranded boat ramps, revealed islands and left buoys sitting on rocky shores, instead of floating.

Earlier this year, the low reservoir prompted emergency collaboration among the dozens of entities that rely on the reservoir’s water, which is part of that diverts water from the Colorado River system to northeastern Colorado communities.

For the first time, spring runoff delivered so little water to the Colorado River and its tributaries that, for the first time, there was not enough to fill the demands of a pool of water in Green Mountain Reservoir set aside for hundreds of users along the river that have less senior water rights.

Without action, those entities — including Summit County towns, Eagle County government agencies and many homeowners associations — would have seen their water supplies cut by early June.

Water managers at the took heed of the warnings in the runoff data and in late March began to cobble together a solution, said Mueller, the district’s general manager. The district, a taxpayer-funded agency that works to protect Western Slope water, took 15,000 acre-feet of water that it normally leases to the highest bidders and instead redistributed it to water users who needed it most. An acre-foot of water is approximately enough for two families’ annual needs.

Without the pivot, the 15,000 acre-feet likely would’ve been leased to a handful of wealthy ranchers, Mueller said.

“We just didn’t think that was the right thing to do,” he said, noting that the district lost revenue by changing the practice.

The district also helped negotiate a deal with farmers in the Grand Valley who have senior rights. They agreed to use less than their legal allotment early in the season so that users upstream with less-powerful water rights could continue to access their supplies. The agreement means that those farmers will have water longer into the summer season, but farmers still have needed to cut production.

“But they were willing to do that in order to make the whole system work, which I think is a lesson for us all in this time where it’s hard to get people to cooperate,” Mueller said.

Water users are also keeping a close eye on Blue Mesa Reservoir, the largest reservoir in the state. On Wednesday, Blue Mesa — the lowest level on record for that date in the last 30 years.

Projections from the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation show that the reservoir west of Gunnison should remain above the level needed for hydropower production through the next two years under relatively normal weather conditions.

But under , the reservoir could fall too low by October, the projections show.

The federal agency has been working to reduce demands downstream of the reservoir to keep it fuller longer, Bureau of Reclamation spokeswoman Jennifer Erickson said in an email.

Pope, with the Uncompahgre Valley Water Users Association, is also keeping a close eye on Blue Mesa’s storage. Its irrigation project diverts water downstream of the reservoir, redirecting it from the middle of the Black Canyon of the Gunnison.

The association generally starts drawing water from that diversion in April, before spring runoff begins. If there is not enough water in the river below the dam to meet the project’s demands, its leaders could place a call on the river that would siphon most of the water out of the canyon, which is a national park.

“Politically, it¶¶Ňőap a difficult decision,” Pope said.

Hundreds of miles of streams closed to fishing

Too little water flowing in rivers has also caused problems for wildlife. On the Elk River north of Steamboat Springs last month, the bodies of hundreds of silvery fish bobbed on the surface and along the banks. The river had become too hot for the mountain whitefish, one of only two sport fish native to Colorado.

More than 300 mountain whitefish died on July 19 — the largest, but not the only, fish kill as drought sapped water levels and raised temperatures in mountain streams, said Ben Felt, a senior aquatic biologist with Colorado Parks and Wildlife.

State wildlife officials have implemented fishing restrictions on more than 630 miles of rivers and streams to protect fish populations — a record number that continues to increase weekly.

“What we’re seeing this year with fishing closures is really unprecedented,” Felt said.

Last week, CPW implemented voluntary afternoon fishing closures on stretches of the Colorado River, the Fraser River, Clear Creek and several branches of the South Platte River. The closures include the famed “Dream Stream” in Park County between Spinney Mountain and .

Streamflows in all of those reaches are far below normal. Flows in Clear Creek near Golden have hovered around 80 cubic feet per second, a third of the norm for this time of year. The Middle Fork of the South Platte River near Hartsel generally flows at about 110 cfs in late July, but current flows hover around 10 cfs.

CPW officials consider several factors when deciding when to impose a fishing restriction: how much water is in the waterway, the maximum water temperatures, water quality and how much fishing pressure the area receives. Warning away anglers keeps more fish from experiencing the stress of being hooked, netted and handled.

The vast majority of fishing closures are voluntary and anglers, so far, have abided by them, Felt said. CPW biologists recommend anglers focus on high alpine lakes and streams, or on stretches of tailwaters immediately downstream of dams that remain cool.

Colorado’s drought has also caused water managers to completely drain reservoirs across the state, leading to emergency fish salvages where anglers can harvest as many as they can catch.

Denver Water this spring drained Antero Reservoir, a popular fishing destination. The Windsor Reservoir and Canal Company is drawing down Douglas Reservoir in Larimer County, the Trinchera Irrigation Company is draining Mountain Home Reservoir near Fort Garland and the New Cache La Poudre Reservoir Company is draining Timnath Reservoir near Fort Collins.

CPW has also closed boat ramps at at least five state parks, where waters are too low for large boats.

When those reservoirs refill, they will need stocked fish to jump-start the fishing and aquatic environment. But CPW’s fish hatcheries, too, are struggling.

The agency operates 19 fish hatcheries across the state where biologists raise 90 million fish from 30 species every year. Some of the facilities have not had access to the amount of water they need for normal operations, said Jeff Spohn, CPW deputy assistant director for the aquatic branch.

In response, hatchery staff are reducing the number of fish in impacted hatcheries by releasing them early. But that is complicated, too — some waters they planned to stock are too low to receive new fish.

Looking past this summer, state water managers worry about what might happen should this coming winter’s snowpack fall below the average. The state needs three or four years of average or above-average snowfall to recover, Ullmann said.

“I don’t know if anyone has another silver bullet solution as to how they’re going to get through next year if we have a bad snowpack,” he said.

The EDC also approved $1.9 million in Job Growth Incentive Tax Credits tied to the creation of 106 additional headquarters jobs for “Project Odysseus,” the codename given to Alterra.

Those jobs are expected to pay an average annual wage of $131,071 a year.

State rules prohibit incentive awards to local companies not actively looking outside of Colorado. Why pay someone who is going to stay anyway?

Project Odysseus told the state it was also looking at relocating to Salt Lake City. The speed at which the assistance packages came together suggests a genuine concern that it might move.

Although Alterra wasn’t named, the $1 million loan with no interest will help fund a $7 million loan from a local agency at 2%.

Those details align with a .

Alterra applied to the DDDA on July 21 and was approved a day later. Normally, DDDA applicants have to wait months to know the fate of their requests for assistance.

The EDC met on July 16, so if a loan package had been in the works from the DDDA before then, it would have likely landed on the agenda, following the proper order.

In a rare move, the EDC held a 7 a.m. Monday morning meeting, likely reflecting the urgency of the approval, after the DDDA had committed funds.

The DDDA has pledged to repay the loan from the Office of Economic Development and International Trade within five years.

So far, the DDDA has allocated or approved just under $300 million of the $570 million that voters authorized in November 2024.

Alterra is looking to relocate its headquarters from 3501 Wazee St. in the RiNo neighborhood to Upper Downtown, where several large office towers sit more than half empty.

Those vacant towers have been selling for discounts of 90% and more from their pre-pandemic prices.

Besides supporting the growth of Alterra’s own operations, the building is expected to serve as a landing place for other outdoor recreation companies.

The $1 million grant will fund smaller grants of up to $250,000 to recreation companies that co-locate with Alterra. OEDIT must approve those smaller awards.

The $1 million grant would be funded through a one-time allocation from the Governor’s office. The $1 million loan would come out of the state’s Strategic Fund.

“This project would help revitalize a vacant building to create a hub for outdoor businesses in the metro area,” said Sean Gould, deputy director of financial analysis in OEDIT’s Business Funding and Incentives Division.

Alterra is behind the Ikon Pass and owns 19 North American ski resorts, including Steamboat Springs and Arapahoe Basin in Colorado.

It also manages the Winter Park Resort via a 50-year lease with the City and County of Denver.

The loan is conditioned on Alterra taking a long-term office location in Upper Downtown, which stretches between Broadway and Speer Boulevard, and between Colfax Avenue and 20th Street.

The district has the highest concentration of office towers in the entire Mountain West region. Many of those were built during the oil and gas boom of the 1980s and are sitting more than half empty.

“The approval today reflects the DDDA’s commitment to retaining major employers, increasing foot traffic, and filling underutilized office space downtown,” the authority said in a release on its website.

The relocation, however, will represent a blow to Zeppelin Station, where Alterra signed a lease for 40,000 square feet or nearly 40% of the available space in 2018.

Three years remain on that lease, although it increasingly appears likely the company will activate an early termination clause.

At the request of Wells Fargo, the lender, Zeppelin Station was placed into receivership in mid-2024.

That set off a legal battle with developer Zeppelin Development and owner Mickey Zeppelin, which was eventually resolved late last year with Zeppelin regaining control.

In December, BusinessDen reported that Alterra was considering a headquarters move within the RiNo neighborhood to Steel House, a newer office building at 3100 Brighton Blvd.

Alterra is expected to invest $20 million in moving its headquarters and establishing an outdoor recreation hub in Upper Downtown.

Gov. Jared Polis’ office released an update about Colorado wildfires on Friday evening, including the number of people under evacuation across the state.

The Aspen Acres fire has consumed 99,820 acres in Pueblo and Custer counties and was holding at 48% contained late Friday, making the situation essentially stable since Thursday night, .

Aspen Acres is one of six large, active Colorado wildfires that have consumed more than 211,000 acres, or 330 square miles.

Jump to:ĚýAspen Acres fire |ĚýGold Mountain fire | Elk fire | Fishhook fire |ĚýFerris fire | Willow fire | Air quality alerts

Aspen Acres fire in Custer and Pueblo counties

Colorado’s largest active wildfire, and the , stabilized this week, growing less than 800 acres from Tuesday to Thursday and remaining unchanged overnight Thursday into Friday. The fire has burned the equivalent of 155 square miles.

There are 15,561 people under mandatory evacuation because of the fire, according to Polis’ office.

“We’re managing to hold it where we want it at this time,” Ben Wagner, operations chief for Northern Rockies Team 6, .

The has destroyed close to 900 structures, Operations Section Chief Brad Washa said during a . It’s unclear how many of those are homes, but law enforcement in Pueblo and Custer counties previously announced that at least 337 homes and four businesses had been destroyed.

who live north of the fire remained under evacuation orders Friday morning, as did people living between the Pueblo County line and Bondurant Road east of the fire. People south of Highway 96 and north of Highway 78 were allowed to return to their homes.

Mandatory evacuations remained in place for private and U.S. Forest Service land in on Thursday evening. Sheriff’s officials issued mandatory evacuations on the fire’s western edge, including where Williams Creek crosses into the national forest, along the creek to the intersection of Huerfano County Road 630, north to County Road 636, and west to County Road 634/Gardner Road.

The Bartlett Trail subdivision and the surrounding area are also under evacuation, county officials said.

The following roads remained closed for the fire on Friday morning, according to the Colorado Department of Transportation:

• between Colorado 96 and Grand Vista Drive
• between Colorado 165 and Pueblo Mountain Park Road

The exact origin of the fire remains under investigation, but officials believe it was human-caused.

The incident management team for the fire asked people returning to their homes to hold off on disposing any items other than food for the time being while they work out with a plan to deal with the volume of ash, dead vegetation and other debris from the fire.

Power company’s equipment was ‘substantial factor’ in starting Aspen Acres fire, lawsuit alleges

Gold Mountain fire near Ouray

As of Friday evening, the north of Ouray had consumed an estimated 37,734 acres, or roughly 59 square miles, with 13% containment.

More than 870 personnel were on scene to fight the wildfire, according to Rocky Mountain Complex Incident Management Team 2, which is leading the fire response. A nearby airbase is supporting crews working both Gold Mountain and the nearby Elk fire, .

There are 112 people under mandatory evacuation because of the fire, according to the governor's office.

The possibility of thunderstorms Friday will increase hazards for firefighters, as high winds could drive flames toward them and heavy rain could cause mudslides in burned areas, incident commander Rodney Redinger said in a Facebook post on Friday morning. The forecast shows a 40% to 50% chance of "wetting rain" over the fire area, he said.

remained in place on Friday for residents of Ouray and Gunnison counties north of the fire, according to .

The Ouray County evacuation zones included:

• All areas east of the junction of County Road 12 and County Road 12A to the national forest boundary
• The area east of US 550, north of County Road 8 and south of County Road 8A, east to the US Forest Service boundary and south to County Road 8B
• All Areas east of the forest boundary on County Road 8
• Forest Service land in Cow Creek, Big Cimarron and Silver Jack Basin areas, as well as lands east of US 550, south of Highway 50 and west of the east fork of the Cimarron.

In Gunnison County, the evacuation zone included the Bear Claw, Silver Jack, Eagle's Rest, and Little Bighorn subdivisions.

Parts of Montrose County and Gunnison County adjacent to the evacuation zone were on pre-evacuation status.

Evacuated residents can seek shelter at the Ridgway Secondary School, 1200 Green St., according to county officials.

Officials aren't sure what caused the fire, which started at about 5:30 p.m. on June 27.

Elk fire

The continued to grow, reaching 2,199 acres on Friday with no containment.

The fire, sparked by lightning on July 9, had grown rapidly from 574 acres to 1,980 acres on Wednesday, according to the U.S. Forest Service.

The wildfire is burning north of Lake City and about 11 miles east of the Gold Mountain fire, according to Colorado fire officials.

Evacuations remained in place for residents west of Colorado 149 and north of the Independence Gulch Trailhead to the county line on Thursday. The sheriff's office ordered the evacuations on Wednesday after the fire's unexpected growth. .

County officials set up an evacuation center at the Lake City Armory, 230 N. Bluff St.

Fishhook fire

The near Steamboat Springs remained at 347 acres with no containment as of Friday evening.

The fire is in the Routt National Forest near Rabbit Ears Pass, roughly three miles from the Steamboat Ski Resort. Routt County officials closed the area bordered to the south and west by U.S. 40, to the east by the county line and to the north by Fish Creek and Mount Werner.

Pre-evacuation orders were also in effect on Friday south of the public safety closure, .

The cause of the fire remains under investigation.

Ferris fire in San Juan National Forest, near Dolores

The did not grow on Friday and remained at 64,881 acres with 59% of the fire contained, officials said.

The fire, in and near the San Juan National Forest north of Dolores, is the 10th-largest wildfire in recorded Colorado history, surpassing the 2013 West Fork fire, which consumed 58,570 acres, according to .

Lightning sparked three fires in the San Juan National Forest on June 27. Those fires then grew and merged into the Ferris fire.

As of Wednesday morning, most of the evacuations had been lifted around the wildfire. Small pockets of mandatory evacuations remained in effect near Ryman Creek and Little Pony Reservoir, but the majority had been downgraded to pre-evacuation status.

Willow fire near Leadville

As of Friday evening, the had consumed roughly 6,967 acres with 37% containment, an increase of 90 acres from earlier in the day. More than 500 people were working to contain the fire.

The fire threatened 1,132 structures, officials said, but didn't specify how many were homes. About 67 residents have evacuated.

Mandatory evacuations remained in place Friday for an area bordered to the north by Lonesome Lake and Isolation Lakes; to the west by Timberline, Windsor and Independence lakes; to the south by Echo Creek and to the east by County Road 11 and Tennessee Creek. .

The cause of the fire, which started on June 29, remains under investigation. As of Thursday morning, 533 personnel were on scene to fight the wildfire.

Air quality alerts

An wasĚý issued for the Front Range and will be in effect until at least 4 p.m. Saturday. That alert covers the urban corridor from Douglas County to Larimer and Weld counties.

Sunny, hot and stagnant weather will allow ozone to reach the "unhealthy for sensitive groups" level on Friday and Saturday, state health officials said in the alert.

The Green Ridge fire was discovered Sunday near the Stagecoach Reservoir, . That’s roughly 17 miles south of Steamboat Springs.

The governor’s release stated that there was zero containment and that 25 acres were burning as of Sunday night, with an estimated 480 structures under threat.

As of Monday morning, mandatory evacuations were in effect for an area bordered to the west by Routt County Road 212, to the south by Green Ridge, to the east by Service Creek and to the north by Stage Coach Reservoir, .

Pre-evacuations were also in place at that time for an area east and north of the mandatory evacuation zone. That area was bordered to the north by Stagecoach State Park and Blacktail Mountain, to the west by Routt County Road 16 and to the east by Service Creek and Bushy Creek.

Information on the cause of the fire was not immediately available.

This is a developing story and may be updated.

That wolf briefly crossed the interstate in southeastern Colorado and moved through watersheds in Pueblo, Otero and Las Animas counties before returning west of the highway, officials announced Wednesday. , released Wednesday, shows the wolf moved through watersheds surrounding the city of Pueblo.

“This activity east of I-25 highlights the broad movements made by dispersing wolves,” agency officials said in a news release. “CPW is in active communication with producers who have known wolf activity near their operations and is coordinating access to conflict minimization resources.”

For months, wolf activity has been concentrated in Colorado’s central mountains. The map released Wednesday — which depicts the watersheds where wolves wandered between May 26 and Tuesday — shows at least one wolf moved through the San Luis Valley and along the New Mexico border.

Wolves also remained present near Gunnison, Rifle, Meeker, Vail and Steamboat Springs. At least 31 wolves roam Colorado, but not all wear collars that transmit their location.

Hike to a log cabin

In Snowmass, a trial brunch at The Cabin was such a hit that it will add more weekends in July and September. The Cabin is mid-mountain and boasts both indoor and outdoor seating, along with live music and views of the Elk Range. Since there is no lift access, guests can choose when they make reservations if they plan to hike, ride a mountain bike, or rent an e-bike (available at Four Mountain Sports and Aspen Collection) for the two-mile trek. Dogs can sit with you only at uncovered patio tables.

The Cabin will offer a weekend buffet brunch from July 4 to Aug. 9 and Sept. 4–27, running from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. A sample menu is currently being finalized and will be available soon.ĚýReservations will be available onĚýĚýaround June 15

In Steamboat Springs, it¶¶Ňőap just a one-mile guided hike to Hazie’s in the Thunderhead Lodge. The menu at Hazie’s is priced for a buffet, so you can start with the granola station, for example, before moving on to the eggs Benedict station or the potatoes, French toast, or biscuits and gravy trays.

You’ll be soaking up the views of the Yampa Valley along the hike and from the dining room’s generous windows.

The guided hike has added Sundays to this summer event. Make reservations for this family-friendly experience that starts at the base of the gondola, ride up to Thunderhead Lodge, and from there walk as a group to arrive for patio seating with views.ĚýFor anyone looking to book, they may visitĚý.

Dine with a llama

The Garden of the Gods Resort & Club in Colorado Springs has partnered with Luxy Llama so that people having brunch on select weekends can interact with these singular animals. Grand View Restaurant is aptly named because, whether you’re seated inside or on the patio, the views to the west open to the shapely Garden of the Gods red rock formations.

The llamas are brought onto the lawn — and sometimes given an accessory like a scarf to wear — where guests can take photos of them or with this against this scenic backdrop.

While the llamas are calm and friendly, and there is some food available for guests to offer them, this isn’t about hugging them or climbing on them for a ride. There are additional programs to go on guided hikes with the llamas, too.

The brunch here has an elevated menu of things like eggs Benedict, chilaquiles, salads and cinnamon rolls.

Call the resort for upcoming dates and reservations at 719-329-6901.

All aboard the breakfast train

In Canon City, the Royal Gorge Route Railroad offers a Breakfast Train, which boards at 9 a.m., so that by the time you are seated and being served, it¶¶Ňőap time for brunch. Your meal is made-to-order from the on-board 403 Grill while you sip on their “bottomless” coffee or a cocktail like a Mimosa or a bloody Mary.

No matter which train car you are booked in, all passengers are invited to stroll to the open observation car, where you can look up at the rocky canyon walls or down to the rushing Arkansas River below.

The hearty menu includes breakfast burritos or sandwiches, biscuits and gravy, and cinnamon rolls. When booking your ticket, you get to choose between the extra special ride with an engineer (these sell out way ahead of time), coach, deluxe, or observation class for different price points and then add on the meal and drinks when you check out.

Trains run daily throughout the summer. Breakfast costs $30-$35 in addition to the train fare.

Horses and hay wagons

Sylvan Dale Guest Ranch in Loveland offers “Chow Down” rides May through September for groups of six or more by reservation on specific days of the week. These breakfast/brunch rides are available to all, not just guests of the ranch. Will there be a cowboy cooking up a hot breakfast over an open fire for you? You bet!

The cost is $140 per person. Call 970-667-3915 or email ranch@sylvandale.com for days and information.

For those who prefer “soft adventure,” C Lazy U Ranch in Granby has a “Woodsie Cookout” where guests can opt for a hay wagon ride pulled by a tractor or walk the half mile to a scenic spot on the Reservoir Trail. This morning meal happens on Friday mornings in the summer and offers up fresh doughnuts, locally-caught trout, eggs, and pancakes sizzled on the outdoor grill.
Cowboy coffee, a roaring fire and a stunning view of the Indian Peaks make this a morning to remember.