GOLDEN GATE CANYON - Every September, the quaking aspens of the Rocky Mountains turn from evergreen to a vibrant yellow, lighting up the mostly coniferous range for roughly three to four weeks of brilliant color.

This brief window of time has been known for years as "leaf peeping season," and brings hundreds of thousands of people hungry for crisp autumn views up into the mountains for roughly a month.

With both outdoor recreation and leaf peeping becoming steadily more popular in the last five years, Golden Gate Canyon State Park has quickly been established as a prominent frontcountry spot to see the aspens, with its notoriety only continuing to rise. 

“I was here from 2001 to 2010….We got a little busy in the park, but it’s nothing like it is now,” Todd Farrow, the park manager at Golden Gate Canyon, told me. “Then I got back here from 2018 to present, and each year it’s gotten a little bit more visitation.”

“In 2024, from September 14th to October 13th, [we had] 325,000 visitors. In 2023, it was 310,000… [And] in 2022 it was 291,000,” Farrow said. 

As you can imagine, bringing that many vehicles into a park with only four hundred parking spots causes quite a few issues for visitors, staff, and wildlife. Drivers frequently try to park illegally, increasing risks of a traffic accident, and there are more new visitors to the area who don’t know the park's rules and end up harming wildlife or the local ecosystem.

Even so, Farrow’s team of staff and volunteers has taken on the challenge every year, and continues to welcome hopeful leaf peepers with open arms.

“Our staff is out here to help,” Farrow said, “We’re not out here to control you or be mean to you; we’re just trying to give you the best directions so you can have a good experience.” 

In addition to closing a campground for additional parking and posting more directive signs along the roadways on weekends, the park’s staff and volunteers are strategically placed at different trailheads and other critical entry points to help point visitors to open parking and discourage people from parking illegally.

“We look for improvements every year,” Farrow said. “What can we do next year? What worked? What didn’t work? We’re constantly evaluating that process.”

In addition to seeking help from the available park staff, anyone who wants a decent shot at finding a parking spot during leaf peeping should plan to arrive either before 8 a.m. or after 4 p.m.

Even during early mornings and evenings, you are not guaranteed to find an open spot; our visitation is unpredictable and changes constantly.

If you don’t find an open spot at your trailhead of choice when you arrive at the park, keep moving without stopping between parking lots until you find an open space or a vehicle that is actively backing out of a spot. Idling on the side of the road near your preferred parking lot is not allowed because it is illegal to park offroad on any Gilpin County roads, and can lead to dangerous traffic conditions.

“People just pull off wherever….They can’t find a parking spot, so they just create their own,” Farrow says. “Then one person sees somebody do it and they think it’s okay, and that really creates the issue. I mean, [if] you look at that on Gap Road, it essentially turns into a one and a half lane road. If somebody has an injury and we need to get an ambulance through there… It’s very difficult, which is why we manage that so intently.”

Starting on the weekend of September 26, the Aspen Meadows Campground will function as an additional parking lot for overflow. It is recommended that visitors make their way up there if they are struggling to find a parking spot, while continuing to look for open spaces in other lots on their way over.

If you are arriving outside of the park’s recommended arrival times, you are definitely not going to find a spot at Panorama Point. You are strongly encouraged to take whatever spots are available to you, and visit the Point during a less hectic time of year.

You may also have hiking access to Panorama Point if you find a spot along Gap Road or Mountain Base Road. Visitors with camping reservations at Reverend’s Ridge Campground can also hike up there via the Raccoon Trail.

County residents who are not planning to seek out leaf peeping opportunities at our park are likely well aware of the traffic conditions on the roads in and surrounding the park during autumn weekends. Expect longer commutes into the mountains on weekend mornings and into the city on weekend evenings.

Despite the extra traffic on county roadways and the risks to natural resources, Farrow still sees the high visitation as a net positive for the park and local businesses, so long as it is properly monitored. “It’s a fine balance of trying to accommodate everybody while still preserving the resource,” he admits, “But it is an influx to the economy too as people come up, because they stop and get gas, or they stop to have lunch.”

Leaf peeping is a prime example of the massive increase in recreation that Colorado’s frontcountry has needed to maintain in recent years, and the issues that come with that. Nonetheless, Farrow continues to focus on endorsing safe recreation in all forms within the park, while allowing visitors to enjoy the beautiful aspens for as long as possible.

“We want everybody to come up and enjoy this time of year—it’s beautiful!—But we also want them to know that there’s a lot of people up here,” Farrow said.

“This is our busiest time of year, so pack your patience, and be kind to our visitors and employees and volunteers because there’s no sense in getting upset about it… Everyone’s just up here trying to enjoy it, and we’re here to make sure that everyone has equal access to it.”

Interested in volunteering to help with leaf peeping season at Golden Gate Canyon State Park? You will be given Golden Gate swag and the opportunity to camp in the park either before or after your volunteer hours for free! You can sign up to be a leaf peeping volunteer at https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSeIgO4MIJ8OVXhjCs1BDxYZPbIyI82LjyNujlbXABwqkwfWuA/viewform. Additionally, learn more about Golden Gate Canyon’s trails, events, and other opportunities at https://cpw.state.co.us/state-parks/golden-gate-canyon-state-park.