Fall is the best time of year to visit Colorado.  Story courtesy of denver.org.

Denver has one of the longest periods of fall colors of any city in the country. That’s because there are five different climate zones within a two-hour drive of downtown Denver. Pick your elevation and you can find yourself at the height of fall colors from mid-September to mid-November. Starting in mid-September, expect to see aspens turning gold at elevations from 8,000 to 10,000 above sea level. Later in the season in October to mid-November, you can see spectacular color down in the foothills and along the plains in Denver.

Here’s a guide of where and when to go:

MID-SEPTEMBER TO EARLY OCTOBER ABOVE 9,500 FEET

• Guanella Pass, located just one hour from Denver, climbs to 11,670 feet and has many high aspen groves on both sides of the pass. There are aspen groves at all elevations along the trail, offering a good chance of seeing color somewhere on the mountainsides.

• Rocky Mountain National Park, about one hour and thirty minutes from Denver, has many groves of high aspens around Bear Lake. There are also many high aspen groves on the way to the park on the scenic Peak to Peak Byway (Colorado Hwy. 72 and 7) from Black Hawk to Estes Park.