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9,000–12,000 ft · CO🚗 Directions
Chaffee County high-country. Connects Front Range to Western Slope microclimates. Strong king bolete habitat. Later season than lower elevations.
Updated Aug 27, 4:03 AM MT
**Cottonwood Pass is firing—this is a genuine S-tier window.** The moisture trigger is locked in with sustained VWC at 0.27 across the week, and soil temps have held above threshold for 5+ days, unlocking the full roster of boletes, milk caps, corals, and russulas simultaneously. You're looking at King and Bay Boletes as your bread-and-butter, but don't sleep on Lobster, Hedgehog, and the Pink-Tipped Coral crop—everything is in the green. Cauliflower and Reishi are marginal at 51°F but worth sweeping if you're already there. The only real constraint is moderate desiccation risk; that 0.16" last week and 40% SWE mean the moisture window will compress fast if high-altitude winds pick up or temps spike. Watch the next 48 hours closely—if soil temps drop or VWC dips below 0.24, the window collapses and you're back to alpine grind. The steady melt trend is your ally right now, but it's finite. **Hot tip:** Focus south-facing pine and fir stands below 10,500 ft where soil moisture pools longest; the snowline differential (13.5K south vs 14.5K north) tells you where residual melt is still feeding understory moisture.
Generated by Claude (Anthropic) from the structured weather, soil, and phenology data on this page. The LLM can misread edge cases — treat this as a starting hypothesis, not a guarantee. Always verify conditions on the ground before committing to a long drive.
Precip 7d
Log your find on iNaturalist to help the community and get expert ID assistance. Photos, location, and habitat notes all help with identification.
28 sites
Lakeside camp on the east side of the pass. Good bolete country above.
Pike-San Isabel National Forests
Grand Mesa, Uncompahgre and Gunnison National Fore
56 sites
Large campground along Cottonwood Creek. Popular staging area.
Pike-San Isabel National Forests
Pike-San Isabel National Forests
Grand Mesa, Uncompahgre and Gunnison National Fore
Grand Mesa, Uncompahgre and Gunnison National Fore
⚠ Road Access Notice
Always verify road access is public before following GPS directions to mountain areas. Many forest roads are seasonal, gated, or require 4WD. Dispersed camping follows USFS/BLM rules (typically 14-day limit). Check ranger district offices for current road and campground conditions.
0.16"
PRISM 4km · thru 08-25
Precip 14d
Observed precipitation from PRISM 4km gridded analysis, sampled at the region centroid through 2026-08-25. Used when no SNOTEL/SCAN station is mapped to this region.0.69"
PRISM 4km · thru 08-25
Soil Temp
51°F
SWE
Snow Water Equivalent — how much water is in the snowpack vs. normal. Declining SWE means snowmelt is adding moisture to the soil.40%
Drought
None
Snowmelt
steady
All conditions met (soil 51°F, sustained 5/7 days above threshold, today 0.27 VWC, 7d avg 0.27 — moisture sustained)
soil temp marginal (51°F vs 58°F min, 0/7 days above), today 0.27 VWC, 7d avg 0.27 — moisture sustained
All conditions met (soil 51°F, sustained 5/7 days above threshold, today 0.27 VWC, 7d avg 0.27 — moisture sustained)
soil temp marginal (51°F vs 55°F min, 0/7 days above), today 0.27 VWC, 7d avg 0.27 — moisture sustained
All conditions met (soil 51°F, sustained 5/7 days above threshold, today 0.27 VWC, 7d avg 0.27 — moisture sustained)
All conditions met (soil 51°F, sustained 5/7 days above threshold, today 0.27 VWC, 7d avg 0.27 — moisture sustained)
All conditions met (soil 51°F, sustained 5/7 days above threshold, today 0.27 VWC, 7d avg 0.27 — moisture sustained)
All conditions met (soil 51°F, sustained 5/7 days above threshold, today 0.27 VWC, 7d avg 0.27 — moisture sustained)
All conditions met (soil 51°F, sustained 5/7 days above threshold, today 0.27 VWC, 7d avg 0.27 — moisture sustained)
All conditions met (soil 51°F, sustained 5/7 days above threshold, today 0.27 VWC, 7d avg 0.27 — moisture sustained)
All conditions met (soil 51°F, sustained 5/7 days above threshold, today 0.27 VWC, 7d avg 0.27 — moisture sustained)
All conditions met (soil 51°F, sustained 5/7 days above threshold, today 0.27 VWC, 7d avg 0.27 — moisture sustained)
All conditions met (soil 51°F, sustained 5/7 days above threshold, today 0.27 VWC, 7d avg 0.27 — moisture sustained)
All conditions met (soil 51°F, sustained 5/7 days above threshold, today 0.27 VWC, 7d avg 0.27 — moisture sustained)
All conditions met (soil 51°F, sustained 5/7 days above threshold, today 0.27 VWC, 7d avg 0.27 — moisture sustained)
All conditions met (soil 51°F, sustained 5/7 days above threshold, today 0.27 VWC, 7d avg 0.27 — moisture sustained)
All conditions met (soil 51°F, sustained 5/7 days above threshold, today 0.27 VWC, 7d avg 0.27 — moisture sustained)
All conditions met (soil 51°F, sustained 5/7 days above threshold, today 0.27 VWC, 7d avg 0.27 — moisture sustained)
All conditions met (soil 51°F, sustained 5/7 days above threshold, today 0.27 VWC, 7d avg 0.27 — moisture sustained)
All conditions met (soil 51°F, sustained 5/7 days above threshold, today 0.27 VWC, 7d avg 0.27 — moisture sustained)
All conditions met (soil 51°F, sustained 5/7 days above threshold, today 0.27 VWC, 7d avg 0.27 — moisture sustained)
All conditions met (soil 51°F, sustained 5/7 days above threshold, today 0.27 VWC, 7d avg 0.27 — moisture sustained)
All conditions met (soil 51°F, sustained 5/7 days above threshold, today 0.27 VWC, 7d avg 0.27 — moisture sustained)
All conditions met (soil 51°F, sustained 5/7 days above threshold, today 0.27 VWC, 7d avg 0.27 — moisture sustained)
All conditions met (soil 51°F, sustained 5/7 days above threshold, today 0.27 VWC, 7d avg 0.27 — moisture sustained)
All conditions met (soil 51°F, sustained 5/7 days above threshold, today 0.27 VWC, 7d avg 0.27 — moisture sustained)
All conditions met (soil 51°F, sustained 5/7 days above threshold, today 0.27 VWC, 7d avg 0.27 — moisture sustained)
All conditions met (soil 51°F, sustained 5/7 days above threshold, today 0.27 VWC, 7d avg 0.27 — moisture sustained)
All conditions met (soil 51°F, sustained 5/7 days above threshold, today 0.27 VWC, 7d avg 0.27 — moisture sustained)
All conditions met (soil 51°F, sustained 5/7 days above threshold, today 0.27 VWC, 7d avg 0.27 — moisture sustained)
All conditions met (soil 51°F, sustained 5/7 days above threshold, today 0.27 VWC, 7d avg 0.27 — moisture sustained)
All conditions met (soil 51°F, sustained 5/7 days above threshold, today 0.27 VWC, 7d avg 0.27 — moisture sustained)
All conditions met (soil 51°F, sustained 5/7 days above threshold, today 0.27 VWC, 7d avg 0.27 — moisture sustained)
All conditions met (soil 51°F, sustained 5/7 days above threshold, today 0.27 VWC, 7d avg 0.27 — moisture sustained)
Primordia readiness: Cold = mycelium dormant. Activating = soil warming, primordia building. Primed = 5+ sustained warm days at species threshold; fruiting imminent if moisture cooperates. Based on Schmidt 1983 / Mihail 2007.