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9,000–12,000 ft · CO🚗 Directions
High-elevation Front Range corridor. Prime king bolete and hawk's wing habitat above 10,000 ft. Can hold snow into June. Spectacular terrain.
Updated Jul 13, 4:01 AM MT
**Guanella Pass A-Tier Breakdown** You're sitting on sustained moisture (0.22 VWC stable across 14 days) in a high-alpine corridor that's fully snowmelt-complete—that's the A-tier anchor. **Snowbank Mushrooms are your money target**: soil temp is right at threshold, moisture sustained across the full week, and this species thrives in post-melt alpine turf. King Boletes, Indigo Milk Caps, and the Amanita complex are viable but running hot-marginal on soil temp (49°F vs 50°F minimum)—they'll fruit if we catch a warm afternoon, but they're not locked in yet. The hard limiter is desiccation risk: you've got 0.26" total precip over 14 days with zero SWE buffer and no rain in the immediate forecast. Moisture is here *now*, but it's evaporating faster than it's being replenished. This is a 3–5 day window before the alpine dries hard. Watch for afternoon thunderstorms (common pattern here mid-July). Even 0.1" more precip would lock in the marginal species and extend your season. Otherwise, prioritize Snowbanks while conditions hold; the rest are lottery tickets contingent on a warm spike or incoming moisture. **Hot tip:** Target north-facing aspect pockets and riparian seeps where soil moisture lingers longest—Snowbanks will persist there 5+ days after south-facing slopes parch out.
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
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18 sites
High-elevation camp on the pass road. Prime king bolete territory.
Arapaho & Roosevelt National Forests Pawnee NG
Pike-San Isabel National Forests
Pike-San Isabel National Forests
Arapaho & Roosevelt National Forests Pawnee NG
8 sites
Small campground near Georgetown. Good staging point.
Arapaho & Roosevelt National Forests Pawnee NG
Arapaho & Roosevelt National Forests Pawnee NG
Pike-San Isabel National Forests
Pike-San Isabel National Forests
⚠ 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.
0.26"
PRISM 4km · thru 07-11
Precip 14d
Observed precipitation from PRISM 4km gridded analysis, sampled at the region centroid through 2026-07-11. Used when no SNOTEL/SCAN station is mapped to this region.0.26"
PRISM 4km · thru 07-11
Soil Temp
49°F
SWE
Snow Water Equivalent — how much water is in the snowpack vs. normal. Declining SWE means snowmelt is adding moisture to the soil.0%
Drought
None
Snowmelt
complete
soil temp marginal (49°F vs 50°F min, 2/7 days above), today 0.22 VWC, 7d avg 0.22 — moisture sustained
All conditions met (soil 49°F, sustained 7/7 days above threshold, today 0.22 VWC, 7d avg 0.22 — moisture sustained)
soil temp marginal (49°F vs 55°F min, 0/7 days above), today 0.22 VWC, 7d avg 0.22 — moisture sustained
soil temp marginal (49°F vs 50°F min, 2/7 days above), today 0.22 VWC, 7d avg 0.22 — moisture sustained
soil temp marginal (49°F vs 50°F min, 2/7 days above), today 0.22 VWC, 7d avg 0.22 — moisture sustained
soil temp marginal (49°F vs 50°F min, 2/7 days above), today 0.22 VWC, 7d avg 0.22 — moisture sustained
soil temp marginal (49°F vs 50°F min, 2/7 days above), today 0.22 VWC, 7d avg 0.22 — moisture sustained
soil temp marginal (49°F vs 50°F min, 2/7 days above), today 0.22 VWC, 7d avg 0.22 — moisture sustained
soil temp marginal (49°F vs 50°F min, 2/7 days above), today 0.22 VWC, 7d avg 0.22 — moisture sustained
soil temp marginal (49°F vs 50°F min, 2/7 days above), today 0.22 VWC, 7d avg 0.22 — moisture sustained
soil temp marginal (49°F vs 50°F min, 2/7 days above), today 0.22 VWC, 7d avg 0.22 — moisture sustained
soil temp marginal (49°F vs 50°F min, 2/7 days above), today 0.22 VWC, 7d avg 0.22 — moisture sustained
soil temp marginal (49°F vs 55°F min, 0/7 days above), today 0.22 VWC, 7d avg 0.22 — moisture sustained
soil temp marginal (49°F vs 55°F min, 0/7 days above), today 0.22 VWC, 7d avg 0.22 — moisture sustained
soil temp marginal (49°F vs 60°F min, 0/7 days above), today 0.22 VWC, 7d avg 0.22 — moisture sustained
soil temp marginal (49°F vs 60°F min, 0/7 days above), today 0.22 VWC, 7d avg 0.22 — moisture sustained
soil temp marginal (49°F vs 55°F min, 0/7 days above), today 0.22 VWC, 7d avg 0.22 — 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.