
Fall colors in Spearfish Canyon have soared to 40 percent, according to Spearfish Canyon author and conservationist Jerry Boyer.
He says 40 percent color staging represents all the deciduous trees and shrubs that have reached their lime phase and are beginning to quickly burst into their bright yellows, reds, and golds.
If there is a peak at all this year, Boyer predicts it will be early, around September 23rd. The earliest on record is September 23rd. Being at peak means that all leaves, regardless of elevation or species, are in full rhapsody in some phase of the color burst.
Boyer says he has never seen the reds of the nannyberry, ivy, wild grape, and sumac so early.