Hey Craig. I have never seen any of the color peaking that early (18th). There is color for sure that is scattered, but I wouldn't consider it peak or close to peak.
Maroon Bells is definitely a madhouse, that has never bothered me, the key to that is just to get there early, very early in the morning. I have been there enough that I know where on the lake I want to be positioned at, and I go and set up early in the dark and get the last of the stars over the lake. But if you don't like crowds, then you would want to avoid it. I always just look at it as a fun little party with a bunch of new friends.
Million Dollar Highway and Crystal Lake to my experience again has been peaking towards the end of Sept, not the middle.
I misunderstood your question then, All of Colorado would have peaked by Oct5th to 10th, as the color basically progresses from North to South based on altitude, and when you are in Ridgway you are already in SW Colorado.
So for color after Oct 5th, you could go down into New Mexico. There color is later, and there are some ski resort areas by Santa Fe that is supposed to have nice fall color. I haven't made it to those in the fall yet.
The other place I know that's after Oct 5th, is Yosemite. Of course that's not close by, and it's usually the last week of Oct into the first week of November.
Maybe
@Douglas Sherman or
@Bob can give a general time for fall colors in Sedona. That's a great area, but I don't recall exactly when their fall color is.
The problem or fun with fall colors is they do happen everywhere in about the same week or 2 week period (with a few exceptions) so the challenge for me always is what will I add to my list of places to shoot each year and what will I drop off to make room for the new places.
