Hey there, NOCO Crew!
Fall shows up tonight!
Not necessarily the boots-and-sweater version of fall — it may still be plenty warm out there. But at 6:05 tonight, we cross the autumn equinox, and from here, the balance tips toward longer nights.
The rest of Northern Colorado seems to know it, too. Elk are bugling in Estes Park, gardens are moving from tomatoes to garlic, and the first hints of yellow are working their way down from the high country.
This week, we're leaning into the turn.
Let’s dig in!
– Megan
Conditions: In the foothills and the plains, average highs slide from about 74° to 72° over the course of this week, while average lows move from roughly 46° to 43°.
In other words: still pretty lovely in the afternoon, increasingly jacket-worthy once the sun goes down.
And that's changing quickly now. We're losing about 18½ minutes of daylight every week.
The Day the Light Tips
Fall begins tonight at 6:05 pm.
When we think of fall, pumpkin-spice is not exactly the first thing that comes to our minds. Sweaters, jackets, leaves changing? Sure. But, what about astronomy?
Our fall in North America begins as the sun crosses the celestial equator heading south, marking the autumn equinox in the Northern Hemisphere. Neither half of Earth is tilted toward the sun more than the other, and for one brief moment, we're sitting at the balance point between summer and winter.
Except there's something slightly misleading about the name.
Equinox comes from Latin words meaning ‘equal night,’ which makes it sound like today should be split neatly into 12 hours of daylight and 12 hours of darkness.
It isn't.
Here in Fort Collins, sunrise today is around 6:48 a.m. and sunset around 6:57 p.m. That's 12 hours and 9 minutes of daylight. We don't get closest to an even 12 hours until Friday. By Saturday, daylight has officially slipped below the 12-hour mark.
Why the discrepancy? Partly because sunrise and sunset are measured from the edge of the sun rather than its center, and partly because Earth's atmosphere bends sunlight (this phenomenon is called ‘atmospheric refraction’), allowing us to see the sun for a few minutes longer, when it is technically below the horizon.
We lose daylight all year between the summer and winter solstices, but the change isn't a consistent one throughout the year.
Right now, we're losing daylight quickly.
Northern Colorado is currently losing about 2 minutes and 39 seconds of daylight every day. That's more than 18 minutes between one Tuesday issue of NOCO WORD and the next.
The dog walk that happened in full sun a few weeks ago ends at dusk now. Dinner on the patio suddenly requires lights. The after-work bike ride has gotten shorter. And the sun keeps disappearing a little farther south along the horizon. Today it sets almost exactly due west.
Try this:
Go outside around sunset tonight. Find somewhere you can see the western horizon and notice exactly where the sun disappears. Use whatever stationary point you have available as your marker: a mountain, ridge, tree, barn, rooftop. Make note of where you are standing, and take a picture of the setting sun. Be quick, though — the sun is not kind to camera sensors! Or eyeballs!
Around Thanksgiving, go back to exactly the same spot you stood before at sunset, and take another picture facing your marker. The sun won't be where you left it. By then, its setting point will have traveled noticeably south along the horizon on its way toward the winter solstice. It's a wonderfully low-tech way to watch the planet move.
The Rut
There are sounds that belong to Northern Colorado.
The Poudre running high in spring. Cottonwoods rattling in the wind. Thunder rolling off the foothills on a summer afternoon.
And then there's this one: a low note that climbs into a high, ragged squeal, then drops into a series of grunts.
EEEEEEEE-ooooooo-ugh-ugh-ugh.
Okay, that's admittedly difficult to spell.
That's a bull elk bugling, and if you're anywhere near Estes Park this week, you're about to hear a lot of this strange sound.
Elk rut, or breeding season, runs roughly mid-September through mid-October, and it peaks right around now. Bulls gather harems of cows and defend them — loudly and sometimes violently — from other bulls looking to take over their breeding rights. The bugle is the opening move: part warning, part invitation, audible for well over a mile on a calm evening.
It's also the time of year elk get genuinely dangerous, not because they're aggressive by nature; but, a bull defending a harem doesn't much care what's in his way. Colorado Parks and Wildlife's literal ‘rule of thumb’: stretch your arm out with your thumb up, and close one eye. If your thumb doesn't fully cover the elk, you're too close. Give them room. Use your zoom.
Rocky Mountain National Park and the meadows around downtown Estes Park are the reliable places to catch the rut, especially at dawn and dusk.
***2026 peak-activity dates aren't independently confirmed yet.***
Fall Planting
The equinox is the natural pivot-point for your garden's summer to its winter.
Garlic goes in the ground in fall for a reason: it needs a stretch of cold to split into cloves come harvest. Plant individual cloves, pointy end up, a few weeks before the ground freezes hard — mulch heavily once it's in, and forget about it until spring.
Cover crops are the other fall move worth making. Clover, winter rye, and hairy vetch all hold soil in place over winter, choke out weeds that would otherwise get a head start, and get tilled back in come spring as free organic matter. If a bed's done producing for the year, this is a better use of it than leaving it bare.
And if you've still got cool-season crops going — kale, spinach, the tougher lettuces — a light frost actually improves the flavor rather than ruining it. Don't panic and cover everything at the first cold snap.
Riding up the canyon. Standing at a workbench. Walking the dog. Pain can keep us from enjoying the little things in life that make life, well… life.
Sam Fischer and the team at Choice City Physical Therapy offer one-on-one care in Fort Collins.
40-minute appointments with a licensed physical therapist. Treatment built around you, and the activities you want to get back to enjoying in life.
3938 John F. Kennedy Parkway, Unit 11E · Fort Collins
970-460-8544
90 DAYS TO WINTER: With the autumn equinox comes the dark. Northern Colorado keeps giving up daylight until the winter solstice on December 21. So enjoy the evening light while we've got it.
FORT COLLINS ONCE HAD A WATER WAGON: Before Fort Collins had a municipal water system, drinking water would arrive by wagon. According to the Fort Collins History Connection, the city's ‘water wagon’ was a tank on wheels filled with water collected from the Poudre near the College Avenue Bridge. It was hauled around town and sold for 25 cents a barrel, or 5 cents a pail.
DON'T WAIT TOO LONG FOR THE GOLD: This year's fall color may be a little different. CSU Extension says drought stress combined with unusually warm overnight temperatures could mean earlier color, a shorter show and less-vivid leaves along the Front Range this year. Some already-stressed trees may skip the show altogether, turning brown and dropping their leaves early. Higher elevations generally turn first, and Northern Colorado's usual window begins in mid-to-late September. Translation: if you see a good patch of gold, go check them out. We'll have more on where to find turning leaves soon.
LAST WEEK'S STUMPER
Which came first: Fort Collins becoming a town or Colorado becoming a state?
Fort Collins was first. Fort Collins was incorporated as a town on February 3, 1873. Colorado became the 38th state on August 1, 1876. So Fort Collins beat statehood by about three and a half years.
Every contribution keeps us out in the field, digging into local history, and showing up for the towns we cover. We're grateful for every bit of support. Thanks for being part of this.
— Megan & David
