Mushrooms / Colorado
Mushrooms: White River National Forest (Vail Pass)
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The 7-day forecast, hourly plan and an alert for this place are in pre-sale.
See the pre-saleWhere to look
Look in spruce along Shrine Pass Road and on the trails from the Vail Pass car park. King boletes grow on the edges of forest and meadows, chanterelles in moss deeper in the forest. Afternoon thunderstorms are common, so start early and come off open ridges.
What grows here
king bolete (prawdziwek), golden chanterelle (kurka), hedgehog mushroom (kolczak obłączasty), morel (smardz)
Forest: subalpine Engelmann spruce and subalpine fir forest at 3,000–3,500 m
Season: July–September; peak in August.
Rules
In White River National Forest even personal-use picking needs a free permit from the district office in Silverthorne or Minturn, with a limit of 5 pounds per day and 67 pounds per year, and the fine for picking without one is 230 dollars. Picking is banned in national parks, state parks and state forests in Colorado. In other national forests in the state small personal amounts are usually picked without a permit.
About the forest
The area around Vail Pass and Shrine Pass Road in the Rocky Mountains is one of the best known mushroom areas in Colorado. Monsoon rain in July and August brings big flushes of king boletes in the subalpine spruce. Picking here is at about 3,000–3,500 m.
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