What to look for in nature in Colorado this November

When is the bighorn sheep rut in Colorado, and where can I watch it?

• Georgetown and the I-70 corridor

  November into January; festival Saturday, November 14, 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. · Georgetown Bighorn Sheep Viewing Station, on the frontage road east of town; the Georgetown Gateway Visitor Center

  CPW calls the Georgetown herd, 250 to 350 animals, one of the most popular sheep-watching sites in the country. The Bighorn Sheep Festival, run by the town with CPW on the second Saturday of November, sets up scopes with volunteers who will find the rams for you, along with talks and children’s crafts. The 2024 festival was called off for snow, so check before driving up. On other days, bring binoculars to the viewing station and scan the rock above the highway yourself.

• Waterton Canyon

  Open a half hour before sunrise to a half hour after sunset · Denver Water’s canyon road southwest of Littleton, the start of the Colorado Trail

  A level, 6.2-mile gravel road follows the South Platte up to Strontia Springs Dam, and a resident herd of bighorns often grazes or rests beside it. Because of the sheep, Denver Water bans dogs and other pets from the canyon entirely, leash or no leash. Horses are allowed. It is an easy walk or bike ride with a good chance of rams within a few hundred feet.

• Give them room

  All season · Anywhere sheep come down to roads

  Rams in the rut are distracted and may wander near roads. Pull fully off the road, stay in or by your car, and never try to coax an animal closer for a picture. Sheep that are pushed off their winter range burn energy they cannot easily replace.

When do bald eagles arrive in Colorado for the winter?

• Barr Lake State Park

  Arrivals in November; more as winter deepens · Northeast of Denver off I-76; the cottonwoods along the south and east shores

  CPW’s park page says many bald eagles spend the winter around the lake, and one pair regularly nests there in summer, raising its young in a tree at the water’s edge; CPW’s magazine adds that a pair has been present every year since 1986. The tall cottonwoods along the shore give the birds their perches. Walk the shoreline trail with binoculars in the first hour of daylight and check the treetops over the water.

• Rocky Mountain Arsenal National Wildlife Refuge

  Daily; the 11-mile wildlife drive is free · Commerce City, ten minutes from downtown Denver

  The refuge drive takes about an hour and passes prairie, lakes and old farm shelterbelts where eagles perch in winter, along with bison, deer and hawks. Bison roam part of the drive, and visitors must remain in their cars there.

• The Arkansas Valley

  Late fall through winter · John Martin Reservoir State Park near Hasty; Huerfano Lake; Holbrook Reservoir

  Lake Pueblo once held hundreds of wintering eagles in the 1990s. CPW’s magazine reports that the birds have since spread out, and that wintering eagles are now found more widely down the Arkansas, including at John Martin Reservoir and smaller lakes nearby. Check the trees closest to open water.

Where do the cranes and geese go in a Colorado November?

• The last cranes

  Early November; most gone by mid-month · Monte Vista National Wildlife Refuge auto tour; County Road 8S pullouts

  The refuge’s auto tour opens one hour ahead of sunrise and closes one hour past sunset. Watch the fields first thing in the morning, when family groups feed, and listen for the rolling bugle overhead as they leave the roosts.

• Snow and Ross’s geese on the plains

  Building through November and December · Thurston Reservoir and Nee Gronde Reservoir (Queens State Wildlife Area) near Lamar and Eads; John Martin Reservoir

  The Birding Trail lists Thurston as sometimes holding thousands of snow geese in winter, and Nee Gronde for big goose flocks and many bald eagles. Visitors 16 and older need a valid hunting or fishing license or a State Wildlife Area pass on the Queens reservoirs, and this is also waterfowl hunting country, so wear bright colors.

• Ducks and grebes near Denver

  All month · Cherry Creek, Chatfield and Barr Lake state parks

  The metro reservoirs gather diving ducks as the month goes on, and goldeneyes, buffleheads and mergansers are typical late-fall arrivals. A spotting scope from a dam or a parking lot over the water shows far more than walking the shore.

When do rosy-finches come to feeders in Colorado, and what is the winter finch outlook?

• What the 2026–27 finch forecast says for Colorado

  Winter 2026–27 · Pine and pinyon country statewide

  The Finch Research Network’s forecast, released September 25, mostly covers eastern Canada and the Northeast. Its one clear Western note matters here: pine cone crops failed widely across the interior mountain West this year, on limber, whitebark, pinyon and ponderosa pines, and Type 2 red crossbills have been moving east out of the region because of it. Expect a thin year for crossbills and other cone-eaters in the Colorado forests; that is a reason to note any you do find.

• Project FeederWatch

  November 1 to April 30 · Any yard, balcony or patch you can watch

  Cornell Lab and Birds Canada run FeederWatch through the cold half of the year: you choose two back-to-back days, record the largest flock of each species seen at one moment, and report it, every week or just once all winter. The U.S. fee is $18. In bear country, wait until the bears are denned before putting seed out, and take feeders down when they wake.

What are deer, bears, moose and other Colorado animals doing in November?

• Mule deer and white-tailed deer in the rut

  Mid-November into December; aggressive bucks until late December · Foothill neighborhoods, river bottoms, town parks from Boulder to Durango

  CPW’s magazine notes that white-tailed deer start a week or so ahead of mule deer, and by early December the agency describes deer across the state as at the peak of the season. Bucks chase does with their necks swollen and noses low, and they will hold their ground against people. CPW asks for extra distance, leashed dogs and a quick look around the yard before letting pets out, since bucks have gored both people and dogs. Hang holiday lights firmly, at least eight feet up: deer tangle their antlers in loose strings, netting and hammocks, and should only be freed by wildlife officers.

• Bears going to sleep

  Early November for most · Mountains, foothills and oak brush

  CPW gives early November as the time most of the state’s black bears stop moving about for the year. The cubs come into the world over the winter, inside the den, while their mother sleeps on, and come out in May weighing 10 to 15 pounds. Until you are sure the bears near you have gone to their dens, keep trash, pet food and bird seed locked away, as you would in summer.

• Moose

  All month · North Park, the Never Summer Range, the upper Colorado and Grand Mesa

  CPW puts the moose breeding season from late September through November, so bulls are still testy early in the month. Look in thick willow along streams. Ears laid back, raised neck hair, a lowered head or a licked snout all mean back away now; a moose can run 35 miles an hour, and it sees a dog the way it would see a wolf.

• Gambel oak holding on

  Through winter · Foothills and mesas of southern and western Colorado

  Gambel oak keeps many of its dead brown leaves into winter, which is why the oak brush stays rust-colored long after the cottonwoods are bare. The U.S. Forest Service notes that elk lean on the oak as winter browse and that mule deer use it moderately in winter and spring. The dry leaves also make the stands burn easily from October until real snow falls.

Has everywhere in Colorado had its first freeze by November?

Why is November so windy along Colorado’s Front Range?

How dark does it get in Colorado in November?

What does a strong El Niño mean for Colorado’s winter?

What is in the Colorado sky in November 2026?

• The Leonids

  Best before dawn on Wednesday, November 18 (also the 17th and 19th) · Face east to south after the Moon sets, around midnight or a little later

  The International Meteor Organization puts this year’s peak late on November 17 (UTC), and expects an ordinary year, about 15 an hour for an observer far from city lights, with no outburst. The radiant in Leo rises around midnight and climbs until dawn, and the half-lit Moon sets around then, so the hours between moonset and first light are the ones to use. These are swift meteors, and the brightest Leonids sometimes leave a faint, fading trail across a dark Colorado sky.

• The Taurids and their comet

  Southern peak around November 5, northern around November 12 · The radiant, in Taurus, is well up by late evening

  Both Taurid branches are slow and sparse, a handful of meteors an hour, but known for occasional bright fireballs. Both are debris from Comet Encke, which itself will brighten to binocular range in early 2027. With the Moon new on November 9, the week between the peaks is moonless in the evening.

• A planet line-up before sunrise

  Mornings of November 14 to 16; Mercury best about November 18 to 25 · East to south before dawn

  Venus has jumped into the morning sky after passing the sun in October and climbs higher each day, brilliant and low in the east-southeast; it is near its brightest around Thanksgiving. Jupiter and fainter, reddish Mars sit high in Leo, and at first light on November 15 and again the 16th the red planet and the giant sit only about 1.2 degrees apart, a pair that fits easily in one binocular field. Mercury shows up low in the dawn twilight from mid-month, at its best for about a week around November 20. In the evening sky, Saturn is the lone planet, in the south after dark.

• The Beaver Moon, a supermoon

  Full 7:53 a.m. MST, Tuesday, November 24 · Rising in the east around sunset on November 23 and 24

  Because full moon falls on Tuesday morning, both Monday and Tuesday evening give a round Moon at moonrise, Tuesday’s a few hours nearer the exact moment. Perigee, the closest pass of the month, follows some 30 hours afterward, which makes this a mild supermoon, a little larger and brighter than average; the Cold Moon on December 23 will come nearer still, the nearest full moon of 2026. Overnight from the 23rd to the 24th it crosses near the Pleiades, but its light drowns the little star cluster.

What can families do outdoors in Colorado in November 2026?

Safety notes for November in Colorado