Where to find fall colors that aren't yellow in Colorado

What to know: Gambel oaks — better known as scrub oaks for their busy, low-to-the-ground stature — come alive this time of year and make fields of red if you know where to look.

• Famous Colorado photographer John Fielder once called them "otherworldly."

If you go: Hit the road for places where you can delight in more than just yellow leaf-peeping.

⛰ Head to the Spanish Peaks region in southeastern Colorado. Just off Interstate 25, take U.S. 160 between Walsenburg and La Veta Pass for a dazzling show of red and orange Gambel oaks.

• Connect with the Highway of Legends and pass through Trinidad for a meal.

🍁 Castlewood Canyon State Park is another hot spot to see the oaks at their fall best.

• Located about an hour south of Denver, just outside Franktown, the 2,628-acre park offers plenty of hiking and picnic spots.

🌲 In Colorado Springs, visit Cheyenne Mountain State Park where prairie grasses give way to Gambel oaks and finally to pine trees at the upper reaches. All three fill out the color palette for a beautiful hike on the park's 29 miles of trails.

🍂 Littleton's Roxborough State Park rock formations are the typical draw, but its meadows and oaks add their own flare this time of year.