[pimaCanyon]

I'm a transplant to southeastern AZ from Whidbey Island since 2008. Many summers since then, the high country in the mountains of southwestern Colorado has melted out in June, sometimes early June, last summer in late May! Colorado, like Arizona, has a summer monsoon that begins in early July, so we've taken advantage of those early meltouts and visited the alpine meadows up there in June. We're hoping to do the same this year, but it's looking less likely due to a decent snowpack and so far a cool Spring. Here's are a few pix from June 2022. One thing I've noticed about the high country in Colorado: There's very little evidence of anyone camping there. My theory on this is that up until the past 10 or 15 years, the high country did not melt out until July. In July there are lightning storms almost every afternoon, so you would not want to be camping at timberline. Lightning storms finally abate some time in September, but by then is really COLD camping up that high (at 11,000 or 12,000 feet).