Fruit Trees for Vail, Eagle, Gypsum and the Eagle River Valley, Colorado

On the clear morning of December 10, 1975, two Colorado State University researchers had a tethered balloon up over a slope in West Vail. At 8:31 a.m. the air 1,457 feet up was about 20°F warmer than the air at the launch site just above Gore Creek, and the cold didn't clear off the valley floor until early afternoon. That one flight explains most of what matters for fruit trees for Vail, Eagle, Gypsum and the Eagle River Valley: on a still night the cold settles on the floor, and a little height buys you a lot.

This map covers the valley from Red Cliff and Minturn down to Gypsum: Gore Creek through Vail, the Vail Valley towns of Avon and Edwards, then Wolcott, Eagle and Gypsum, from about 6,300 feet at Gypsum to 8,150 feet in Vail and over 8,600 feet at Red Cliff. Type your address in the box on the map to get the number for your own place, and the list of what we sell that has come through it.

How to read this map

The number on the map is the 30-year planning low, the number to plan for at that spot. Our cold hardiness calculator uses the same number; it leans to the safe side, and it isn't the record. The MFTC zone is that number in half zones. "Typical winter" is an average year's coldest night, the kind of number USDA zones are built on, which is why USDA zones read warmer than ours. The spring layer shows how many degrees warmer or colder a spot runs than Eagle, our reference town, on a still, clear night at bloom.

The middle of the valley's growing ground plans for −19°F (MFTC 5a), and half of it falls between −21°F and −18°F. That's warmer than any town, because most growing ground is slope and bench while every town sits on a floor. The warm end is the best bench ground above Eagle and Gypsum, at −17°F (MFTC 5a); the cold end is the river floor, about −24°F around Edwards and −26°F (MFTC 4a) in the coldest ground near Avon. Eagle plans for −22°F (MFTC 4b), typical winter about −14°F. Every town from Gypsum to Red Cliff plans for −21°F to −23°F across about 2,300 feet of elevation. The big spreads are at bloom, about 11°F between Homestead's bench and West Vail, and in season, from 132 frost-free days above Gypsum to 84 in Vail.

Why the map looks the way it does

The Eagle River rises on the Continental Divide and runs 60.5 miles northwest past Red Cliff, Gilman and Minturn, picks up Gore Creek at Dowds Junction, turns west near Wolcott and runs past Eagle and Gypsum toward the Colorado River at Dotsero. Gore Creek comes off the Gore Range and Vail Pass and drops through a constricted canyon below West Vail. Side valleys feed it all the way down (Beaver Creek, Lake Creek, Brush Creek, Gypsum Creek). On a clear, calm night each carries cold air down, and each stretch of floor makes its own cold as the ground loses heat to the sky. That's your airshed: a string of floors, each filling with its own cold, stepping down from Red Cliff to Gypsum.

NOAA station records show it. The Eagle airport station, on the valley floor at 6,497 feet, runs a median 6°F colder on the year's coldest night than the Dowd Junction station on a slope 2,500 feet higher. The Gypsum station, in the hills about 940 feet above town, has the mildest record in the valley (−17°F) and an average winter low since the mid-1990s of about −8°F, against about −14°F at the airport 4 miles away. The Vail station, on or near the Gore Creek floor, runs 3°F colder than the Vail Mountain station 2,000 feet higher. Free air cools about 3.6°F per 1,000 feet, but on still nights the bottoms come loose from it and the order runs backward.

So Gypsum at about 6,300 feet and Vail at 8,150 feet plan within a degree of each other (−22°F and −21°F), and Avon, in between, is the coldest town on the map at −23°F. Going downstream buys a longer season, not a milder winter night. The floor between Eagle and Gypsum is broad (the map finds about 12 times as much valley floor within 3 miles of Eagle as of Vail), and a wide floor can pool cold harder than a deep valley that drains. At West Vail the balloon team watched a cold layer 574 feet deep build in under 2 hours, in air too still to turn their wind gauge. It didn't drain. It sat.

The benches make up for it. Within 3 miles of Eagle and Gypsum, ground 100 to 700 feet above the floor plans for about −18°F against −22°F on the floor; at Edwards it's −20°F against −24°F. Up the narrow Gore Creek valley the gap shrinks to 1°F or 2°F. Eagle County's Master Gardener guide says valley floors may run about 10°F cooler than the hills around them. Our winter number takes the fine terrain pattern at a quarter strength, because in our station tests it didn't sharpen the number at ordinary station sites; the spring layer shows it at full strength. There the draws stand out: Gypsum's center at the mouth of Gypsum Creek, and West Vail and Dowds Junction along Gore Creek's canyon, read 4°F to 5°F colder than Eagle on a bloom night, while Homestead, on a bench 120 feet above the floor at Edwards, reads 5°F warmer. Spring frost layers usually top out 30 to 200 feet above the ground, so the first hundred feet counts most at bloom.

The floor isn't the coldest place every night. While arctic air is pouring in on a wind there's no inversion and higher ground can run colder, and some outbreaks hit the high stations hardest: on February 2, 2011, the stations from Vail to Beaver Creek and McCoy Park read −20°F to −24°F while the airport read −13°F. Snow splits the valley too, about 189 to 200 inches a year in Vail and 47 at the airport; air over snow runs colder, but snow keeps roots warm. The Master Gardener guide says south and north slopes can differ by one to two USDA zones. Town heat is small (downtown Vail plans within half a degree of the creek floor), and the lakes are too small to matter.

Vail, East Vail and West Vail

Vail sits at about 8,150 feet along Gore Creek, which runs through town past East Vail, Golden Peak, Vail Village, Lionshead and West Vail. It's a narrow valley with only a sliver of floor and bench. The town center plans for −21°F (MFTC 4b), typical winter about −12°F, and reads 2°F colder than Eagle at bloom; within 3 miles the floor plans for −21°F and the benches −20°F. Bighorn, at the east end toward the pass at about 8,470 feet, plans for −21°F and reads 2°F colder than Eagle in spring.

West Vail is the low end of town, at about 7,935 feet where Gore Creek heads into the canyon. The map marks it as a cold-air drainage channel: −22°F (MFTC 4b), typical winter about −13°F, and 5°F colder than Eagle on a bloom night, 3°F worse than the town center.

The Vail station has already gone past the town's number: −23°F on February 3, 2011, against the −21°F the map plans for downtown. Its median frost-free window runs June 19 to September 10, 84 days, while Vail Mountain, 2,000 feet higher, gets 102. So the short, frosty season on the creek floor stops you, not the winter. CSU's mountain tree guide calls about 7,500 feet the dividing line for many trees and says a warm south-facing spot can push plants higher than it lists. Get up onto a sunny slope and lean on Dolgo (−55°F), Kerr applecrab (−50°F), Nanking Cherry (−50°F) and Honeyberry (−50°F).

Minturn, Red Cliff and the upper Eagle canyon

Above Dowds Junction the Eagle runs in a canyon. Red Cliff, founded by Leadville miners in 1879 and named for its red quartzite cliffs, sits down in it at about 8,640 feet on our map, with no real floor or bench within 3 miles. The canyon drains everything above it. Red Cliff plans for −21°F (MFTC 4b), typical winter about −11°F, and reads 4°F colder than Eagle at bloom. Gilman, the ghost town on a cliff about 600 feet above the river (abandoned in 1984, now a Superfund site), plans for −20°F and reads 3°F better than Red Cliff at bloom.

Minturn, a Denver and Rio Grande railroad town since 1887, sits on the Eagle at about 7,850 feet with national forest on three sides. Cold comes down the canyon and settles on its floor on the way to Dowds Junction, 1.8 miles downstream. Minturn plans for −21°F (MFTC 4b), typical winter about −12°F, and reads 3°F colder than Eagle at bloom; within 3 miles the floor plans for −22°F and the benches −20°F. Dowds Junction, where Gore Creek comes in, plans for −21°F and reads 5°F colder than Eagle at bloom. The Dowd Junction weather station sits about 1,280 feet up a slope north of the junction, which is why it gets 100 frost-free days to Vail's 84. Plant here as you would in Vail.

Avon, Eagle-Vail and Beaver Creek

Below Dowds Junction the river floor runs past Eagle-Vail, at about 7,600 feet, to Avon at about 7,450 feet, where Beaver Creek comes in from the south. Avon is the coldest town on the map: −23°F (MFTC 4b), typical winter about −13°F. The floor within 3 miles plans for −23°F and the coldest tenth of growing ground −26°F (MFTC 4a). Avon sits on a gentle 3 percent toe slope at the edge of the pool and takes cold from two directions, down the river and down Beaver Creek. Eagle-Vail, just upstream, has the same river-bottom setting. Avon reads 1°F warmer than Eagle at bloom, because spring frost pools are shallow and the edge clears them, while the deep winter pool covers it.

In Avon's neighborhoods (Wildridge, Wildwood and Mountain Star), the question is how high above the river you sit: benches within 3 miles plan for −20°F and the warmest tenth −19°F, against −23°F on the floor. Up Beaver Creek, the Beaver Creek Village weather station at 8,500 feet runs a median 6°F milder than the Vail station on the year's coldest night, and gets 107 frost-free days; the map plans for −20°F there. On Avon's floor, plant what has come through −40°F or colder; the benches give you room for pears and plums like Ure and Toka.

Edwards, Homestead and Wolcott

Edwards, Berry's Ranch until the railroad came in 1887, sits at about 7,220 feet, 14 miles west of Vail. Lake Creek and Colorow Creek come down from the Sawatch Range to the south and feed cold onto the floor on still nights. The floor within 3 miles plans for −24°F, the coldest floor in the valley, and the coldest tenth of ground −25°F. The town, on a toe slope, plans for −22°F (MFTC 4b), typical winter about −13°F, and reads about even with Eagle at bloom; Edwards Village, just west, plans for −22°F and reads 1°F warmer.

Homestead has the best spring reading of any named place on the map, on a bench about 120 feet above the floor half a mile southwest of Edwards. It plans for −21°F (MFTC 4b), typical winter about −11°F, and reads 5°F warmer than Eagle on a still bloom night, about 11°F better than West Vail. Carterville, about 3 miles west on a steep slope 150 feet above the floor, plans for −20°F (MFTC 5a), the only named place in the valley in 5a, and reads 3°F warmer than Eagle. Keep the floor and creek bottoms for fruit that has come through −40°F and for bush fruit, and on Homestead's bench and slopes like Carterville's, try the early bloomers: Lapins sweet cherry (−35°F), Westcot apricot (−45°F) and Superior plum (−35°F) with Toka.

Wolcott, 7 miles downstream where the river turns west and Highway 131 heads for Steamboat Springs, sits at about 7,000 feet on a toe slope. It plans for −21°F (MFTC 4b) and reads 3°F colder than Eagle at bloom. If you're over the hill in Steamboat, the Steamboat Springs and Yampa Valley map covers you.

Eagle and Brush Creek

Eagle, settled in 1882 and the county seat since 1921, sits on the river bottom at about 6,600 feet, in the cold pool, with its town limits reaching south up the Brush Creek valley toward Sylvan Lake. Eagle plans for −22°F (MFTC 4b), typical winter about −14°F, and it's the reference for the spring layer. Within 3 miles the floor plans for −22°F, the benches −18°F and the warmest tenth of growing ground −17°F (MFTC 5a), so getting up off the river is worth 3°F to 5°F. Brush Creek brings cold down onto the floor on still nights, and up that valley, creek bottom versus side slope matters more than distance from town. Put apricots, sweet cherries and early plums on the benches above Eagle, and apples, pears, tart cherries and bush fruit on the river bottom and the lower Brush Creek flats.

Gypsum, the Gypsum hills and Brightwater Club

Gypsum is the low end of the map, at about 6,300 to 6,400 feet where Gypsum Creek meets the Eagle, 5 miles above Dotsero. Old Town grew up on ranching, farming and the railroad, with 31 ranches by 1884. The map puts the center of town in a cold-air drainage channel, the creek bottom. Gypsum plans for −22°F (MFTC 4b), typical winter about −14°F, and reads 4°F colder than Eagle at bloom; within 3 miles the floor plans for −22°F, the benches −18°F and the warmest tenth −17°F.

The airport station, on the floor 2 miles east of town, shows what that floor can do. NOAA files the long Eagle record, back to 1905 with gaps, under it: −51°F on January 12, 1963. Since 1995 its coldest reading is −17°F, milder than the −21°F the map plans for at the station. The Gypsum hill station, 3.3 miles north of town and about 940 feet up, bottoms out at −17°F with 132 frost-free days to the airport's 116.

Brightwater Club, about 4 miles south of town and 90 feet above the floor, plans for −21°F (MFTC 4b), typical winter about −12°F, and reads 3°F warmer than Eagle at bloom, 7°F better than Gypsum's center. The slopes around Gypsum are among the warmest ground on the map: the place for apricots, sweet cherries and a peach as an experiment. Old Town and the floor toward the airport are for hardy apples, pears, plums, tart cherries and bush fruit. For Eagle County's other valley, the Aspen, Carbondale and Roaring Fork map covers you.

Spring frost and bloom in the Eagle River Valley

NOAA's 1991 to 2020 medians put the last 32°F on May 22 and the last 28°F on May 5 at the Gypsum hill station, and May 25 and May 13 at the airport 840 feet below it. Up the valley the last 32°F comes June 8 at the Dowd Junction slope station and June 19 on the Gore Creek floor in Vail, with its last 28°F on June 3. One spring in ten it comes June 7 above Gypsum, June 14 at the airport and July 13 in Vail.

Open blossoms of apple, pear, cherry, peach, apricot and plum all start dying at about 28°F. CSU's GardenNotes put 10 percent kill at full bloom at 28°F for apples and pears and 27°F for apricots, and 90 percent kill at 25°F, 24°F and 22°F. So the 3°F to 5°F the spring layer shows between the warm benches, Eagle and the draws can be the difference between natural thinning and no crop. Most fruit can lose half its blossoms with little effect, except clustered fruit like cherries and grapes, and only about 15 percent of apple blossoms need to set for a crop.

Site comes first. Put apricots, sweet cherries and early plums highest, apples lower, and give the creek bottoms and the Gore Creek floor to Honeyberry (fully open haskap flowers take 19°F without damage), currants and gooseberries. Eagle County's Master Gardener guide says row covers, blankets and jugs add about 2°F to 5°F if you keep them dry. Through bloom, mow under 2 inches, don't till, and water a day or two before a frost night. In fall the first 32°F comes September 10 in Vail and September 22 at the airport, and freezes before trees harden off kill at temperatures a January tree shrugs off; after Western Slope orchards hit 3°F on October 27, 2020, CSU tied the damage to full irrigation through a warm fall. Taper water from mid-August.

What the weather records say

NOAA station records, coldest on file: the Eagle airport −51°F (January 12, 1963); McCoy Park −24°F, Vail Mountain −23°F and Beaver Creek Village −23°F (February 2, 2011); Vail −23°F (February 3, 2011); the Gypsum hill station −17°F (December 22, 1998). Just east of the map, Dillon's record, 110 years on file, is −46°F (December 24, 1924).

The old floor outbreaks were brutal: Eagle read −40°F on January 28, 1948 and −46°F on February 1, 1951. On January 10, 1962, Dillon read −44°F while Eagle read just −15°F; a year later Eagle hit −51°F and Dillon −38°F. Since the mid-1990s it's been gentler: January 21, 2025 brought −19°F at Vail and −12°F at the airport. Our numbers come from the winters since 1995-96, and none came near the 1963 record, one more reason to plant with room to spare on the floor.

What you can grow in the Eagle River Valley

Winter rarely stops fruit here; almost everything we sell has come through −30°F or colder. We keep a margin anyway, for the floor's old records and for February 2011, which went 2°F to 3°F past the map's number at four upper-valley stations. The real limits are bloom frost and season. The University of Vermont treats under 135 frost-free days as short-season country, and every station here falls short, so late apples, pears and grapes will struggle. CSU also says apples, sweet cherries, pears and Japanese plums need a pollenizer within 100 feet; our pollination maps show what pollenizes what.

Lower valley benches and slopes, about −17°F to −21°F (Eagle, Gypsum, Brightwater Club, Homestead, Carterville)

Apples: Haralson (−45°F), Wealthy (−50°F), Lodi (−45°F) and Northwest Greening (−40°F), on a national extension list of apples reliable in Colorado, plus Honeycrisp (−45°F). Pears: Luscious (−40°F) and Bartlett (−35°F). Plums: Toka (−45°F), a good pollenizer for Superior, and Mount Royal (−40°F). Sweet cherries on the best spring ground: Lapins and Gold (−35°F), the hardiest sweet cherries we've found, and Rainier (−30°F). Apricots on the highest benches: Westcot and Debbie's Gold (−50°F). Peach, as an experiment: Contender, the only commercial peach we know of that has taken −32°F; the tree should live, but bloom and season decide the crop.

The valley floor from Gypsum to Avon: −21°F to −24°F, and −26°F in the lowest spots

Stick to what has come through −40°F or colder. Apples: Frostbite (−45°F), Parkland (−50°F) and Norland (−40°F). Applecrabs: Kerr and Trailman (if you only plant one tree, make it one of these), and Centennial, which showed zero winter injury for Ed Schultz after a −47°F winter. Pears: Bolshaya (−50°F) and Summercrisp (−40°F). Plums: Brookred (−50°F) and Pipestone (−40°F). Tart cherry: Evan's Bali, good to at least −40°F to −45°F. Berries: Montana Black Currant (we've never seen winter damage on it), Red Lake currant (−40°F) and Pixwell gooseberry (−40°F). Leave apricots, peaches and sweet cherries off the floor.

Vail, Minturn, Red Cliff and anything above about 7,500 feet: about −21°F, 84 to 108 frost-free days

Crabs and applecrabs first: Dolgo, Kerr, Chestnut (−50°F) and Rescue (−60°F). A Boulder County Master Gardener answer for a 9,000-foot site pointed to early apples and pears like Yellow Transparent and Summercrisp; we sell both (Yellow Transparent as seedlings, −40°F), worth a try on your warmest south-facing spot. Cherries: Romeo, Juliet and Nanking Cherry (all −50°F). Bush fruit and natives: Honeyberry, Montana Black Currant, Serviceberry, Chokecherry and Aronia Berry (all −50°F).

Roots, water, soil and the local troubles

CSU's GardenNotes say semi-dwarf trees are hardier and establish faster than dwarfs, and don't recommend dwarf pears or apricots. Roots are the weak link; at Ed Schultz's farm in Gallatin Gateway, Bud 118 apple rootstock has seen near −50°F under snow with no damage. Vail's deep snow is good root cover; in the thinner-snow lower valley, mulch the root zone (keeping it off the trunk, for the voles) and use a snow fence to build an insulating drift. With about 11 inches of precipitation at Eagle and Gypsum, use drip, the only irrigation we advise for fruit trees in dry country. Paint trunks with white interior latex diluted 50 percent against winter sunscald.

Walking Mountains calls local soils clay-like and alkaline, and CSU warns crabapples can get iron chlorosis above pH 7.5, so test the pH. Work in 2 to 3 inches of organic matter and skip Colorado mountain peat. Deer, elk, rabbits, voles and ground squirrels all go after fruit trees, and exclusion works best; for codling moth, CSU says thin apples so they don't touch. Follow Bob Purvis's rules: plant on a slope, ideally east-facing, but not on a windswept hilltop or in the bottom, and clear brush that dams cold at the foot of a slope. The valley's farm past is hay, cattle, potatoes and lettuce (Vail's Potato Patch Drive keeps the name), with no orchard history we could find; cool, short-season crops built this valley.

Questions people ask

What hardiness zone is Eagle, Colorado?

Eagle County's Master Gardener guide puts the Eagle River Valley in USDA 4b to 5a, written against the older USDA map, which is built on an average winter's coldest night (about −14°F at Eagle). We plan for the bad night: Eagle plans for −22°F (MFTC 4b), the benches above town about −18°F (MFTC 5a), and every town from Gypsum to Vail −21°F to −23°F (MFTC 4b).

When is the last frost in Eagle County?

It depends on elevation and on floor versus slope. NOAA's 1991 to 2020 medians put the last 32°F on May 22 at the hill station above Gypsum, May 25 at the Eagle airport, June 8 at the Dowd Junction slope station and June 19 in Vail, and one year in ten as late as July 13 in Vail. The last 28°F, where open blossoms start dying, comes about May 5 above Gypsum and June 3 in Vail.

Can you grow apple trees in Vail?

Winter isn't the problem: Vail plans for −21°F (MFTC 4b), and apples like Haralson have come through −45°F. The season is the problem, with a median frost-free window of June 19 to September 10 at the Vail station. Crabapples and applecrabs like Dolgo and Kerr are the best bets; try an early apple like Yellow Transparent on your warmest south-facing spot, up off the Gore Creek floor.

Why is the Eagle airport so cold?

It sits on the valley floor at 6,497 feet, where cold air drains and pools on clear, calm nights. NOAA station records give it −51°F on January 12, 1963, and it runs a median 6°F colder on the year's coldest night than the Dowd Junction slope station, 2,500 feet higher.

Can you grow cherries in Gypsum, Colorado?

Yes. Tart cherries like Evan's Bali (−45°F) and Meteor (−40°F) have plenty of room at Gypsum's −22°F planning low. Sweet cherries like Lapins and Gold have come through −35°F, so bloom is the issue, not winter: Gypsum's creek bottom reads 4°F colder than Eagle on a still bloom night. Put sweet cherries on the slopes above town.

What fruit trees grow at 8,000 feet in Colorado?

At Vail's 8,150 feet the planning low of −21°F is mild for hardy fruit; the short season and June frosts are the limit. CSU lists Dolgo crabapple to 8,000 feet in a warm spot and Nanking cherry, chokecherry and serviceberry to 8,500 feet. Add honeyberry (open flowers take 19°F), currants, dwarf cherries like Romeo and Juliet, and applecrabs like Kerr and Trailman.

Warmer spots, colder spots

Here's the number to plan for at named places on the map, warmest first. Each one is the 1-in-30-year low for that spot: the cold hardiness calculator's number from the same weather stations, sharpened by our microclimate model for the ground right there. Zone is our MFTC zone, set by that one bad night, not by an average.

The weather stations behind it

These are the long-record stations in and around this map, with each one's own numbers since the winter of 1995-96. The last column is this map's 30-year number right at the station, which won't match the station exactly: it's a blend of the stations around it, the way the calculator works everywhere.

Source: NOAA records through ACIS, winters 1995-96 through 2025-26. What the "carried forward," "gaps filled" and AWOS rows mean is explained in how our microclimate maps work.