Yampa, Colorado, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Expect okra, cranberry, lavender, and pumpkin to be strong candidates here; the deciding factors on any one parcel stay local — soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Yampa, no two yards are alike.
A low spot, a south-facing slope, or a stand of trees moves the frost date and sun across a single Yampa lot. Enter your address and we'll score 1,086 plants against your land's actual soil, sun, and frost.
We read public map data around Yampa — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Yampa — the short answer
Yampa, Colorado: USDA zone 5a, about 112 days between hard freezes, across 157 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 29
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Sep 18
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~112
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 157 acres
- US Census TIGER/Line 2025
Every figure names the dataset it came from. Hard-freeze dates are this town’s own 28°F normals: light frosts run a few weeks past them, and tender transplants usually wait 2–3 weeks after the last hard freeze.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 5a is Yampa's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Yampa's 112-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Yampa
Each reading below is measured for Yampa itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredYampa runs about 112 days between hard freezes — a short growing season.
Long-maturing crops like melons, sweet potatoes, and winter squash can run out of runway before the first hard freeze, ripening late or not at all.
Lead with fast-maturing varieties, and stretch the season on both ends with cold frames, low tunnels, or a greenhouse.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredYampa sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a.
The zone sets which perennials, shrubs, and fruit trees live through an average winter here — a plant rated for a colder zone is a safe bet, one rated warmer needs winter protection or gets treated as an annual.
Match perennials and fruit to the zone before you buy, so nothing you plant is a gamble against the cold.
USDA PHZM 2023
The kind of country Yampa is in
Yampa sits in the Southern Rockies — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northwestern Forested Mountains. That is read at Yampa's own centroid rather than borrowed from Routt County.
What Grows in Yampa
Every plant below cleared Yampa's own zone 5a and its 112-day season. Each card opens that plant's Colorado profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Yampa?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around May 1; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 29 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Sep 18 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. In a season this compact, fast finishers and cold-hardy greens do the late work, and garlic tucked in before the freeze repays you next summer.
What's on the federal record near Yampa
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Yampa. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Edward FarringtonUnderground Storage Tanks · 300 ft
- CDOT Yampa Maintenance YardUnderground Storage Tanks · 800 ft
- Colorado Spruce CoUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- G & G LLCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- Weston Oil CoUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- CDOW Finger Rock Rearing UnitUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.1 mi
- P-burg MarketUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.9 mi
- Phippsburg YardUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.7 mi
- Phippsburg GarageUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.9 mi
- PHIPPSBURG WASTE DUMPSuperfund · 6.6 mi
- Maneotis SinclairUnderground Storage Tanks · 7.8 mi
- Toponas Country General StoreUnderground Storage Tanks · 8.1 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Yampa's center, not your beds. Run your own address for what's upwind of you specifically.
Environmental Intelligence
The counts behind that headline — every source type on the record near Yampa.
Total Sites
20
within ~10 miles of Yampa
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Yampa
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •Underground tanks leak petroleum as they age — near a former filling station, test the soil.
- •On a private well, test for nitrates: above 10 mg/L the water needs treatment before irrigating.
- •A Superfund listing means federally documented contamination. Test soil and water before planting edibles nearby.
Check your specific parcel in Yampa
Get exact proximity distances to contamination sources for your specific parcel — plus soil, sun, drainage, and 1,086 plant recommendations.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Yampa average
Your land is one point inside Yampa
Everything above resolves to Yampa as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 157 acres. Your parcel is one point inside that footprint. Slope, tree cover, a low spot that pools cold air, and what is in the soil are all resolved at the address, and none of them are visible at town scale. That is the honest boundary of this page, and the reason the next step is a reading of your own ground rather than a better local average.
Your Lot vs the Yampa Average
Yampa Average
- ●USDA Zones 5a, averaged across Yampa
- ●One soil character for all of Yampa
- ●Frost dates read at Yampa's scale: May 29 to Sep 18
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Yampa's 5a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Yampa
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Yampa, Colorado — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Yampa averages can't show:
We read public map data around Yampa — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Yampa average
How we know this about Yampa
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at this town’s own centroid; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at Yampa’s own record; boundaries and acreage from US Census TIGER/Line 2025; the contamination records from the federal sources named in their beats above. Soil is not read at town grain anywhere on this page — there is no town-resolution survey in our data, which is why you will find no soil grid here rather than a statewide one wearing a local label. The resolution ledger below names every figure this page inherited.
Common questions about Yampa
When does frost risk typically end in Yampa?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Yampa typically lands around May 29, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — earlier than the light-frost dates most charts quote. That marks the hard freeze, not the last light frost — lighter frosts keep biting past it, which is why tender transplants here wait until about Jun 19.
When is the first frost in Yampa?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Yampa typically arrives around Sep 18, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 4, so the watching starts about Aug 19 — about 112 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Yampa?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Yampa sees about 112 frost-free days — roughly May 29 through Sep 18, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Jun 19 to Sep 4, about 77 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Yampa?
The federal record around Yampa is a meaningful one — 20 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (17), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out — so a soil test before new food beds is a sensible precaution here, not a reason to hold back from growing. Remember that proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard; the contamination map shows exactly what sits where.
How do gardeners stretch the season in Yampa?
With about 112 frost-free days between hard freezes, Yampa rewards the classic extension moves: floating row cover buys roughly two to four extra weeks at each shoulder — on this season that is a working window nearer 140 to 168 days — and cold frames or low tunnels buy more. Starting transplants indoors ahead of the May 29 hard-freeze normal stretches the season without touching the calendar.
Everything above is measured at Yampa's scale — its 5a band and its 112-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Yampa's numbers: we read soil, sun, drainage and frost at your exact address. Try it for 14 days — no card required.
What this page reads at Yampa’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Yampa's own scale — its own ~112-day season between 28°F freezes, the 157 acres it covers and 20 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Yampa's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Yampa's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 29 and Sep 18 and the ~112-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 20 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Yampa, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Yampa's boundary and the 157 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5a and a ~112-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Yampa's own centroid, the Southern RockiesUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Yampa's 157 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Routt County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Routt County
- The growing challenges every Colorado grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom Colorado
- Butterfly and beetle records, and the farmland pesticide estimate — all published county-widefrom Routt County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Yampa's 157 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Yampa you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 157 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out, measured from the town centrehow we read the record →
- Where cold air settles, which slopes face the sun, and which way the wind runs on your own ground — measured at your address, and averaged away by any Yampa-wide figureread your own land →