Peak color lands around Nov 12 in most of Alabama, but it moves 13 days across the state. Here’s where, and when, and how sure we are.
Alabama’s season, place by place
Every place we forecast in Alabama, each set on the calendar at its peak and painted by how far along it is today, Sep 25.
First: Little River Canyon National Preserve, Nov 6. Last: Bon Secour National Wildlife Refuge, Nov 20.
The dashed rule is today; the solid one is the median of the places on this chart, Nov 8. The date at the top of the page is the median county, which includes the low ground between them.
The county map today
Where to go in Alabama
The destinations we cover in Alabama, in the order their color arrives. Each carries its own forecast and its own band, because a state isn’t one place.
- Little River Canyon National PreserveToo earlyPeak 6 Nov best 5 to 8 Nov
- Russell Cave National MonumentToo earlyPeak 6 Nov best 5 to 8 Nov
- Fern Cave National Wildlife RefugeToo earlyPeak 7 Nov best 6 to 9 Nov
- Too earlyPeak 8 Nov best 7 to 10 Nov
- Wheeler National Wildlife RefugeToo earlyPeak 8 Nov best 7 to 10 Nov
- Sipsey WildernessToo earlyPeak 8 Nov best 7 to 10 Nov
- Mountain Longleaf National Wildlife RefugeToo earlyPeak 8 Nov best 7 to 10 Nov
- Dugger Mountain WildernessToo earlyPeak 8 Nov, oak 11 Nov best 7 to 10 Nov
- Cheaha WildernessToo earlyPeak 8 Nov, oak 11 Nov best 7 to 10 Nov
- Key Cave National Wildlife RefugeToo earlyPeak 8 Nov, oak 11 Nov best 7 to 10 Nov
- Bee Branch Scenic AreaToo earlyPeak 8 Nov best 7 to 10 Nov
- Sauta Cave National Wildlife RefugeToo earlyPeak 8 Nov best 7 to 10 Nov
- Too earlyPeak 10 Nov best 9 to 12 Nov
- Too earlyPeak 11 Nov best 10 to 13 Nov
- Horseshoe Bend National Military ParkToo earlyPeak 11 Nov best 10 to 13 Nov
- Cahaba River National Wildlife RefugeToo earlyPeak 12 Nov best 11 to 14 Nov
- Too earlyPeak 13 Nov best 12 to 15 Nov
- Too earlyPeak 17 Nov best 16 to 19 Nov
- Grand Bay National Wildlife RefugeToo earlyPeak 19 Nov, sweetgum 27 Nov best 18 to 21 Nov
- Bon Secour National Wildlife RefugeToo earlyPeak 20 Nov, sweetgum 28 Nov best 19 to 22 Nov
When to go
Across 67 counties, peak color is forecast to arrive first in DeKalb County around Nov 6 and last in Mobile County around Nov 19. Most of the state peaks near Nov 12.
Each date is the middle of the four days we’d aim a trip at, and each place page names them. We score the model against 7 long-running forest monitoring sites in this part of the country and publish what it got wrong.
This autumn is running 4 days late in Alabama. September has run warmer than the 1991 to 2020 normal so far, and the dates above already include that. It’s a real signal but a modest one: temperature explains under a tenth of how much peak color moves year to year.
Late October through mid-November in the north, late November in central Alabama is how Alabama is usually described.
What actually turns
Sweetgums produce a kaleidoscope of purple, red, and orange on individual trees, while hickories and oaks turn the ridges of the Appalachian foothills gold and bronze.
- Sweetgum
- Red Maple
- Tulip Poplar
- Hickory
- White Oak
Talladega National Forest along the Talladega Scenic Byway (Route 281) produces the best concentrated color in the state, peaking in the first two weeks of November.
Worth the drive
Fayette County in north-central Alabama contains the western edge of Talladega National Forest and the rolling Southern Appalachian foothills. Alabama is not the first state people think of for fall color, but the Talladega Scenic Byway through the forest produces a warm, unhurried display of sweetgums, oaks, and hickories that peaks in early-to-mid November, well after the eastern marquee destinations have gone bare.
Covington County in south-central Alabama is a less obvious pick, but Cleburne County on the eastern Talladega range and Blount County north of Birmingham also produce excellent late-season color. The real Talladega powerhouse is Cleburne County, where Cheaha Mountain, the highest point in Alabama at 2,413 feet, rises above a sea of hardwood forest that peaks in the first two weeks of November.
Every county, by peak week
Latitude does most of the work here: color moves south at about two days per degree, so the north of the state turns a week or more ahead of the south.
Blount, Calhoun, Cherokee, Clay, Cleburne, Colbert, Cullman, DeKalb, Etowah, Franklin, Jackson, Lauderdale, Lawrence, Limestone, Madison, Marion, Marshall, Morgan, Randolph, Shelby, St. Clair, Talladega, Winston
Autauga, Barbour, Bibb, Bullock, Butler, Chambers, Chilton, Choctaw, Clarke, Coffee, Conecuh, Coosa, Covington, Crenshaw, Dale, Dallas, Elmore, Escambia, Fayette, Geneva, Greene, Hale, Henry, Houston, Jefferson, Lamar, Lee, Lowndes, Macon, Marengo, Monroe, Montgomery, Perry, Pickens, Pike, Russell, Sumter, Tallapoosa, Tuscaloosa, Walker, Washington, Wilcox
Baldwin, Mobile
Every date on this site is a forecast: a model corrected by ground reports, carrying a measured error, published in full. Check conditions with the land manager before you travel. Last reviewed September 2026. Open the live map